On the Touristification of 20Th Century Authoritarianism: Museological Discourse and the Question of Memory
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Escola Superior de Gestão de Tomar João Paulo Mateus Pedro ON THE TOURISTIFICATION OF 20TH CENTURY AUTHORITARIANISM: MUSEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE AND THE QUESTION OF MEMORY Dissertação de Mestrado Orientado por: Professora Doutora Hermínia Hermínia Maria Pimenta Ferreira Sol | Instituto Politécnico de Tomar Professor Doutor Tibor Kovács | Eszterházy Károly Egyetem Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Politécnico de Tomar para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Desenvolvimento de Produtos de Turismo Cultural ii Mãe, Pai, pelo vosso sacrifício iii iv Figure 1 - Graffiti on Mikszáth Kálmán street, Szeged March 2019 v vi Abstract Tourism has become one of the key mechanisms through which meanings and attitudes about the past are constructed and reproduced. Museums, in particular, have become important tools in the shaping of collective memory and historical narratives within the cultural production/consumption practices in contemporary society. On the one hand, museums can be, and often are, public education institutions that help make sense of the world. On the other hand, by necessity of their discursive practices and display choices, museum exhibitions, as well as all other tourism products, are always ideologically charged. What happens, then, when the exhibited past holds dissonant qualities or relates to traumatic events? This dissertation aims to analyse the ideological and discursive apparatuses present in two memorial museums which exhibit such past: The Aljube Museum of Resistance and Freedom in Lisbon and the House of Terror in Budapest. By applying multimodal critical discourse analysis to the permanent exhibitions and adopting a textual approach, this dissertation aims to identify specific discursive practices, such as agent roles, omissions and avoidances, among others, as well as the display strategies that create and/or reproduce them. With this analysis, the dissertation aims to contribute to the broader discussion on how tourism products engage with established social remembrance practices and memory discourses, particularly in Portuguese and Hungarian societies. Keywords: Memorial Museum; Communism; Salazarism; Social Memory vii Resumo O Turismo tornou-se um dos mais importantes mecanismos de construção e reprodução e significados e atitudes sobre o passado. Os museus, em particular, tornaram-se ferramentas importantes na formatação da memória coletiva e de narrativas históricas dentro das práticas de produção/consumo culturais na sociedade contemporânea. Por um lado, os museus podem ser, e frequentemente são, instituições de educação pública que ajudam a fazer sentido do mundo. Por outro lado, por necessidade ligadas às suas práticas discursivas e escolhas expositivas, as exposições museológicas, bem como todos os outros produtos turísticos, têm sempre predisposições ideológicas. O que acontece, então, quando o passado em exposição carrega características dissonantes ou está relacionado com eventos traumáticos? Esta dissertação pretende analisar os aparatos ideológicos e discursivos presentes em dois museus memoriais que tratam esse tipo de passado: o Museu do Aljube – Resistência e Liberdade, em Lisboa, e a Casa do Terror em Budapeste. Aplicando a Análise Multimodal Crítica do Discurso às exposições permanentes e adotando uma abordagem textual, a dissertação pretende identificar práticas discursivas específicas, como papéis de agentes, omissões e evasões, entre outros, bem como as estratégias expositivas que os criam e/ou reproduzem. Com esta análise, a dissertação propõe-se contribuir para a discussão mais alargada sobre como os produtos turísticos se relacionam com as práticas estabelecidas de memória social, particularmente nas sociedades Portuguesa e Húngara Palavras-chave: Museu Memorial; Comunismo; Salazarismo; Memória Social viii Előszó A turizmus napjainkra egy kulcs fontosságú elemmé vált, amelyen keresztül múlthoz való viszonyunkat formáljuk és alakítjuk. A modern fogyasztói társadalom kulturális szokásainak középpontjában különösképpen a múzeumok állnak, amelyek a kollektív emlékek és történelmi narratívák formálását segítik. Egyrészt, a múzeumok gyakran közoktatási intézményekként funkcionálnak, segítve az egységes világkép kialakításában. Másrészt, a szükségszerűen elbeszelő szokásaik és demonstráló módszereik miatt a múzeum kiállítások, mint bármely turisztikai termékek, nem ideológia mentesek. Ezeket szem előtt tartva tevődik fel a kérdés, hogy mi történik akkor, ha a múltat reprezentáló kiállítások disszonáns tulajdonságokkal rendelkeznek vagy egy traumatikus eseményhez kötődnek? Ezen disszertáció célja a fent említett kérdés elemzése két olyan emlékmúzeumban, amely ezen ideológiákkal és elbeszélő rendszerekkel rendelkeznek: az Aljube Múzeum Lisszabonban és a Terror háza Budapesten. Továbbá, a disszertáció másodlagos célja specifikus nyelvi elemek azonosítása (alanyi szerepek, mulasztások és elkerülések), és ezen elemek megvalósítása a reprezentatív stratégiákban, melyet kombinált kritikus szöveg analízis használatával ér el az állandó kiállításokra fókuszálva. Ezen felül, a disszertáció harmadlagos célja, hogy hozzá járuljon azon téma szélesítéséhez, amely azzal foglalkozik, hogy a turisztikai termékek hogyan kapcsolódnak a megalapozott kollektív emlékezésekhez, főleg a magyar és portugál társadalomban. kulcsszavak: Emlékmúzeum; Kommunizmus; Salazarizmus; Kollektív emlékekezet ix Acknowledgments Those who know me know that I tend to resist the narrative of the “self-made man”. Are we not just as much, if not more, a product of our circumstances (the people we look up to or that depend on us and the opportunities we are given) as of our individual everyday strives to be better? This dissertation is an example of just that. This is a genuine thank you, to all those to whom I owe so much: To Professor Herminia Sol, my advisor from Portugal, I owe for her belief in this research since day one, humorous encouragement and, above all, her patience as I baby- stepped through my first true academic endeavour. To Professor Tibor Kovács, my advisor from Hungary, I equally owe for his patience, his immediate openness to this research, despite his more than busy schedule, and his vital role in my deepening enchantment with his home country. And to both I owe for giving me the creative freedom to play around and learn. Thank you for the enriching eye-opening conversations. I hope this work makes you proud. To Professor Luís Mota Figueira, I owe for his contagious and unyielding enthusiasm and, since early on in my academic life, his pivotal role in the path that lead to these pages. To Rita Cruz, Encsi Kovács and Simona Petrova, I owe for the many coffees filled with debate and conversation that led to so many of the insights in this work. Above all, I owe for the encouragement and for the lasting and enriching friendship. To my Erasmus friends I owe for the constant encouragement, for the patience to hear, time and time again, either some random idea or how much work I still had to do, and for the friendship that made Eger and Hungary an even more special place. To Patricia Rodrigues, Manuela Silva and Gonçalo Filipe I owe for making me want to be better. Above all, I owe for their ability to turn work into fun. More research- road-trips are due. To my many friends in JMV, particularly António Clemente, Andreia Albino and Catarina Alves, I owe for, over the years, setting the example and being role models that led me to choose a path beyond what life had chosen for me. x To my Mother and Father, I owe for their beyond-human sacrifices and for their unconditional investment in my interests since childhood. Despite the less than favourable circumstances, there was never a shortage of science books and art staples suited to my young heart’s desires, even if that meant, as I now understand, giving up what was sometimes needed. To you I owe everything. And finally, I owe it all to Him, for the blessing of being shaped by all these amazing people and the opportunity to live not just for myself. To all of you, my deepest Thank you! xi Index Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... vii Resumo ....................................................................................................................................... viii Előszó ........................................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... x Chapter I - Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 Chapter II – Literature Review ............................................................................................... 15 Temple of the Muses ............................................................................................................... 15 Temple of the Masses .............................................................................................................. 20 Talking the past into existence ................................................................................................ 26 A dark past .............................................................................................................................. 37 Chapter III – Aljube Museum of Resistance and Freedom ..................................................