Recent Museum Exhibitions and Authorized Heritage Discourses about James Cook: "Shared History" and "The Performance of Privilege"

John Mullen (1, 2)

1 ERIAC - Équipe de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur les Aires Culturelles
2 UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie

The 250 th anniversary of Cook's travels has been the occasion for the organization of a series of museum exhibitions whose declared aim is to develop a deeper understanding of his role and the world he lived in. Given the changing political atmosphere of the early twenty-first century, where a traditional colonial gaze is ever less acceptable, these exhibitions have declared in different ways their curators' intentions to include voices, agency and opinions from the peoples who were the victims of the aftermath of Cook's scouting activities. This paper looks at three examples and questions the limits both of these intentions and of the practical effects of this new approach. Is "shared history" being built and defended, or are conscious or unconscious (post) colonial priorities still a major aspect of these events?

Mots clés: James Cook; museography; historiography; colonialism

Domaines: Histoire; Héritage culturel et muséologie

John Mullen. Recent Museum Exhibitions and Authorized Heritage Discourses about James Cook: "Shared History" and "The Performance of Privilege". Astrolabe, 2020. ⟨hal-02545546⟩