Negotiating the dominance of a colonial narrative: the challenging work of historical interpreters

协商殖民叙事的主导地位：历史解释者的挑战性工作

• 批准号: 2615835
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Kent
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2615835
• 关键词: Negotiating; dominance; colonial; narrative; challenging

My PhD will detail the mechanisms that preserve colonial narratives at heritage sites, providing timely, practical insights for Native and non-Native historical interpreters, who I define as those who renegotiate and share a historical narrative. I propose a multi-method study, incorporating ethnography, historical discourse analysis and archival research at four core heritage sites in England, Northern Ireland and Turtle Island (Vancouver and Massachusetts). During seven months of multi-sited fieldwork, I plan to examine entanglements between Indigenous and non-Native historical interpreters, through participant observation and semi-structured interviews. To understand the historical contexts of Indigenous representations evoked in these exchanges, I will consult on-site archives. I aim to undertake historical discourse analysis with particular attention to how the heritage site's public-facing narratives have changed, including exhibition signage and promotional materials. I also plan to draw on secondary historical accounts, and will work collaboratively with historians, David Stirrup (UK), Coll Thrush (Canada) and Thomas Wickman (USA), as well as a network of Native American and First Nation's public historians.My research and fieldwork aspirations will be supported by Kent's Centre for American Studies, with its rare focus on Indigenous Studies, early European colonisation and strong connections with US and Canadian universities. My work will also contribute significantly to the new Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies. My research expands on a growing movement in American Studies, to apply decolonised methodologies to relocate Indigenous people at the centre, rather than the periphery of historical narratives. Coll Thrush, and David Stirrup with the Beyond the Spectacle project, examine historical records to reveal the instrumental role of Indigenous people in shaping the UK. Drawing on Jace Weaver's Red Atlantic, Thrush and Stirrup reject the notion that they are rediscovering Indigenous influence but argue that they are reclaiming accounts from an enforced silence. My PhD will meaningfully build on this work, by changing the focus from Indigenous historical experience to a detailed analysis of contemporary Native engagements with settler-colonial heritage sites and historical narratives. Through this focus, I will uncover the structures and representations that continue to 'enforce' the silencing of Indigenous history.This research addresses a gap in existing literature that fails to examine the challenging, emotive work of historical interpretation. In examining this practice, my study sits at the intersection of postcolonial theory, critical heritage studies, ethnohistory, decolonisation theory and Indigenous studies. Postcolonial heritage theorists such as Tim Luke, Patricia Davison, Alex Tyrrell and James Walvin, present a fundamental challenge to naturalised notions of history in demonstrating the nation-building role of heritage. My thesis will draw on these studies to consider how the Indigenous 'other', and a celebratory colonial narrative, are produced through the heritage site. Nevertheless, I suggest that these studies have consistently underexamined the work of historical interpreters, and the diversity of their professional and personal identities. I argue that the dominant image of the historical interpreter as a nation-building curator overlooks the use of historical interpretation to challenge and subvert self-affirming national narratives. I suggest that a theoretical foundation for the examination of this 'subversive' use of historical interpretation is essential for understanding central debates in heritage, such as appropriate memorialisation, repatriation and the impact of Black Lives Matter.

我的博士学位将详细介绍在遗产地保存殖民叙事的机制，为土著和非土著历史解释者提供及时、实用的见解，我将他们定义为重新谈判和分享历史叙事的人。我提议进行一项多方法研究，结合民族志、历史话语分析和档案研究，对英格兰、北爱尔兰和海龟岛（温哥华和马萨诸塞州）的四个核心遗产地进行研究。在七个月的多地点实地考察中，我计划通过参与观察和半结构化访谈来研究土著和非土著历史解释者之间的纠葛。为了了解这些交流中所引发的原住民代表的历史背景，我将查阅现场档案。我的目标是进行历史话语分析，特别关注遗产地面向公众的叙事如何变化，包括展览标牌和宣传材料。我还计划利用二手历史记录，并将与历史学家 David Stirrup（英国）、Coll Thrush（加拿大）和 Thomas Wickman（美国）以及美洲原住民和原住民公共历史学家网络合作。研究和实地考察的愿望将得到肯特大学美国研究中心的支持，该中心罕见地关注土著研究、早期欧洲殖民以及与美国和加拿大大学的密切联系。我的工作还将为新的土著和定居者殖民研究中心做出重大贡献。我的研究扩展了美国研究中日益增长的运动，应用去殖民化的方法论将土著人民重新置于历史叙述的中心，而不是边缘。科尔·思拉什 (Coll Thrush) 和大卫·斯特鲁普 (David Stirrup) 与“超越奇观”项目一起研究历史记录，揭示原住民在塑造英国过程中所发挥的重要作用。借鉴杰斯·韦弗的《红大西洋》，画眉和马镫拒绝接受他们正在重新发现原住民影响力的观点，但认为他们正在从被迫的沉默中夺回账户。我的博士学位将有意义地建立在这项工作的基础上，将重点从土著历史经验转变为对当代土著与定居者殖民地遗产地和历史叙述的接触的详细分析。通过这个重点，我将揭示继续“强制”土著历史沉默的结构和表征。这项研究解决了现有文献中的一个空白，该空白未能检验历史解释的挑战性、情感性工作。在审视这种实践时，我的研究处于后殖民理论、批判遗产研究、民族史、非殖民化理论和土著研究的交叉点。蒂姆·卢克、帕特里夏·戴维森、亚历克斯·泰瑞尔和詹姆斯·沃尔文等后殖民遗产理论家在论证遗产的国家建设作用时，对历史的自然化概念提出了根本性的挑战。我的论文将利用这些研究来思考土著“他者”和庆祝性的殖民叙事是如何通过遗产地产生的。尽管如此，我认为这些研究始终低估了历史解释者的工作及其专业和个人身份的多样性。我认为历史解释者作为国家建设策展人的主导形象忽视了利用历史解释来挑战和颠覆自我肯定的国家叙事。我认为，检验历史解释的这种“颠覆性”使用的理论基础对于理解遗产的核心争论至关重要，例如适当的纪念、遣返和“黑人生命也是命”的影响。