Staging the Past: Themed Environments in Transcultural Perspectives (History in Popular Cultures)

Popular representations of history are taking on new forms and reaching wider audiences. The search for usable pasts is branching out into active appropriations of history such as historical theme parks, housing developments, and live-action role play. Drawing on themed environments across the continents, the articles in this volume focus on how these appropriations bypass, are different from, or even contradict traditional as well as scientific modes of disseminating historical knowledge. Bringing together theorists and practitioners, they provide the basis for an interdisciplinary as well as a transcultural theory of how pasts are staged in various social contexts. CONTENTS Introduction: Staging the Past TRANSCULTURAL SETTINGS: THEME PARKS AND LIFESPACE The Presence of Pastness: Themed Environments and Beyond “The Past, Foreign Countries and Fantasy...They All Make for a Good Outing”: Staging the Past in Japan and Some Other Locations Staging the Past in Cultural Theme Parks: Representations of Self and Other in Asia and Europe Imagineering Tailor-Made Pasts for Nation-Building and Tourism: A Comparative Perspective Holy Land Protestant Themed Environments and the Spiritual Experience From Themed Space to Lifespace TRANSHISTORICAL ACTION: PERFORMANCE AND SOCIAL EXPERIENCE Themed Environments – Performative Spaces: Performing Visitors in North American Living History Museums Staging the Past in the Revolutionary City: Colonial Williamsburg “The New You”: Best Practice in Historical Live Interpretation History’s Pure Serene: On Reenacting Cook’s First Voyage, September 2001 “Little Families”: The Social Fabric of Civil War Reenacting Ventures into History Playing Ethnology List of Contributors Popular representations of history are taking on new forms and reaching wider audiences. The search for usable pasts is branching out into active appropriations of history such as historical theme parks, housing developments, and live-action role play. Drawing on themed environments across the continents, the articles in this volume focus on how these appropriations bypass, are different from, or even contradict traditional as well as scientific modes of disseminating historical knowledge. Bringing together theorists and practitioners, they provide the basis for an interdisciplinary as well as a transcultural theory of how pasts are staged in various social contexts. History,Transculturalism,Theme Park,Living History,Performance,Memory Culture,Popular Culture,Cultural Studies Popular representations of history are taking on new forms and reaching wider audiences. The search for usable pasts is branching out into active appropriations of history such as historical theme parks, housing developments, and live-action role play. Drawing on themed environments across the continents, the articles in this volume focus on how these appropriations bypass, are different from, or even contradict traditional as well as scientific modes of disseminating historical knowledge. Bringing together theorists and practitioners, they provide the basis for an interdisciplinary as well as a transcultural theory of how pasts are staged in various social contexts. Reihe Historische Lebenswelten in populären Wissenskulturen/History in Popular Cultures - Band 2