CEU eTD Collection ProfessorDaniel Monterescu Supervisors: Performance and Experience at the HouseofTerror at and Experience Performance In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology Central European University Central European Budapest, Hungary Budapest, Carl Christensen Carl Master of Arts Submitted to Submitted 2011 Professor Vlad Naumescu Professor By CEU eTD Collection CEU eTD Collection CEU eTD Collection instructions may notbe made without the written permission of the Author. form of a part copiesin such made. copies made suchany Further accordance with must page This librarian. the from obtained be may Details Library. European Central in the or part may be made onlyin accordance with instructionsthe by given and Author the lodged in Copyright of Copiesby with the thesis this Author. text the in any eitherrests full process, 1 Statement ofCopyright Statement CEU eTD Collection 2 experiences. visitors’ the and narrative/re-narration of discussion phenomenological a into leading display of agency and practice the of analysis an visitor: in the evokes it what on based narrative physical and sensory Terror’s of House the on is focus paper’s The path. narrative exhibition’s the throughout embody they emotions and spaces perception, through insidethe narrative, visitors, atotal the exhibition coming from awhole, or performs thenarrative forward that put interviews findings,the empirical The future. presentand past, of the understanding frame their can which later visitors, the captivates that experience culture, which in aperformative andsensory form creates an andambiguous emotional isthat by structured a socialist andfascist past,embodied inavisual and technological mythology national itas asite of treats Thepaper Terror. of House Hungary,the Budapest, in of commemoration isasite My case museum.memorial ata narrative analysis visual This paper aims to draw on interview accounts/voices of visitor experiences anda interviewdraw ofvisitor accounts/voices on This paper aims to Abstract CEU eTD Collection 3 Bibliography...... 81 Appendix: A Visual Ethnography ...... 52 of the House of Terror ...... 48 Conclusion 3. Methods, Analysis,Findings ...... 24 and Discussion ...... 9 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 1. INTRODUCTION...... 4 3.4. Theater ...... 41 and Performance 3.3 Narrative and Performance...... 37 3.2 Display, Narrative and ...... 31 Experience 3.1 My method and Interview style...... 25 2.5 Phenomenology: Experience and Narrative...... 23 2.4 Art and Performance...... 20 2.3. Museumology: Display/Visual Narrative, Spectacle and “In ...... 17 Situ” method ...... 11 2.2 Civil Religion 2.1 Key Notions and Terms: Narrative and Myth –Ready Made...... 9 3.2.1 Western Visitor Perspective ...... 34 on Narrative 3.1.1 Interview Sample and Movements in Experience and Re-narration...... 27 2.4.1 Technology of Enchantment...... 22 2.2.2 The Memorial Museum and Civil Religion...... 13 2.2.1 Origins of Civil Religion...... 11 Table of Contents of Table CEU eTD Collection 4 connection givingof inhumanity examplesof violationspast a or nation’s towards aspects of the museum stone failedthe politicalaim value systems/ideologies of pastthe which besides the performative to make clearinto hammering of function a has museum memorial the in victims commemorating the to addition visitor the equation by ledincreated byFidesz-MPP second conservative government the (1998-2002) 2002. that comes out of the memory in socialist post Itis Europe. a ofcivil place which religion, was establishedand national myth to visitors, activities. these as a new is for The of site Terror acentral House and political rally points. protests parades, practices, form of darkandits victims been sites have for mourning alongestablished with commemorative rites, tourism square filled with roman columns and Nationalstatues. Memorial regardingdays of 56revolutionthe most spectacular ofBudapest’s his centre in the been reburial written about Much has Nagy. fascist andrevolution have appearsin to its legallyinstallingroot national martyr a of nation,the Imre socialist objects andschool movementcurriculum. This whichinHungary commemorates 1956 the monuments, rhetoric,movies,tombstones, statues, art, photographs, theater, souvenirs, buildings, of form in the landscape urban in the embodied are that nation the of myth’s as arecreated, inNarratives mind. feature has the that past of the revision anational This entails in Hungary. time communist and fascist from events historical and memories experiences, of lifeideologies new aregiving residue tothe nationalist NewPost-socialist market. free trade global the and Union European the into integration and a transition entails this Hungary For 1.INTRODUCTION It is a memorial museum which artistically performs, advertises, markets and sells the sells and markets advertises, performs, artistically which museum memorial isa It Post-socialist places are going through a period of transition transition and revitalization. of a period aregoing through places Post-socialist In CEU eTD Collection 5 2007:116). (Williams, century” twentieth sick on the door the slammed had “Hungary that stated he Terror, of House of ceremony opening the for speech Orban’s Victor In with. dealt been already has past the that sense the not past, the with visitors engage should of victims reverence and memory the that meaning forgetting’, remembering National Socialist to comes it victimswhen suspect (McIsaac,of monument 2007:252). idea very the making They want projects, to counter commemorative what and they call architecture the ‘ritualtheir nontraditional commemorative strategies necessary because national socialists abused the monumental formsAn examplein is the Advocates of Negative or Identities in Europe in the new Millennium fascism. Please see: Rev, Istvan. 2008. 47-89 “is a proper memorial to of Terror fascism,” House the that that itheld he is embodimentan rather of narrative, the Cold Terror of War House consensusin the beabsent ofto the fascism term generic interpret not does representation of fascism and communism, between asymmetry and grave the the at invisibility directed where critics of Many victims/victimizers Terror. of House ofthe of fascism.characteristics IstavanFascist Rev on the Rev’s writing Istvan in echoed are concerns These (Ibid). party Cross Arrow pro-Nazi the of ideologies and accouterments architecture, uniforms, the atmosphere, installation art aesthetic fascist and light dramatic a 2007: 72). Corresponding concerns where that the Museum providedyoung fascists the chance to admire, under association, and that the House of Terror only was aproject of ideological and political construct (Williams, 2 1 contested. isheavily Museum the that revealed articles Press experience. their shared visitors where sites web several on ascomments aswell visitors former forwarning thefuture of potentialthe results of supporting value these systems/ideologies. asa serves This equation itrepresents. what and “victimizer” with a connected sovereignty “the House of Terror,” “Terror Regimes,” “Murderous Regimes,” “Statue of “two Regimes,”of Regimes,”Terror,” “Statue “Terror “Murderous of “theTerror,” House like metaphors with them replacing in stead time, historical and actors, historical its and site avoid which of of denominators to particular tries intheHouse using terminology Terror used fulfilled through representing history in a 2007:116). (Williams, power to Orban’s rise Victor during spread in Hungary that atmosphere whether the where from asking still There wasaconcern population questions. Jewish Hungarian the place drewcues several hours long inits opening year in Despite 2002. initialthe popularity, some people people for the wrong reasons in the context of the right wing as signifies conceptually museum memorial the what of victims the commemorating as well as museum and functions of and amemorial,social educating with corresponding preserving the Critics 2002. have said that the ArrowFrazon-Horváth see Cross was Museum being ofthe evoked opening only the orderin around to implicate the press-debate communists the of byoverview an For terror-regimes In terms of external representation I was relying on press-articles, conversations with 2 In official self-representations the site was categorized simultaneously as a in Hungary. These functions were according to their web site aimed to be their according aimed website to in were to functions Hungary. These . Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Toronto of University Toronto: . Gegendenkmaeler (Re) Visualizing National History: Museums and National tangible , experientially meaningful way. I noted a noted I way. meaningful experientially , /anti or counter monuments deemed 1 TheMuseum drew CEU eTD Collection 6 http://www.terrorhaza.hu/en/museum/about_us.html 3 fight (victims) people of Hungarian handthe one andthe suffering on the and (“victimizers”), terror or evil equaling socialism and fascism alien to it reducing and past socialist and fascist conflating narrative, total a a-historical as narrative museum memorial the narrates re- interviewees The theirafter experience. understood is re-narrated asawhole performance understood,exhibition whereas not confusing, puzzling and narrative, total the site and of narrative the in are parts stimuli, addition and sensual technological and architecture, a site whichisa at a total performance pattern of interviews that in a broad sense render a total narrative and a ‘ the physicalnarrative of path House especiallyageneral the interviews throughout of Terror, Gimblett 1998:20). exhibitions,through which in sensethis are tobeas understood theatrical (Kirschenblatt- knowledge it,this andthey perform about knowledge past, that animageof They past. create the cancontemplate visitor interested which the mediums through of somenot transparent sort are Museums visitor/recipient. andobject/space art prototype/readymade, artist, between the which includes not only objects persons butalso andspaces.Iunderstand agency as relational andin curators artists of in Post-Socialism.am context interested I ingrasping agency away by hidden for visitors institution’s the performance narrative credible,total compelling victims” andof to “statue is informingterror” “monument an anda facilitating experience different findings: The channels through which the narrative, display, performance, memory, narratives (Lakoff, 1999). etc. Freedom,” bloody in history”periods “Powers Freedom of forHungarian “Sacrifice and Independence,” Please view visitor pamphlet in index and website for examples: for website and in index pamphlet visitor view Please My argument follows and explores a central paradox in the re-narration voices of the of voices re-narration in the paradox central a explores and follows argument My This based thesis, is theory grounded on several-folded/multilayeredtherefore inits 3 I also noted that these metaphors arecommon in framingthat Ialsonoted metaphors these cultural the total reconstruction filled with spectacular installations spectacular with filled Gesamtkunstwerk’, or CEU eTD Collection 7 experience, is which immanent tothe conscious embodied mind, must which be as understood be visitor the paramount to appears to perception The sensory experience; (Damasio, 1994). as a form of cognition, and indispensablemaking for “rational” sense and decision-making 1999). Inlightmy study of experience, theemotional, spatial and visceral becan considered frompreceding andnottheoretically consciousness, consciousseparate (Torren, experience of cognition disembodiedreason anddisimpassionedterms asan autonomous process of metaphor, in situ, embodied knowledge and technology of enchantment). affect, exhibition littlethe timeimpact, (due tothesensory/emotional reflection gives for of affect the that I conclude and experience, of their impact bodily and kinesthetic emotional, visual, the indicate alsostrongly interviewees The recipient. the and prototypes/ready-mades its curators, artist and hidden tellers narrative’s Terror theHouseof agency of by and recipient) prototype/readymade in and (index performance narrative the relation to, the in situ display and affect, power, sensory of overload with an performance the through achieved understanding enchantment through a nexus of agency of the myhadexhibition on interviewees? memorial exhibition the narrative historical of Hungarian the transmission limited the of despite experience, their of in re-narration achieved be it can how and interviewees, my among understanding did little commentary? narrativeHow of processual evoke this path experience the the very have narrative the of installations/showrooms objects, relevant authentic number limited avery with isatotal reconstruction, museum Althoughthe andcredible? authentic, agreeable as andnarrative, andarrivemuseum’stotal notions objects part reproduce suggested atthe like path and installations Iquestion historical the how the interviewees for mostcontent, the freedom. andpuzzledbytheparts areconfused of interviewees for Although the narrative the Furthermorein human these findingscanspeak howthe not mind andcognition, to this responseisthat interviewee and narrative analysis myvisual basedI argue on CEU eTD Collection 8 (emotion/metaphor) and politics benefitfrom one another at the House of Terror. narration. re- experiencevisitors and the in its relation to politics, to asapposed narrative, of the The narrativeon isMy focus practicethe asaperforming and exhibition.of display performance studythe treat will I interviews and analysis the on Based narrative. and frame exhibition the with will however indialogue myinterviewees and of understandingre-narration experiences the to approach a phenomenological compliment can that analysis visual a in narrative also Terror of House implicitly historically (Merelau-Ponty,constituted explain Intheoretical 1962). to Iaim terms the speak to how the domains of art CEU eTD Collection 9 in movement is space-time of a tripartite wehave becomehow cognizant demonstration of Turner’s in Victor narrative andexperience, structure processual handlethis on getting a of experiencere-narration and experience the often narrative, The be processual. to takesexperience in meaning finding the structure a story with a beginning, middle part wearedealing with. narrative of the ingredient and an end. In canbe inetc. which specifying likephysical, visual,sensual used adjectives Therefore path, music,lights, sounds, touch, artinstallations, ready made and authentic objects. and symbols, to also integrate sources rhetoric,TV audio-visual life historical short a memories containing of tropes, collage a highly sensual be inapolitical embedded both to narrative Ifindthe anarrative; experiences processual narrative sayingparticipant is the that narrative often In utilized. terms experience, structure with the of physical spaces and 1956),religious(Nietzsche, narrative of models andrest. suffering the narrative of herothe and villain the theDionysian 1999), (Lakoff, human tragedy of suffering emotion, allowing toparticipate the visitor following the frame of emotional the cultural is prototypesit inthesensenarratives of referring orreadymades to cultural that fused with as be understood narrative also can Total in of wholeness. experience the participation the or By total I refer to history, space, time and experience to be eclipsed and conceived as a whole, tooverarchingfixed corresponds narrative like narrative grandand narrative ‘meta-narrative’. national Total is narrative,myth Civil the habitually deemed asappropriate. Religious of In context its re-narration. and narrative term havethe chosen I with study. in this operate Made –Ready Myth and Narrative Terms: and Notions 2.1 Key 2. LITERATURE REVIEW It isimportant tonotehere I make that thenarrative orexperience out structure and when experience into come to one in that connection useful ishowever Narrative In this section I would like to explain some of the key notions and terms of that I will metanarrative CEU eTD Collection accessing the experiences of living people who are being influenced by the narrative or myth. are or living people bythenarrative who influenced being experiences the accessing of influencemyths by narrativethe or 1971).Aninterpretation (Rasmussen, thus demands myths can be by structuralistagainst the for work example Levi-Strauss which claimedthatnarratives and interpreted effectively argued work Ricoeur’s essays.Paul academic embarking on before theirnarrative independently otherthe authors donot give such primacy tothe experience people influencedof bythe of the actual site. leaves the experience whenvisitor output and Room) is buried-Farwell past narrative/the and experience” another of the and finds areincorporation, (visitor personal meaning inown asan“experienceexistence of peopleclimax) and (liminality transition/process disappears), thatreality and fiction between distinction are wherethe place an artificial total (into asaseparation canbe described of Terror House the walksat through visitor Thethe be may process that generated. programs alternative multiple determine performance. But given But determine performance. narrative-experience. Without narrative-experience. event or of structured socially the which part placeinthemiddle takes action structure within 10 within and structure, this inby structure experience processual the and narrative:in is viewthere Turner’s in participant. the andexperience performance influence representativemonolithic program of a prestigious, powersupported howeverwhich could Turner’s In of action. human termsstructure because processual of the narrative structure, of Terror’s the Houseconsequence from a program of grand design, and models of society or for example the House of Terror,look atliving a (agency) we cannot as action holds that helpful (Turner,1974:13).Turner a physical narrative path can be considered to be In my literature review of workswhichother include theHouse of Terror, Ifound that This tripartite movement in space-time can in short say something about whatsay Imean in movement caninabout something space-time This short tripartite antistructure liminality liminality denotes / antistructure , prestigious programs can be undermined and communitas , a narrative program might in might program , anarrative deed and liminal experiences and experiences antistructure CEU eTD Collection 11 ethnography on an Americanhis in smallWarner Lloyd W. town anthropologist American The Bellah. Robert and Durkheim Religion 2.2.1 OriginsofCivil Religion 2.2 Civil associations)/museum/place or monument of memory. and representations of possibilities infinite (with religion civil of institution an as narrative the of teller the treating and visitors, foreign on be will dialogue in this Myfocus by narrative. influencedwhere the who it inthepeople and experiences evoked the of House between narrative my atthe Terror the help dialogue narrative which structure can narrative visual a including my thesis, in writing style narrative a follow to a sense in aim I Hungary began with the reburial of historian Hungarianthe Nagy.According theIstvan Hungary began reburial to Imre of with The 279). current form Hungarian of civil worshipandreligion ancestor in postsocialist ideals of (ibid: nation" and the community andconstantly the direct, revive thecollective organized, symbols which powerful sacred "become for theirlives country sacrificed their separate groups of the unifyall activities the which emblems visible powerful the mostof the deadare the of the "The graves of that Warner wrote experience. andliminal andcommunitas antistructure into community,"in Victor is Turner’s of movement similarduring asacredprocessual ritual the concept rite to whereasincluding This heroes. sacred symbols, andnational cemetery, type the of transcendence the celebrationthe division of the transcended These rites 1959: 278). (Warner, representations" sacred collective definition of of communitythe deaths in termsMemorial ofof class,men Daywhoethnicity, rites, and whichreligion, "are uniting a modern it around cult of the dead and conform to Durkheim's The term Civil Religion was first used by Roussau and later by sociologists Emile The LivingandtheDead (1959) wrote a chapter on chapter wrote a (1959) CEU eTD Collection intolerance (quoted fromintolerance (quoted Bellah, 2006:198). these are the positive dogmas.the just, As for thethe negative punishment of come,life happiness the to bountiful, the prescientand beneficent, Deity,ones, wise, powerful, I limit of thethem towicked, only number,one, statedthewhich with sanctity precisionis and without explanation of theor commentaries. social The existence ofcontract the and of the laws: 12 of tolerance. intolerant by being tolerance enforce would Rousseau law.” the before lied has he crimes: greatest the committed has he death: with be punished should he them, in anunbeliever like behave Dogmas, Rousseu. from religion civil term the borrowed I have why is That survive. to was republic new the if essential was beliefs, these acknowledging publicly after one, any if him as banish impious,may it but unsociable them: believe of not sincerelydoes loving whoever law and state justicethe from and of banish sacrificing, may at need, sovereign the his life to his duty. But 5 4 asenseof and affirms rehearses that environment peopleso muchlearn not attend to newinformation,be butbecause in to theywish a total visiting museum the memorial space with an inestablished sacredplaceof churchgoing that an Williamsanalogy to 2011). (Dreyfus, proposes laugh at” you “what cannot sacred was cannotbe understood in direct opposition with the secular. Nietzsche’sbroad definition of the a collectivity" Durkheim’s (Bellah, Bellah that 2006:10). notion demonstrates of sacred the collection beliefs,of and symbols, with rituals respect tosacred andinstitutionalizedthings in analysis of Memorial Day history and politics (Rev, 2008:57)”. ritesof understanding socialist post to transition the of event tosymbolic important most single elaborate Rev “The a prime reburial of ministerImre of 1956revolution, executed Nagy, the wasthe the concept of "American civil religion"—"a The reburial of Imre Nagy video clip video Nagy ofImre reburial The Continuation “Withoutof quote havingcompel power to any believeone to (these dogmas) According to Rousseau the dogmas of the civil religion ought to be simple, few in Sociologist Robert Bellah made the concept Civil Religion popular based on Warner's based on Civil Religion popular Bellah made concept the Sociologist Robert : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HBD5XScqZw 4 5 being in a place (Williams, 2007:98). not CEU eTD Collection encounters (2007:258).” This is an encounter between the political objectives coupled This with between political objectives isan encounter the (2007:258).” encounters of make sites, away their whatthey them subsequently take with and bring tothose what visitors or Hungarian site, “it tourist is however about beyond tourist tourism the goes The importance of (2007:254). theirin effort states of “Europeanization” states communist sector. and private however directly transfer intoeconomic capital from the economical exploitation of the public socialism and(Young Duncan 2007:251). in thecaseof East” the with associations of “rejection a clear Union) and European the into of transition context heritage (acommon in Western European Europe pastlinks to constitute which identity new a promoting states socialist post for mechanism key one been has pastand thefeature? terms present, with politics of to contemporary coming 13 commoditized? See: http://www.muzeumkomunismu.cz/articles/newsweek.htm the museum of communism in Prague. One might then questionwhose heritage is being preserved and 8 See:Franklin, Adrian. 2003. Tourism: an introduction. London:Sage. surfaces of the everyday into objects of tourist consumption.” experienced:an interesting ordering that has reproduced itself over overand again, turning more moreand 7 Europe 6 The creation of lackgiven this of the capital (2007:250-251). economic of source animportant tourism states’ socialist inpost myths of construction this millennium, of during decade first of the Europe the socialist post across heritage andmemory communist in socialist post states. Stateshave European been initiativetaking tofund sites post of Civil Religion and 2.2.2 TheMemorialMuseum For Franklyn “Tourism has ordered some of the ways in which globalization has proceeded and been and proceeded has globalization which in ways ofthe some ordered has “Tourism Franklyn For Forcomparisons and examples see: Eurocommunism Commemorating Communism in Contemporary Eastern In some cases the tourism sites are set up by companies from outside of postsocialist Europe. This is the case at case isthe This Europe. ofpostsocialist outside from up by companies set are sites tourism the cases some In Péter Apor, Center for Historical Studies, Central European University (CEU),Budapest The human geographers YoungandLighthold that The House of Terror is one of many sites of communist commemoration and memory and commemoration communist of sites many of is one Terror of House The 6 -why are these sites of memory and commemoration so important for 8 This reemergence of the socialist era can however disrupt the post the era canhoweverdisrupt of socialist Thisreemergence the 7 Furthermore is promoting this new narrative and narrative new this ispromoting Furthermore post communist heritage tourism symbolic capital symbolic capital symbolic does CEU eTD Collection conventional entertainment attempts to do. reflect on what is being presented in critical and “objective” ways, rather than being than rather ways, “objective” and incritical presented being is what on reflect concept of concept 11 (Lowenthal 1998:73).” about their history, but its legends and heroes influence daily life and are rallying points forHungary’s modern future lifestyle and culturalwestern a pull, have might heritage Hungarians is still important: although that “surveys notes Lowenthal show how most commemoration. Hungariansand knowcelebration little modernity, 10 enjoyed asan ancestral legacy empathystressing and identity, not rigorous historical knowledge (1998:121).” on on why totalitarian haveregimes strong gotten publichas that lead support tohuman to learnwant history the of objects display, informationon the inaddition and commentary to heritage production Kirshenblatt-Gimblett that describes can visitorsevidently whodisappoint messages1998:157).Thisother heritage effect andmeaningsof (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett than 14 9 estrangement, and foreignness “conflate their effects with the instruments producing them” andin turn creates a Brechtian museum it’sexhibition. ForKirshenblatt-Gimblett for heritagecharacteristic production to in support heritage how is in historical narrativethe and comparedable record to a museum to and cosmopolitanism urban (James 2005:7). traditions.” James distinguishes the two ideological directions in terms of populist nationalism imperial butsubservient civilized and nomadic origins “thelegacies: primitive contrary memory swerve Hungarian Lowenthal Hungary and heritage: between to two considers times.” [totalitarian] in those Hungarians for like was life what of a picture present time same the at and victims, the to memorial fitting Heimat (homeplace) andparticipant their back stockof knowledge ground concepts, andexperience. visitor with the memory andof inof sites commemoration agency curation artistic the Berthold Brecht was a German theater dramatician of the early 20 early of the dramatician theater a German was Brecht Berthold This reading of Hungarian heritage is in other words a juggle betweentraditional national identity westernand Lowenthal describes Lowenthal In understanding the approach and function of the museum I find that heritage must be must heritage that find I museum the of function and approach the understanding In In Lowenthal’s reading,theHouse couldof possibly Terror bein understood of terms Verfremdung heimat of the theater audience. theater ofthe , with a stress on empathy, in how The House of Terror sets out to be “a as “antipathetic to rational history. Part and parcel of everyday life, of everyday parcel and Part history. to rational “antipathetic as 11 rather then the then rather Brecht thought the audience required an emotional distance to distance emotional an required audience the thought Brecht 9 James and Lowenthal write on the division of 10 mimetic in the visitor that produce visitor that produce and in the encode th century. Estrangement refers to to his refers Estrangement century. taken out of themselves heimat is as CEU eTD Collection pasts. Socialism has beenpasts. Socialisminto discourse through heritage brought has back political and tourism. communist and fascist their regarding commissions truth/reconciliation had not has Hungary from arestillclosed and iron curtain. socialistthe past archives Eastern sides of the The (2001:15). location historical original from the reflection historical of theatmosphere temporal deducts Hungary and the in the caseof likestate, new [postsocialist] a Houseof creation the from wakeof the memorials of Terror loses the values it carries in terms of “age value,” and sided with Napoleon and ended up on the losing side against the British alliance. British the against side losing onthe up ended and Napoleon with sided patriotism by public intellectuals after the breakup with the Danish Norwegian union as a result of that Denmark2001:15).This reminds me personally creationof the of a creationof a Norwegian (Boym national narrative contract and anemotional also is that contract social on the based is best at nation-state the defines Boym state. nation federal of the creation ofthe time atthe patriotism forgetting and constructing remembering, of as sites these labels Boym sites. historical in restoring interest a great was there and heritage, became past the newstates of creation due tothe that reliesmemories on sufferings thattranscendindividual past (Boym Boym 2001:15). writes that belonging collective into is transformed longing individual where ideology, national disease” “Swiss of initial the inversion itas an Shedescribes suffering.” of past andglory, sacrifice of a place Eden; but a lost merely notis “it of a nation: Nostos the about and selective forgetting and remembering is Svetlana Boym in Boym is Svetlana remembering and forgetting selective and James is talking about has itsbasis on collective suffering for the nation. In terms ofnostalgia myth foundational nation the (James of 2005:5). as narrative and a Houseof has given thatthe considers 1956revolution the Terror a status community, imagined asan nation on theory the Anderson’s Benedict interms nation of of considered to be history iteven though mimics history. 15 13 industrial development (Boym 2001:9). 12 is a heritage Lowenthal For atrocities. By the “Swiss disease” she is referring to Swiss nationalist revival from the 19 and ofprogress idea an became and Napoleon, from derives of revolution idea the that writes Boym Svetlana There has been a taboo and silence regarding socialism in both and Western in the both socialism and regarding silence There hasbeen a taboo James holds that the nation is constructed at placeslike the House of Terror and thinks declaration of faith of declaration 12 The House of Terror narrative or myth that total reconstructions , and therefore heritage cannot be cannot heritage therefore and , the future ofnostalgia the future th century which was a process a was which century . These intentional These . 13 writing : in the : CEU eTD Collection 16 mourning. fresh of subject be made can that atrocity anold as museum and memorial Genocide Armenian the and ideological very already as memorial Center Trade World of the examples the contrasts 14 and servea 2007:128). ideological function purely (Williams, function this lose will a site necessary, issocially that work of memory early the in purpose hasis passed, all wecansee.that This mourning intemporal dimension to relevance servesit mourning of monument the of significance the that now which symbolism political their by related uprisingto the 2005:168).” (James to the House of Terror, “otherwise there islittle tosee in itsvisual pastiche that is specifically 56revolution the of exhibit museum from army the was transferred leather jacket Pongratz’s on observations Horvat’s visual object presentfreedom andand terror: An important past. point Jamesthat in makes evaluating the in terms shadowsthe ininto andforms, familiar elementary equated atotal narrative of evil, good of historicalmimetic relevance the interviewees my in recovery; and representation of form this to limitations the out points and readymadelast Jamesalso 2005:14).” (James at isrevealed elucidated; truth the or is events clarified objectslight; to areopened;themeaningof is public eyes brought the suppressed illuminated; the echoesis proof: the past rhetorical with showing of association metaphoric evidence by the Frazon andas recovery… historical of for this process suited arewell media “visual how James observes concretize and distill an event, by would otherwise anevent, that sense of concretizea topic atangible providing anddistill (Williams, recreated museums in Memorial they way arepolitically useful 2007:129).” the industries thrive, nostalgias of and mythall abound, kinds arebeingpasts resurrected or occurwithin now atrocities ina “memory “national culture” and heritage which patrimony how recognizes also Huysen nostalgia. of future the on text Boym in Svetlana echoed is which future, the be with concerned seems to past the forget remember, with, display, It is howeverdifficult to say with precision at what moment these sites become solely ideological, Williams Jay Winter suggests that the ritual significance of memorials has often been obscured memorialshasoften of ritual significance the suggests that Jay Winter or reflective visitor assumes that the truth was there, and has now been revealed from revealed been has now and was there, truth the that assumes visitor reflective or in situ display, that although the “freedom display,fighter” Georgely the“freedom although that 14 The debate on how to deal CEU eTD Collection 17 support agrandnarrative andframed of to total in order and culturesplaces, where times had from different that origins objects complex. These from simple to criteria, evolutionary elementary formal to according objects arrange display museum in would Rivers Pitt imagination and evolutionary by theories like Morgan,anthropologists SpencerandFrazer. visible. were popular expositions Many these exotic colonial,of playing upon the mediumswhich an ideology, through a culture, and some kind meaning can of madebe of intellectual greatexotisizing entertainment, wasinvested in work understanding them as 19 late its Inthe practice. on more werecentered debates early representation, of politics focusthe on a with accustomed we are While nowadays in anthropology. topic been haslong visitor a controversial method Situ” “In and Spectacle Narrative, Display/Visual 2.3. Museumology: city. the monumentscommunist aresent to die, in an artificial park environment statue the outside of communist from landscape, where Budapestthe symbols and monuments historical urban to Soviet Union from fascist rule in 1945. Thisis amonument that survived the removal of the by liberation the to Square Freedom the on monument memorial is the right political victims day commemorates). Another of forto communism (political rallying the point right memorial public the and commemorates) left (political power into came Party Cross Arrown a fashion, most notably by arranging shapethrough the memorialthe of museum. marches interpreted to is which activism the political and points rally political sitefor place a surrogate location, at the memory daysmuseum a The gives etc. plays, websites films, theater books, disparate to be reserved of when the The question of museum display and its limitations and accuracy in relation to the to relation in accuracy and limitations its and display museum of question The such Both the andthe of socialist useconservatives House political groups Terror the th century ethnographic museums came to be understood asforms be understood to museums came ethnographic century CEU eTD Collection 18 1998:21) to Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (see of approaches reference frame context In atheoretical establishes Furthermore installation performances. and lectures programs, audiovisual explanatory earphones, 15 Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998:20). same(see arethe “representation” and “reality” that suggests which spectacle certain an form”what they call of a“clear can as be characterized Terror from Horváth (2002:324) argue that viewmuseal pointthe of of Houseof representation, the of “Coldnarrative War they shared already Mythology” histories. Frazon their among and nothing total beyond the little to learned they that expressed in visitors The Hungary. context had littleornopre-knowledge regarding communismshistorical particular developmentsand example “Cold War Mythology” in relation to Communism from the west, but most of them context cultural and history particular culture of objects. Boas inis handAlfred material there the objectivity Krober arguedthat other on the superior argued that it is crucial like his,of material astudent and Archeologists anthropologists, a total/grandother narrative. that objects are displayed representcultural historical and meaning on such a slim a basisasphysical conveying objects, in contexts of its regardinghe display, itdisagreement wasthat adequately was impossibleconvinced to because of a History Natural Museum of years American ten the with after resigned pioneers of modern US anthropology was the inspirational anthropologist Franz Boas. He evolution humanof culture (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998:20).One of their and contemporaries through to contrast In their“natural” became environment interpreted buildingthrough new them.around context a from out taken objects which in ways different at the point and settings, artificial as museums Frazon andmuseal Horváth (2002:324) understand artificial environment a around object. behind this type of presentation is to achieve a sense of wholeness through creating an In context means that objects are set in context of elaborate labels, charts, diagrams, commentary delivered via delivered commentary diagrams, charts, labels, of elaborate context in set are objects that means context In My interviewees are familiar with the elementary forms of the total narrative of for of narrative forms total the of elementary with the familiar are My interviewees commentaries in context 15 presentations which remain distant by making explicit these contexts , in situ displays in a way that privilege visitor experience and create a (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett1998:39). in situ display. The idea The display. CEU eTD Collection 19 museum’s focus. the becomes are also usedas such The props. focusobjects is decreasingthus andit is the visitor who dead victims of Terror, House the cases of In the from time. earlier an of truth representation prop for dramatizing asa becan memoryreflects cultural Theobject understood often thus past that (Bal, 2007). the of narrative semi-fictional aselective perpetuates a object The inliterature. museums the narrative in which the visual narrative environment, ofinstallations and open spaces (Williams, 2007:96-97). visitor participateswhich survivorsthe virtually as thevisitors accompanies they move through physicalthe and in TVscreens on testaments cells,personal torture andthe quarters officer reconstructed rather than authenticity mostof place,markedly the by stage-set-display scenes androoms like simply theatrical2007: 96).The theare built tropes “reality likeon showeffects”, architectural the that (Williams, museums of types other than drama in producing efficient more thus are museums memory,memorial and andfascist/socialist of with topic terror the associated high stakes are There techniques. display moretheatrical of acceptance and people ordinary of memories Williams in witha surgeas describes memoralization, livesand a focus on expressive performingmuseum model as the House appears model,corresponding to of Terrors what museum. The and performing the museum (commentary/context) interpreting excellence), intellectual and of aesthetic (paragons museum models:museum Legislative three between distinguishes Williams visitor. the around objects) museumal its (along environment and presentation curator’s achieving asense of wholeness andcreating an artificial My findings mostly concur with Frazon and Horvath,butIaddthatthe hidden artist Spectacle as a place of gravity is often referred to the discussion on memorial on discussion to the is often referred gravity of as aplace Spectacle CEU eTD Collection with “perspectiveshas awhole, art in affect the conveying underscores Dufrenne Inaddition of an experience.” converging at thepeoples experiencessame of socialism this can refer to what Kapfererpoint.” (1986) calls an “experience This observationsis perhaps a way to andDufrenne’s etc. music,motion architecture installations, pictures, indicate of House Terror, at the se the tricky that theAll views these only expel exfoliate its or possibilities…”is Art employed inmany mediums visitor participantsintentions ataim which like sameobject. same the convergeatthe which point, perspectives in vary like Butthey Ingarden vary meaningsa with its –whichnourish each person. calls them work, in terms of memory of other 20 of states. those expersession activity cannot be handeled in terms of sensations or beliefs but requires attending to how he orshe offers 16 images ideas concrete feelings the itwork…the the itsuggests, awakens, initiative and subjectivism. forbids “Farfrom exitingthe work in in us, we exist the in p.),affect”. “trapped andthus on elevator onthe viewsection please museum by dramatic (inparticular spaces inthemuseum performances and inrelation to the perceives whatsubjectivity. visitor for The andhesitates to do, example in claustrophobic with coincides andthat action the perception between setrelationship temporarily imagesAffect presenta emergesdo, affect(Bal, 2008:35). we hesitate aboutwhatto that action usandthe troubles that aperception between that Bal writes by Bal. is affect called art with a repositioning of the subjectin relation to the world.” This repositioning by aesthetics in it is brought in accordingstrengthens Bal both. on and relationshipthe writes between art politics“how nationhood: of to a particular aesthetic vision that binds the contemplationPerformance and 2.4 Art of art Charles Altieri (2003:49) in a negative definitioncompromises the ofrange mental states in which anagent’s Dufrenne’s (1973: 59-60) analysis of the work of art holds that the art work has the inmerger togetherand a thedomains that work art politics At Houseof the of Terror 16 Ansichten , as CEU eTD Collection when we have the ability to take a step back and ask ourselves and compare with others andcompare with a stepbackandaskourselves take haveability to when the we an but, feelings, embodiesexperienceis at that meanings and often some punctuated point, subjectivity, our arrest holds forms mightasDuffrene art of The captivation samepoint. the theirindividual and shared histories. backgrounds,from of social, haveastock cultural and andexperiences and politicalconcepts with come interviewees The interviews. the among consensus in evaluating relevant also areof cause narrative of aspects Theready-made as well. its recipients through agency in have have and objects(indexes)agency, can Gell describesondisplay agency which art, of as way same the in much agency, has narrative the of creator or teller The whole. the to return has two intentions: movement religious makerthe myth the or that finds Fernandez contradictions. technological to give definition by tosolve understood likeLevi-Strauss social cognitive, and structuralists culture’s to inchoateis it In of myth narrative, orwe). a awhole instance terms or (for experience understanding (unformed) subjectsreminds us must wegobeyondthat forexample non linguistic (or verbal) in structures and the intention “mutuallymusic in”in of Fernandez. concept tuning Schutz’s to to mission according to movementin quality space, through achieve wholeness in the narrative as well as in experience. Tropes (and their sequential inmimesis aims metonymypresentation toincontext to opposite play part) a key and which 21 of method the to referred Frazon and Horvath and Gimblett in responsetofindingmeaning and inchaos (Lazar suffering and Luze,Kirchenblatt- 2007), churchgoing,wholeness cosmological to for examplereferred Williams totality, wholeness or of denote conviction this to ways other several arealso There experience. the with to terms itas a accept brings it you in to especially the case as subjective, becomes recognized subject the constructed outside whenartwork an process Duffrene points out how we all have different perspectives, but still we converge on the argumentation ofimages whole , also in the interviews when coming when interviews in the also , in situ ) by havedefinition this (applied to museum (applied to CEU eTD Collection 22 1999). (Hirsh, etc. manipulations context, as its aswell is physical it the displayed way artifact, of thechoice areperhaps puzzling qualities its as persons: complexity same intentional the embody can artifacts where persons of basis relational the at looking is This themselves. via the indexes in beby butcanalso effective affectturn indexes, to aretaken The recipients non-visually. and non-mimetically be represented also may things/indexes but ready-mades, inagency, index not and The may terms aprototype of aesthetic appreciation. or represent art in of terms is frame treat to a way relation This (readymade). andtheir prototype „indexes” (recipients),” „patients „agents,” of lies relations nexus, the among art complexity, the embody is institutional complexity that capable of boundaries.cultural transcending This indexes or „artworks” that held Gell interpretations. or responses motivates which agency its by mediated are that affects indexes have These context. cultural ina particular orchestrated „Artworks”/indexes in Gell’s view emerge intheoverlapping setintentionalities of are that mechanisms ofvisual cognition with subtlepsychological delight(Gell 1998: 23-24).. with technicalimagination expertise and which a highorder, of exploit intrinsic the madeare indexes that transact difficultto make,to think and to difficult difficultcaptivating, is enchanting, it agency: social of indexes being to in addition beseen can it that so made anthropology, in particularwhere art and politics benefitfrom one another; hisI would like to include Gell’s notionsidea of art in of the technology of enchantment. Gell holds that art2.4.1 Technologyof Enchantment is emerging contexts. in given” the of make we what and is given “what between tension the them, ignore or later reject onecan meansthat also structures, given Experiencing experience. the regarding In the vein of In asa of veinof the Terror performativedescribing aspects Houseof the museum, CEU eTD Collection 23 negotiation of ontological state inacontinues are interviewees the found, is rather objectivity mean any notthat does this an experience, of place and time aspecific on interview patterns lifeworlds becoming, howcome negotiation and to toterms of with experience inthe context of our of state in a constant We are we are”. who in “becoming interestTorren’s to related and meanings. and stock concepts others Thisis of andagreedupon our also past experiences find own experiencewe try meaning and through with comparison our regarding ourselves to intersubjectively find consensus meaning experiences. of our This hasargument its basis that time inintersubjective relations with in others environingthe (Torren, 1999).We world can Torren arguesthatthemindover is afunction constituted Ponty, 1962). of person whole the Intentionality afunctionas of embodiedthe mindhas tobe historically (Merleau-constituted from thatisseparate process, beexperience. cognitive discovered by to autonomous an Ponty, is perception mind, immanenttothe historical “facts” not areinother words out there Merleau following of in theirspace experience, takesplace quality sometime the subjective lived Houseof atthe Terror. experience participants/visitors to make known the social realities that the written history and oral tradition authorize This knowable 1933:107). at looking study at history as living,andhelping (Oakeshott, aims through divorcing the pastfrom as presentthe consequentlyuninfluenced, littlenothing or is defiantly evidence has important impact how weunderstand on past, the but study this aims atnot history’s Written narratives. different into often hands, many by shaped continuously ishistory same is the as amode At that it time experience. past acknowledge of present the in exploring interested ismore study this rather history; H capital of mirroring Terror’s of Narrative and Experience 2.5 Phenomenology: It can be argued that the becoming in terms of structure narrative can making becomingoutside in the the of beIt terms arguedthat House the intermsof happened whatactually with concerned less isPhenomenology . If an overarching consensus of experience and its meanings can be detected in be detected meaningscan andits of experience consensus an overarching . If CEU eTD Collection 24 where I spent time at the House 3. Methods, Analysis, Findings ofand Discussion Terror: conducting interviewspersonally meaningful and comes understand to whatmight itmean for otherparticipants.the with experiencehow any rendersaddress participant wecan thecommemoration given rite participants isof that experience by performance Through alwaysmediated as meaning. embodied and 1990). Howthe cameembody visitors to of their consciousness livedthe worldas afunction “existential of ground culture” and as manifestingthus andconstituting the mind (Csordas, draining for my interviewees, and less much provoking a thoughtful and reflexive experience. Jackson, 1996).Suchnotionsfor could why account experience Houseof the isbodily Terror and 2007 Luze, and (Lazar fused been have earth the of body the and body human the how ininterior libidinal visceral space the being.Studieshave of and been for on example done generated be can meaning social that us reminds etc.) guilt martyrs, victims, angst, isolation, pain howsuffering, reference Jackson indicates human to (terror, torture, subjectivity. structures areatonce dynamicthat psychological time. andover stable meaningthe orknowledge-making shouldas process begiving understood rise to escape it: it is functioning of being human. Like the process of psychological development, have to be willed by you, you not does process Theconstituting ofhuman meaning is autopoesis. aspect psychological the do not have to be explicitlyof Terror and relating it their to own conscious of it and foratthe House theirmeaning andinterpretation of example and experience over comparison nor can you My method isbased on theory; grounded I hada participantobservation approach the as body the on is emphasis theoretical the with mind embodied to refer can One asequally canperhaps beunderstood of Sociality aspects and embodiment primordial lifeworlds . Following Torren this process of this makingFollowing of process Torren . CEU eTD Collection 25 the of narrative the reconstruct to tried I my observations, on Based Museum. the of building the outside and inside interviews semi-structured and observation participant on relies and Interviews method 3.1 My body. human the on signs and in symbols meaning of source the locates logocentric models which as aswell asfollowing construction, asocial can be understood experience that assumptions thepost-modern also butreassess experience andtransmission, distance myself from the Cartesian understanding (body and emotion/mind distinction) of methodologicalfurther At individualism my findings this point suggeststhat Iwill (Weber). tradition In (Van Ede, 2009:61). termsmust it of subjectivity notbeconfused with enlightenment scientific western the from objectivity and distance favoring subjective, importance. Criticisms anthropology approach this of to thismethodology reject for being to perceptions inquiry of subjectsof the my bestudy –in will visualaspect of the particular must sensory experience him/herself investigator the that in argues approaches anthropology phenomenological narrative Thesensory and credible techniques. experience to inaddition iscontent in exploringhow something based works on fieldwork.the in this paper ishowever not reigning todefend orattack views mainin– my interest terms of narrative before embarkingon essays.their academic my main Beyond methodology, concern donotfoundgive otherthe authors that experience tothe of primacy people influenced bythe which of reviewI myliterature works include House Terror, of In the visual narrative. other have my narrativeunderstand by making and tried interviews also toand topic exhibition. a I the of aspects emotional and physicality the both experiencing and observing administration, The analysis that I will present in the following pages is partial in many respects. It Implications derivingfrom necessitate addressingthis it what is thatmakes anarrative CEU eTD Collection 26 narrative. the with terms to come it and positioning them helped which ofreference frame broader onthe and place the about opinion view and final overall the In ontheir more etc. focusing was affect guide bodily interview the section atmospheres, objects, coping, embodiment, rooms, of different interpretation and perception the experience, sensual and visiting actual the to related concretely more questions contained Hungary, of history the and theirsocialism motivation on to visitknowledge the exhibitionprevious as their well as their initial ofvisitors, expectations related background the to it. The about second sectionquestions Iasked section first In the sections. major three had and one hour and 30 minutes between lasted interviews The 18 revolution. Hungarian the about learn to wanted she if place good a was museum the that friend about museum the from guidebooks, the hotels, city bustour and a couple of individuals heard fromheard They aHungarian curtain. iron ofthe side western onthe living from background a have therefore and communism of time the during lived they that common in have of them Most size. sample our in represented equally Norway, Belgium and the US. The people we interviewed were in the age group 13 to 70. Both genders where 17 to spoke I visitors Hungarians (the in English materials informative sufficient of lack the to attributed being were often rationally limits of comprehension reviews, in these articulated In found acertain evident. sametimeimpact wasquite the and puzzlement I confusion emotional justice.” The do victims the not did exhibition Terror of “the House and regimes)” terror the exhibition: of the content main the to (referring “never again horrible,” and either highly highly or praising condemning the exhibition. Ifound like statements “beautiful people were in sensethat the in evaluations, their excessiveness by certain were characterized dimensions of the visit. Museum the of and display the of elements as different to attributing a were visitors whole our meanings the and in parts, in scope with broader mind.interviews werea slightly conducted I tried connection towith the visitor, made possiblemake and orient the work of interpretation. My sense a which establish objects of in arrangement the parts as as well asawhole space exhibition out of the broaderwhat they see. experientialIn more they with say what experience, of comparing visitor the grasp make abetter to inhere order precise terms I was lookinghelp in narrativegreat Making wasof avisual visitors. evoked the experience the narrative the atfrom and thosenarrative visual a teller, the of elements perspective the both through Terror of House in the design of the Iprepared an interview guide which would help me both to structure the discussions and to reconstruct it later. Interview Sample: I interviewed around a fifteen individuals from England, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Visitor comments from and guestthe book on althoughbloggs, mostly alsopositive, 18 17 More than an interest in CEU eTD Collection explicitly implicitlyand whenIasked many regarding questions the of their the at experience During myinterviews place was took that thevisitor still insidewhen building indicated the 1996:42). (Jackson, secondary experience footingas the same the at primary experience put following the cultural phenomenological Jackson triesto knowledge. The approach experience with pre-given sensory fuses of immediate Terror atHouse lived experience visitors the argue in mythat I interviews. experience of isthere-narration with experience coming terms to or experience oftheir an extension of Terror, House the at visitors western are of research 45). The actors this simultaneously 1986: and (Abrahams, actors group the the invisitor of individuals collectivity asort ways authenticateactingdevelop that both will of performance meaningby and thatIseekthetechniques narrative, the of display which discourse of institutionsis in social the into realm embedded which experience the the and of spirit in the west. 27 tradition. 19 the and religion civil of institution the both in entrenchedness day every its of in context dialectically it treating also but conditioning, and representative as experience reporting simply more than doingat attempt Iwould Ideally experience. an facilitate to entrepreneur or curator of the in objective the technologies performative the to inrelation experience of thenarrative/re-narration Iwill discuss chapter in thelast and in ExperienceandRe-narration Sample andMovements 3.1.1 Interview lackcommentary). to of attributing rationally more,expresseddepending butalso similar confusion, and on generation understood Previous such sacred words have been “civilization”, “progress” and “culture” in the western humanist western the in “culture” and “progress” “civilization”, been have words sacred such Previous Experience appears to be a new sacred word that allows us to celebrate the human the celebrate usto allows that beanew to sacred word appears Experience At this point I have demonstrated the embeddedness of the interviewees’ experience, theinterviewees’ of embeddedness the demonstrated I have point Atthis 19 In discussing the anthropology of experience we are moving out of experiencemoving of the out of weare theanthropology In discussing lifeworlds of the visitors. CEU eTD Collection years fled old tothe US during the 1956revolution, andhe recallshow hisnarrative mother’s wasseven interviewee away the when past father who late His an answer. himself to resonate learning aboutin the motives personal strong historical has who interviewee an of example an demonstrate Hungary content, but is reluctant to visitHungary,to isboth who a fiction and author historical researcher on 1956revolutionthe in the House of Terror, he tries to assumptions regarding the Houseof Terror without havingvisited. interview and sample,make speak tothe aswell reactions how one motives,as associations, also accounts These in experience. the part visit take and to are reluctant butnarrative, Terror meaning. Ihave also talked topeople who have a strong interestin the content of the House of in learning itsHouse of onthesubject historical/political of terms Terror, content and of the visiting in part experience - non the at aim explicit an have who account into those taking but also the ones that visit out of boredom,laziness and dispiritedness. On the other hand am I thrill-seekers, negative/positive memorializevictims, chapter), theoretical the (please revisit for churchgoing as motives to referred Williams of what consists potentially experience terms in sample interview The etc. site the at concepts and material historical/political to relation own places, similar of experiences/and similar residence, and nationality generation, isvisitor limitedbeyond basic inquiry of of background the each participants occupation, 28 experience. with terms coming to of experience secondary to re-attunement or captivating, bodily and strong emotionally interviewees perhaps be referredthis it appears to remember, or that formthey need distance and time, also physical distance to reflect. Drawing from cannot as either they of that background, many their with it attunement connecting also and exhibition, the of these ofinterviews a primary experienceextended the that primary is according experiences. to This can A life story interview for a parallel project with an American who moved from the US the from moved who American an with project parallel a for interview story life A A given regarding the scale of this study in is emersion scaleof that the study the this regarding A given lifeworlds of each CEU eTD Collection Terror] is time space specific to where a lot of people where tortured.” He clearly indicates Heclearly tortured.” where of people where alot to space specific istime Terror] “this Houseof being museum[the andspacespecific with time this he asnot name, contrasts House of Terror with a Museum that signals a similar concept of pain and torture based on its 29 http://www.torturemuseum.com/ 20 I went to a joint in Amsterdam called the put itterror out of my mind. Iam not sure what kind museum…” of museum itis and why they call it amuseum. yeah I don’t know how I would feel about going out there. I am not exactly sure why,by atthebeing place, andby reminded of statues by manifested memory, bridge. freedom the I just embodyingfrom been previously andnow being researching adistance of feelingof this apart of what hehad he wasapart that experienced it.”likeinterviewee My of felt Iwaspart sensation I gotwhen I was researching 56 and Iwould see those films (about the revolution) I see the freedom bridgebank of the Danube…“I rememberand the balcony, Iremember thatyou could turn theto the left and river, so I really onthe located their at residence family.the He was father’s sideof his reunite with 1998 to felt like I was, revolutionit was similar in theto theUS. sameHe recalls his experienceit’s that changed.” comprehend changed…they can’t from the first timethis look on theirface. Like its still evil that empire, and they ideahave no that things have he went to Budapestyou in mention Eastern Europe; Russiawhere thisthey in period, raised get or the USwho in members family my of some idiotic, rather its even, now, even think I rhetoric. war cold with his fathers individual experience and narrative;“Her entireyou life, know she was dealing of revolutionthe and socialistinfluenced Hungary morewas by“coldmythology” war than The interviewee explained that the Torture Museum in Amsterdam “was like a theme park, basically.” park, atheme like “was Amsterdam in Museum Torture the that explained interviewee The “And also I read about these headquarters (House of Terror) in so myresearchon (Houseof 56, Terror) headquarters about these “AndI read also innarratives like in of interested became socialism My interviewee the56 Hungary, 20 The interviewee compares the Theinterviewee compares CEU eTD Collection 30 Western Germany for example noted that itis not clear to the visitor which time period the familiar physical inmovement re-narration in terms of interviewing them outside, returning a to more whohada foundgreater I those whereamong exceptions rendering. The fragmented more givenot attempt with visitors the backgroundsfrom to did democraticstates social welfare a fascism even with socialism, both and assynonymous terror acceptedthe readily exceptions parts mythologies” The “coldof with with acouple indifferent visitors, war of west. the belongmy interviewees the generationsimpressive whogrewup of also to exhibition. Most disconfirmedthe Ripper” type place as apposed to asite of civil religion. Their expectations where however by ora“Jack house” a “Halloween Spoke entertainment, popularforms to horror of expectations theand associations gave museum the of name participants,the that found interviewees American marketing of a site of theymemorialinterviewees to victimsdescribed agreedat a place Some narrative. other part of the andhistorical installations little of exhibition the however of torture. in understood or thatEspecially remembered they how explained theycases most in hand other the on theirbut didwhole, the notEnglish know andwhat visitto expect tourists asa towards memorial of museum and indirected concept narrative the relation from total the the and marketing asthe museum, name the of name the understood they and site: emotionally the of experience strong narrative. andits historical in to reverence function the in to relation bewildered regards and context of socialistpost andwestern “coldwar mythology” regardingbut socialism, muchin aware itsof thehistory relevance of place, the wasinother words of and interviewee referringfrom thenameTerror, Houseof the to andmarketing museum.the of This expect to of and interms is what happenedactually confused there, of become aware what that he is hesitant and does not know how to cope with the House of Terror, after he had This is in contrast to the western interviewees that had visitedand sharedtheir that interviewees western tothe This isin contrast lifeworld and non-artificial space of sensual stimuli. An interviewee from the former the from interviewee An stimuli. sensual of space non-artificial and CEU eTD Collection process. One can refer to the notions of the denote this to leadsa whole.are several ways There to that in equation an sense-making of special and sensory knowledge or stimuli, out from an understanding, a subjective work of recognize itas not offered from butrising outside the from insidethe through embodimentthe can he/she because idea, suggested accept the to ready is more make. One they impression of so many confusionsmake senseout captivation struggle to affect, and ongoing amidst puzzlement, the material of among the interviewees. Europe. in Eastern and communism Central It is hard toof forms for various account failsit inthat to socialism of experience full encompass the not resist the “finally, I get it!” 31 into one era of eras areconverted andfascist socialist the when especially narrative, socialist the obscures also can but in Hungary, context pre-socialist a offering is presentation This begins. socialism of narrative the before occupation German the thereafter, and treaty, Triannon War’s continues with being annexedparts the from disembodied FirstHungary the after World andbefore WWI, Heimat”, as “Hungarian the can mapbewhat understood of televised Experience and Narrative 3.2 Display, socialism.” Stalin and socialism between Honecker different great socialism in the DDR, that fascist past in not conflated with the DDR time, and that “there is a of gavethe example interviewee narrative. The of a total inthe visitor sense of wholeness with inconflating additioncommunism, to different timeI call periods, -is what a conveying fascism conflating explicitly of in terms and time of out somehow is it that covers, exhibition The roomsandinstallations,key-scenes, run arranged ambiguously the through The House of Terror exhibition draws its narrative from an era of a from pre-socialism: eraof an narrative drawsits exhibition The Houseof Terror terror-regimes . For Young and Light and Young For . ready-made post communist heritage tourism (Boym, 1998,) metaphor (Fernandez,(Boym, 1998,) does CEU eTD Collection While visitors rationally attribute the mentioned difficulties of interpretation to the lack the the mentioned ofinterpretation attribute difficulties of to rationally While visitors of can beconfusion? how is through House understandingmeaning achieved Terror this: or by the excessive.posed the tricky toformulate question however Thesimplestway times too atbecomes ideas” “leading of elucidation Infactthe Boasian critique. for this overqualifies of The House (Jacknis grand narratives Terror leadingideas certain or1985:102). elucidate for in andnot theeffect werearranged to order andgroups criticized displays inwhich objects museums, of functions ethnographic andpedagogical of scientific the advocate a strong an they call as a“clear form” of what canbecharacterized of House Terror the musealrepresentation view of from of point the that whole and andits parts, anillustration something.of Frazonand Horváth (2002:324) argue a between relation metonymic a both denote can which term ambiguous an is “Example” andinstallations. objects showrooms, the for understanding necessary wasoften matter history, examples of theseas eloquently contextanddescribed interview subject A British commentary.without times in other idea, articulated a well understanding, clear and a strong offering sometimes they thewanderingFor abruptly,nature. visitor show up wondering) (and unexpectedly, installations.of They emerge againsttheirbackground less confusing duetotheir ambiguous by idea. the cognitivecreated force dissonance hidesthe transmitted object. amuseal around environment an artificial creating achieve is of through asense wholeness to 32 through commentaries) to contrast In them. around context a new building through interpreted became environment “natural” their from out taken objects which 21 1986), environments achieving authenticity and objects becomes ofre-constructed more case problematic.the in display, the of authenticity the ground commentaries and objects case the first the in While 1998:20). Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (see same the are “representation” and “reality” Frazon Horváth and (2002:324) understand museums as artificialsettings, and point atthe different ways in affect 21 In the space of museumthe visitors observe andinteract with objects arranged as parts Dioramas and habitat groups were in fashion in who, as werefashion during ofFranz Dioramas thetime groups Boas, habitat and (Bal,2001) or in situ in he added that a prior background or knowledge of a priorhe orknowledge particular the subject addedthat background of in context displays privilege experience and create a certain spectacle which suggests that suggests which spectacle acertain create and experience privilege displays enchantment presentations (which remain distant by making explicit these context these explicit by making distant remain (which presentations in situ One(Gell 2006:163). isthingits sure: compelling display. ideabehind The of this type presentation CEU eTD Collection an important sourceis of aparadoxthatthe thus revenue. It an important become now has inHungary suffering previous the and become commercialized has Tourism museum coined young Hungarians, as nationalista project, aside from fact that Dark Heritage to the younger crowd.cater to tended andexhibition the that visitors them as museum to advertised waswell the that This target group goesfound interviewees western of our museum, all of group the target the When weaskedabout along with Victor Orban’s statement that the those who have the capital have who capital of the those having without capital of the andthe installations these understand interpret it to is more that challenging Heemphasized experience. socialist of generations different 33 which invites to empathy), the continuity of fascist and communist rule, etc. external and internal enemy, occupation, a majority oppressed by a minority, suffering (in a personalized way, 22 The performance. or of presentation Englishmaterials, explanatory Iwould arguethatthey could by infact be produced logicthe between path. narrativeexhibition of the stimuli bythesensory and captivated alreadybeingoverwhelmed in addition to interviewees, explaining the showroom from prose isthat handouts the relevant in inmany rooms.of the They provided are not display or the of efficiency the cases skeptical to inmost objects, where The interviewees areblurred. objects and appeared artistic and andfictional objects authentic exhibited between boundaries the caseseven these as overwhelminglyinterpretation. of most In explicitly against works an and atmosphere, device creating for long for the abovementioned grandnarrative of terror. but only in alimited numberof those whichrooms, articulate key ideas in the These key-scenes which articulate the main motives of the Grand Narrative in a particularly strong way: strong a particularly in Narrative Grand ofthe motives main the articulate which key-scenes These Another interviewee when asked about interpretation of installations, distinguished installations, of interpretation about asked when interviewee Another lived history and sterile history sterile sterile history sterile in situ 22 in the visitor. This distinction is in regard to the to in regard is distinction This visitor. the in , and notvisa versa. method of methodof for finepresentations everyone works In other rooms however it functions merely as a examples history of are coined on lived history . CEU eTD Collection 34 House isof Terror most frequently with associated museumsHolocaust I askedwestern when speak itmightalso to my reaction monarchs.to that the Furthermore hegemonic the surprising military victory, beauty inof nature, constitutions or victory the of people’s revolution over 1989, where history is most commonly remembered in terms of the praising nation in terms of western background why myth national the is focused on 1956, afailed revolution, and not of defiance, “the and endurance despite survival endless history (Jamesof 2005:170).” defeat stories Hungarian formal tothe can contribute of Terror House by the exemplified narratives newthe visual that She holds Empire. Habsburg andthe Ottoman the Empire battles against lost commemorating of Hungarians personal narratives in to relation defeat commemorating Hungary is on centered the time James period of 1956. outtheirony however points of in socialism of narrative the why for reasons the of be one can which 1956, with associated is of sacrifice and thedramaticheroism for offer that stories sameopportunities courage, the House of Terror. Following James, the transformation that was negotiated in 1989 did not the Orbanspeakingopeningceremony the inat of 2002 illustrating the Victor 1991and tanks Soviet of the departure show the monitor TV thenext in on leave, effect forces to Soviet the demanding Orban Victor and music nostalgic with visitor the reintegrates and resolve leap1989: intended narrative to makesa the revisit of decadesto visualnarrative) three the to the Arrow Crossheadquarters served aspolice of Terror House years the that the arealso These its retribution. Party and revolution and 56 the until period postwar thesocialist Stalinist the and in power was Communistrooms) two Party. In the last room, the Farwell onNarrative Perspective 3.2.1 WesternVisitor (please This can be an explanation for why itis difficult to understand for visitors with a The House of Terror narrative is covering the period from the Arrow Cross Party (in CEU eTD Collection 35 occupation. another than rather Nazis, the from liberation the consider does not and coin same victims. The narrative is also new in the sense that it considers both socialism and fascism as two sides of the 24 designed the Holocaust museum Budapest.in See: http://www.attilafk.com/site.html 23 visitors about what other place the House of Terror reminded them of. identity and a new historical narrative is precisely that the change from socialism to socialism from change the that precisely is narrative historical new a and identity asa meaning understanding of of the House Terror producing structure a newnational in Westernersin lack be of one what righthowever pointingreasons out the appears to much of the “language” that James proposes that the House of Terror is operating with. James from occupations lastthe century. Hungary has been byevil possessed comingregimes from in the outside form of two that narrative grand total the besides narrative, national Hungarian the about much understand cognitively interviewees my Western for difficult was it that Ithink research own my of light as understood socialistnew nationalidentity: narrativegiving collective pastand about in a must have and off in farfrom there, felt. how home deported sequences, Hungarians she was being back directed andforth across mapthe byTV’sthat turned themselves onand was, as territory former the vast madehow Communist her realize the carpet) ingrained states same time large this room (with a map marked of Russia labor with camps and its satellite excerpts on TV screens recalled howvisitor thenarratives ofimprisonmentby interview- told in ordinary people the there raised hercognitive Iwould effects mention GulagRoom the (please revisit visual narrative). One empathy of the motherdistanced from the stage. As another example of whothe combination of emotional,lost bodily and her in beinginside,themselves become narrative from the actors apassivespectator asapposedto child. At they where display of theperformance and technology the to addition in memory, emotional and bodily based on their places the they that associate argue I rather content, historical same the framework the visitors indicate that they do not compare the memorial museums in terms of Please revisit the Appendix forvisual illustrations of the grand narrative and concept of victimizers vs. also Terror of House of the architect the Kovács F. Attila that discovered I inmy research point later At a Although my observations concurs with James’ theory that the House of Terror can be 24 In wordsdidother intervieweeslearn my not recognizeor 23 Inacognitive CEU eTD Collection 2001:340). (Boym state nation the of creation the of time since the in west the alonghas tradition andpeople the thecruelty Soviet its inrelation patriotismto regime, asapposed of which to Union about Soviet the wrote Nabakov writer Russian When the andRussia. Europe Eastern asin the same degree to journalism and literature its inwestern foundplace successfully thatevilhasnot states understanding. She European Eastern understandingthe with evil of western the in contrasting point interesting an makes Boym Svetlana emotion. with Lakoff meansby framing narrativeof acultural hero structure the andis the villain that fused victimizers which makes it compelling to and the visitor.victims/martyrs I can suffering, refer evil, and good to thisbetween fight as the an of examplenarrative of a religious what to communism delineates andclearly sidesof the evil,findgood is -which I asimilar structure 36 withwhich starts carvingthe upof Hungary’s narrative total Terror’s of in the House Implied terminology. of Terror House the to according freedom” - for fought “victims who or andmartyrs, heroes of presentation the James calls narrative. of the performance experience the derive during intersubjective Terror from and an embodied background knowledge, andmany that meanings the of in produced visitor at the House the of generation, the of depend propose can I explanations two other The (2005:6). myth national through identities, national new of like formation the see thecultural not transformations, James writes that this change is conceived by western observers in these narrow terms ispostsocialism notlimited to and creation the andnew markets of writing new constitutions. do The representation that I think is clear to the western eye on the other hand is what is hand other the on eye western the to clear is I think that representation The heimat and has its focus on Stalinist on focus its has and CEU eTD Collection Humans therefore rely on narratives, metaphors, art and symbols in communicating parts of parts in communicating and symbols art metaphors, narratives, on rely therefore Humans experience be could given a name, would there benofor narratives need (Berger, 1983). happen. happeningexpressifwe imagine or that what in to John Bergerwrote every event is currently what communicate describe or happened what havenotto do capacity the vocabularies living our experience reflective theexpressing emerging thinking In andwriting. past and the future. The human lived iscomplex experience andnotsimply tangible toour see the way we frame the to affect and agency the have potentially that narrative with a total again and out come civil religion monumentality of with the experience aspectacle place to asa of Terror the House illustrates narrative my visual way,In asimilar of Terror. House the of experience historical from mythical formsnarrative and folktale (Jackson,The pre- classic scenarios 1991). often derives discourse theoretical how shows research paleoanthropological and evolution (Dreyfus, 2011). beliefs form, accepted inform undercutting critical usetheory of chance to a different different way, past itsinto falsehoods.the cave and come outHerbert of the Togo (logos)”. issee what Good “to really of was aform this transcendence, Greeks ancient cave Dreyfusand see a vision recognizes of the truth,to According you 2011). back saw(Dreyfus, tell what and come andthen religious spectacle youthis see asthe theworld beginning in a of the understanding. ofhuman features particular and changeable totranscend beings human enables which of apprehension, human understanding Aristotle’s body. of the domain worldly a and mind of the domain contemplationcontemporary and means religious insight. conceptualization The abstract world means was theory dividedthat mean to up day usage in current a transcendent in this equates unworldlyBellah vision, unitive ofa sense the in theoria and thought ofconceptual sense the in logos between distinguished later who contrasted by Aristotle with Bios Politikos and the life of pleasure (Bellah, 2006:86-92). And it was Plotonius 37 25 3.3 Plato established Theoria meaning contemplation to be the highest form of human activity, Narrative The Greekterm and Performance and 25 Jackson points out that Misia Landau’s study on narrative on human on narrative on study Landau’s Misia that out points Jackson theoria Theoria coincides with interview voices of what can be experienced at inits pre-theoretical meaninggo andlook ata wasto theoria was an ideal mode of Bios Bios Theoretikos - CEU eTD Collection 38 experience their described and recited have they as percent and past both in lifeworld visitors day life. Ininterviews foundI narrative House howthe of Terror find meanings to relating of in every ispregiven narrative and sincethe very structure practice, link betweendiscourse the is also narrative the that argues Jackson common. in have can and identify we which not, or are true they whether areneeded, and scenarios metaphors symbols, redescription, narrative them mediated is(Jackson,lifeworld 1982).Hence and sociality both the and subjectified by presupposes a collectivity and finds meanings not onlyin narratives,the butalsoin reciting Jackson following which meanings, shared scenarios with coherent create attempt to Innarratives, myths andinstitutions experience visitors/participants. peoplethe and of stories with terms to coming the in (literarily) and experience an facilitating experiences past drawingininstitutions the case in its and curators upon expressed/organized narratives; the are experiences out; pointed Berger AsIshowed meta-narratives. for political technologies of art, ready-mades and sensory enchantment of indexes, and current motivations display on TVs throughout the rooms of the building, historical accounts and artifacts, various on and selected is which narratives) in TV life to back comes which period, Communist the handbyhistory derives first from a variety about memory narrative of (“lived/experienced ofTerror? attheHouse path tuning inwith orchestration andexhibition indexes of sensual alongexperience anarrative a bridge in between with mutual inthe tuning orchestra musicthe relationship and mutual the thereisandmethod, Following insitu perhaps the enchantment experience.of technology the an examplebeyondmust tounderstand of communication go also we that inorder verbal (Barnard, same 2000:172).Atthe isfrom concept time“amusic Schutz’s mutual in” tuning understandings agreed culturally based on are Metaphors whole. as a experience the backto that whole The House of Terror as an institution of civil religion sets out to tell experience to others and to ourselves. These metaphors and symbols also refer also symbols and metaphors These ourselves. to and others to experience a narrative which narrative CEU eTD Collection 39 which all pointof indexically meaning the to signs, of each a system other. to is are acquiescing they are they how What system. of seeing cultural wider capable inamuch not are participating actors individual wherein ring Kula Trobriand Malinowski's to connection the draws Gell enmeshed." are they which in of intentionalities network inthe individuals of acquiescence and their dynamics. As a first approximation,we can suppose that the art-system contributes to securing the which cannot be comprehended at the level of the individual human being, but only at the level of collectivitiesindividual takes to be) his or her own self interest, they all contrive in the finalduly socialized individualsanalysis in a network of intentionalities to whereby,serve of although each individualnecessities pursues acquiescence (whatonthe each depend societies human that premises general the express to cover-term ofa use making works, and on other signs in the cultural system, to derive their meaning. “In speaking of 'enchantment' I am 27 26 arefamiliar visitors that prototypes andthe artortechnologies artist/curator of agency the the to indexes referring in and exhibition, the technology art agencyof museum’s the speak tothe Terror. of the House at orchestration museum and design spectacular to as“shabby” compared she contrasted planning, spatial and in sensory the terms of affect find haveshebut not whichhad or the same as impressive asimilarmessage,did Prague, and interaction standards of spectacular physicality andtheir technological experience credibilityalso show that is alsodecided inthe of experience by participants the the The interviewees and(please revisitvisual narrative). technology, enchantment method, art, within the frame of civil artifacts readymade, “facts,” data, itorganizes how narrative, of the power the make clear religion and plays on the At a narrative Ihave House of the 1996). is into beenTerror, (Jackson, organized trying to strings of sensual perception,themselves or data per se in a postmodern age, credibility is decided by thethe way facts and data in situ narrative. by the where influenced who in people itthe evoked andthe experiences of Terror House the at narrative the between dialogue narrative is the This me. with and another one among there dollars (James,2007).Following Gell of agency the the amounta considerate moneythat of museum, the into wasinvested tax payer million 11 In"Art & Agency," Gell (1998) explicates his theory of art & aesthetics, in which all objects rely onprevious the Museum of Communism inPrague: http://www.muzeumkomunismu.cz/ One interviewee noted visited shehadin Onethat noted ofCommunism the Museum previously interviewee decided for is byfacts not a narrative outof credibility that the Jackson points technology of enchantment technology of 26 It has been reported 27 can CEU eTD Collection intervieweeshear about to wants this acceptance bestows narrativewho the etc.), political paradigmatic, (scientific, understanding itself. metanarratives hidden to consensus or acceptation assigns also Jackson US. EU andthe The is by in represented my the interview to important that exclusively sample western, regards “the of theCold ofnarrative theWar social Mythology” political sense community of than and generation individualrather neutrality.solely In light evaluation in terms evaluation (Jackson,work of 1996);reflecting interests, class shared aesthetic values, a of appearswork of is goodperhaps to andthebe visual narrative). (please etc. revisit politicalinstrumentalevil,“the Treasury” Deportation,” and “the deportation “Gulag,” Cross,” “Arrow rooms of the the mostsense ofof community inmy my especially 40 any meaning relating total inthe to narrative these visual of andaspects technical rooms, show butdifferent struggled torecollectif found they what Gell referred dripping off edgesintothe basement, the , reflectsthat towering the wall victims?” of Beside to as “the halo“how did they huge get that thing inhere, andis what pool the liquidis itof floating effect in, of technicalOneinterviewee thevisitor. asked andupsets dazzles spectacle tank, which pointgravitation difficulty,” the instance byfor wherecaptivated interviewees narrative, of the total performance visitor’s remembered index the agency isembodies essentiallyBesideswhich indecipherable (Gell, 1998:71). the the remains hidden. is Captivation by produced ofunimaginable spectacle the in virtuosity which artist the whereas indecipherability, embodying a narrative asa of etc. performance total spaces,sounds objects, indexes: in the theagencylies of Terror House Atthe performance. artist’s an in steps or sequence the follow or reconstruct cannot spectator a when point the at butsimply a matterimpact, a case of aesthetic itself of manifests blockagecognition, which of not as enchantment or captivation for potentiality technology’s and art to refers Gell with. The consensus at hand from the experience of my interviewees also implies asocial implies also myinterviewees of experience the from hand at consensus The In Situ displays. Especially in the cases of cases in the Especially displays. CEU eTD Collection Cartesian tradition,the in inlogic and terms theory ontological of of mind understanding the relatingwith contrast in to body.is prescientific it that The only access to being, or 41 are thus more efficientin producing drama than othermuseums types of 96). (Williams,2007: with Therearehigh display topic associated the techniques. andstakes memorial museums more of andacceptance theatrical moreintimate, personal visitor and connection with the the in memoralization: focus on experiences and expressions of lives of ordinary people making via thebeings themselves Heideggeraccording to (1962).The performing museum is a surge by meansis Heideggerconceptual in with what relation discursiveThis anddiscursive of fields precognitive disposition activity pre- (1988:78). or non- between a connection another, to being of mode one from place take transformations following will Michel findde Certeu its expression in stories conceptual where moral or impose disposition, for narrative the a precognitive HouseofTerror the which through can ajourney oftravel,or walking apath along Themetaphor 1996:39). of saying (Jackson, form the of takes narrative narrative path or journey. In this internal theater these participants become actors, the and asetspatial follows physically stage, places participantthe narratives oneself on the interviewees reflected alsoupon their must own experiencehave a andbase the experiencein experience of others, Performance and Theater 3.4. arguing or socialthat practice lifeleadsitsour 153). own acceptance to situation (Bruner,1986: that (Bruner, 1986: to new narrative of the is it perceivedrelevance the question narrative: and old the or discard 153). Some leads of us that to newsituation andthe narrative betweenaccepted the previously discrepancy my isit theperceived Bruner holds that past asterror. communist the rendering fascism, or as samecategory the into communism slotting accepted readily for example interviewees Narratives operate notNarratives operate only in realm the ideas, mind,the of as tobe convincing they Being (suspended between being andbecoming) asmuch as a way being in the worldbeing in the , it be , deducted can Dasein , is CEU eTD Collection 42 a into space exhibition the turn can which art, the with interaction limit art-installations the syntax and structure of the House of Terror narrativelimits subjectfreedom movementof and cases the in most from art, the spectator the can separate art the time same Atthe theater. islifeall mimicking bypainting windowsgrey,the suspended spaceof the also the closed theviewer At with andisolates suspend everyday House of everydayart. the concerns Terror becomesstatus as art moreless or fictional The (Bal, hasexhibition 2008:20). the potential to have a developed in scenography. arearranged of Objects a spacethatbyvirtue objects’those arein bestpossible andthecurators Artworks exhibited conditions, the theride basement. to elevator described the exhibition path, or walkingthe through describingexperiencetheir of when film of metaphor similar a employed also frequently my interviewees grasp, to easy is as aframe of reference metaphor theater conceptual andvillains. The epicheroes of genre, the favorite nationalisms in narrated is or staged gets that itself nation the it is religion, civil social mass broad affect achieved through communion. and onthe focus martyrs sacrifice the potential through problems of resolving sins, grave is in it and selfexamination, continues House aplacefor that of churches; the Terror between brings people under a single topic of communion.In addition there are several other analogies and Terror, of House the and churches both in concrete made is ground sacred of notion The being thatrehearsesin 2007:98). asense environment space/place(Williams, and affirms of that people attend notso much to learn new information, but because they wish beto in a total accompanies visitorsthe as they move through physicalthe narrative. virtually survivors onTVscreensinwhichthe cells, testaments and personal torture quarters officer like reconstructed scenesand rooms markedly bystage-set-display most place, the of authenticity the show that like architecture effects, reality on arebuilt tropes The theatrical Theater implies the mise-en-scene that all exhibitions imply. In museums devoted to devoted museums In imply. exhibitions all that mise-en-scene the implies Theater in churchgoing with space museum memorial the to analogy an proposes Williams CEU eTD Collection 43 28 inlocated gravity exhibition, is the a pool soviet tank of the toweringof the point in oil the facade Besides the been usedasprops. victims have dead the whether alsoquestion One can time. earlier from an truth of representation the than rather narrative a for dramatizing prop asa be understood often canthus objects The memory 2007). (Bal, reflects cultural past that the of narrative semi-fictional aselective perpetuates object The inliterature. museums the before the show begins in form of a small pamphlet. (sometimes and inaflickeringadjusted material on off)sequence given and explanatory lights showcase, or inaninstallation and decorated arranged arespatially museum objects where texts are selected, casts auditioned, sets designed, and lengthy rehearsals take place, the with production – planning atheater historical analogous narrative. Inaprocess temporal anda “facts” and commentary, historical objects learningmorethrough sothan attraction, from the confrontation with art installations (Bal, 2008:20). or agency is an impression that binds togetherbuilding upa story which has itsits outcome, effect andagency according toGell. This affect the different experiences as a wholeestablish exhibition to connections when visitor I asksthe exhibition,walkingthe through evolving the story can be told, in stead of being a spectator in front of an imaginary stage. In a narrative incurator fulfilling the scriptin his/her own way within in predeterminedthe parameter which and walks around visitor spacethe narrative is in the exhibition that the film metaphors and of theater metaphor between the difference out the Bal points narrative. in theexhibition fictional roles playing and visitors afictionalobjects andspace,with time creates arrangement exhibition the of result dark.The isleft inthe whopassive from spectator the separated stage Please revisit index forcopy of the visitor pamphlet. Spectacle is often refered to as a place of gravity in the discussion of memorial of inthediscussion gravity as aplaceof to is refered often Spectacle the become itself has environment physical total the interviews, the to According 28 CEU eTD Collection that alters the aroma and that offat visitors amaze is touch There and dig intosoundtracks). and with lights theirfingernails. changing of sequences have that car Khrushchev the and uniforms revolving (like by them directed are one as change and move that objects visual are There experiences. their narrating victims with excerpts interview showing screens TV are There rooms. ofthe soundtracks background 31 with comments of the rooms and objects that we are discussing. religious space-time structure of the exhibition is remarkable. Please revisit the appendix forvisual illustrationsspeculate on its intentionality the homology betweenwhat I may call the religious narrative of history and the 30 44 29 1 smells. and sounds installations, screens,pictures, onTV people by memories of ordinary are companioned descent. This is an emotional journey redemption towards sufferingthrough on which visitors exhibition space, around which a one-directional route is organized asacircular movement of (Panofsky, 1957). structures or libarints with particular focus on movement, emotional and sensory intelligence structure. exhibition has areligious allforeign, sensual spaces.These are awkward, claustrophobic spaces that bodiesour feel.of in ofitsjustlies the inideasbutalsoexperience not power museums affective presence. This Examples ofHistory courtyard cells, room, gulag basement the example for in voids empty The cells. prison in the isolation and creepiness loneliness, the example representation,meaning production The events. embodiesand visitor for symbolization of this physical dimension can lead us question to that memorythe space isfundamentally about 1998:194).Awarenesskinesthetic, qualities hepatic (Kirschenblatt-Gimlett, and intimate of museums are visceral, the with concerned history, theatrical environments and contemplating focus. museum’s the whobecomes is visitor the exhibitionis the focuscourtyard The around. that onthe objectrevolves it and thus decreasing st There are audio tracks on the televisions blurring with songs and narratives in addition to the solemn only can I therefore and exhibition the designed who artist the with talk to chance the have did not I While Please revisit the Visual Narrative forillustration and commentary floor justfloor after theinstallation of enormousthe underground glowing cross,and the exile From the perspective of spatial and temporal organization the House of of Terror House organization the and temporal spatial of From perspective the learning museum and asaplaceof viewingdesigned memorial curated Beyond the 30 31 One finds a massive soviet tank spectacle at the center of gravity of the The visitors’ movement along the narrative path in that they refer to absence of someone and something rather than a One can for example refer to medieval spiraling church 29 in in museum the are a way also . is however halted on the on halted however is CEU eTD Collection 45 not offered on the end of the 1 andsufferingA of Hungarianbishopthe andchurch. courtyard an is stairway exitto or experience of how one copes in the these spaces and circumstances are interesting in relation interesting are andcircumstances in how copes one spaces these the of experience the body language of others in the elevator as “not knowing how to cope.” The remarks and on the bodies their of directionality the explained also interviewee The watching. continue but it that said wasHe like one TV. of those films the thatyou on do not want to watch;memory you turn away at times andexecution hesitate, the with ride elevator the to itself, medium the to directly referred interviewee one instance, for asafilm, Terror of House the at experience of the compared parts Someinterviewees 1970). outside space(Turner, and between or time ride, be as experienced appropriatelyperhaps or extended, more movementexplained as this can be taken as a technique words, other In aesthetic affect. them to connects such imagesentail that specific receptivity to make the three and linear time” of “take arrest visual up often close image the of half minute (in linear Theaffect medical by a doctor. deceased clinically appeared until victim the victims the throat time) elevator mechanismsphysical in of actions yanking executioner’s the of rope gallowsthe the to tied facejanitor of whoa formerexplained the of procedure in executions to the detail down should watch or look away or turnthemselves monitorinside in a TV relation Visitorsdidto elevator. notknow if the they their body awaydirect or cope to how know from not did themselves the around others TV and they where showing experience a close up of the was about around toturn andleave Many the tour. interviewees inan expressed retrospect wait for the elevator a nerve packed into ride theOne syrupfrom slow elevator intervieweethe downstairs. Sweden called wrecking experience soundtrack of disturbingis clicking sounds before turned onand asmany visitors as possible are the cells in the basement,awkward bodily experience of a foreignand and claustrophobicshe space. The lights are turned off, a The elevator is perhaps the clearest example of intentionally giving a frame for an st floor exhibition maze, only the dark elevator. dark the only maze, exhibition floor according to Bal,to the and according CEU eTD Collection 46 Please view: http://terrorhaza.hu/en/exhibition/basement/reconstructed_prison_cell.html additional cellars of the labyrinth were dug into earth.the that be excluded cannot it Nevertheless, cellars. the under found were floors ofadditional signs no rebuilt, was blindfolded) recollection, many suspected thatthe building’s cellarsystem several had floors. When the house Andrássy Boulevard 60. People diedfrombeatings andfromsuicide). Basedtheir(victims on where who Vác and later to 33 the prison onoffers she or he Kozma how to ofattending states. those expression requires but beliefs or Street,of sensations terms in be handled cannot activity which was used32 until 1985 (No executions were carried out at place neverHouse of Terror. atthe actually took Room with gallows. Paradoxically,an to Execution beingescorted visitor with the is ride connected elevator duringthe execution the House of Terror After walkingthrough prisonthe cellsinterrogation and the memory rooms, description the of website reveals that claustrophobic space,andhowit becomes embodiedinexperience. through memories our the executions of a of a creation example Thisis another stand upright. is forced to one small that wouldneverforget thefeeling she beinggot of inside acell with closed door the isthat so to recreate the sensetorture and suffering plays on different foulof smelling cells in whichisolation you can steep into in order andoccasional clang of a prison despair.door or arant of a demagogue. The basement, this profane hell of by interrupted music solemn A of sound Finish the terror: subjective into material historical on woman I interviewedmore based past fascistand communist of narrative from basement, dark into the descended said that she Theyhave exitelevator. whenvisitors the fears areconfirmed The narrative. Terror whattodo,thus“trapped in sees and hesitates affect”. visitor The coincidessubjectivity. with that action andthe between perception set relationship a temporarily images present Affect (Bal,2008:35). emerges affectdo, to what about hesitate to House of Terror web-site explaining the Gallows: We placed a gibbet here, which belonged Charles Altieri (2003:49) in toa negative definitioncompromises the the ofrange mental states inprison which anagent’s in Bal’s findings on affect: between a perception that troubles us and the action that we The elevator descending to the basement is what I call the climax of the House of House of the climax isthe I call what basement the descending to The elevator 33 32 CEU eTD Collection experience. experiencebe appearstobodily draining, and muchless a provoking andthoughtful reflexive 47 subconscious desire to return to the time inwhich the trauma occurred in order to mentally enact it. 36 “reconstructed” as veritablea underworld of physicalpain and suffering.were respect this in basement The cellar. concrete a in torture physical of objects rusty or room dark a 35 not being able to make sense of muchof the rest. experience would be sad, but she was touched only by some parts of it (the narratives on the television screens),34 basement. in the torture-chambers reconstructed the impulsesphysical.instant abound emotions triggering Direct andreach theirclimax around itwas exhausting. added that that which never ceasesWilliams makes it clear thatif something is stay to in memory ithas be to burned in:to “only hurt stays in the memory.” Lázár, Imre 1996, (Jackson, fused been have earth the of body the and body human the how on done been incan be space generated interior the being.libidinal of and visceral forhave example Studies meaning social that us reminds etc.) guilt martyrs, victims, angst, isolation, torture, suffering, primordial aspects asequally be understood can Sociality perhaps 2002). and embodiment country (Bennet: of human from andalienation pain, terror arediscomfort, Topics remembers. body also the words, subjectivity.so much in a cognitive declarativebut fashion, in isone that bodily and sensory,in other Jackson indicates physical in interview my answers isin line with study the of trauma thatwedonot remember how reference the on emphasis narrative. The of Terror House the of theteller of approach the understand to pain (terror, One can also referto repetitioncompulsion by Freud. Effective display would release in survivors a museum the that expected New York from a woman rule, this from exception partial one was There One needs certain distancing whenfaced withsuch powerful emotional triggers as six (“authentic”) gallows in All of our respondents characterized their experience as emotional and some of them of some and asemotional experience their characterized respondents our All of and /nj se, Agita. 2007).Such notions could accountfor why Houseof the Terror 34 Exhaustion is somewhat understandable and not strictly not and understandable somewhat is Exhaustion 36 35 This is perhaps one of the ways to Following Friedrich Nietzsche, Friedrich Following CEU eTD Collection 48 analogous in manner, atto the have looked this, interviewee the I experience a processual makes performance that madeis made:andit to adding or such theater In are things them. experiences 1986:380).Forlike narrative, lives visitor, the struggle, outline(Geertz, our howeverwe that, narratives andcategories into prototype/readymade the andits assimilation andothers, itto ourselves werecollect as replay interpretive its event an between experience”: “typical to this elaborated Abrahams of experience.” a“structure Dilthey whatcalled inrock a Zen fromsand stands out garden and evenness the of passing hours years andforms experience” is simply the passive endurance of and acceptance of events. An experience like a museum and experienced by visitor. the with built has is which narrative in.isa structure emotion bythe anarrative that performed It of narrative pastandthe presentisframed bywhatLakoff calls a heroandvillain cultural This the Houseof total foreign whohadvisited the interviewees for narrative Terror. total a be on aconsensus however to appeared There narratives. historical avariability of rather Hungary, in myth national and memory socialist and fascist the on consensus be a to not (Rev, of There appearshowever Terror 2007). speech atthe opening House the ceremony of narrative. andthe of architect artist the agency of and Performance 3. end/reintegration) liminal/climax, phases and of (beginning/separation, narrative different spatial experience, from sensory Embodiment 2. others and oneself to re-narration narrative, experience, another of follow, experience relive/reenact, experience, of embeddedness experience: interviewee Conclusion Turner differentiates between “mere experience” and “an experience.” “Mere and“an betweenexperience.” “mere experience” differentiates Turner Victor Orban stated “we that have locked the past behindbars” when he heldhis In study this haveI been overthefollowing:going 1.The form processual of the CEU eTD Collection a “Structure of Experience,” in form of a “statue of terror” framed in from its of terror” form by bladewallsa “Structure the of a “statue of Experience,” embodied they in which “an experience,” with rest the “mere experience,” exception with one corresponds Terror of House the at experience visitor The andspectacle. art agencyof affect, Kapferer points out as an “experience of another’s experience.” another’s of as an“experience out points Kapferer narrative. from ideaof House Terror the by evoked elementary the created indexes.curators its One isfor sure: thing compelling force cognitive hidesin dissonance the and artists hidden the of agency the from derives which enchantment and affect readymade, people, or suffering, by accompanied snippets of sensory affective memory monitorson by TV everyday role; victims’ isolation,experience of theHungarian (people’s) experience suppression and 49 1986. Bruce. Kapferer, see: Please different meanings. to coming and world experienced the on standpoints take simultaneously they as experience, of subjective being) all humans in essential is but possessed, the of state existential (the solitude from freed is participant every that is rite of the affect the that argues he addition In participant. other any for mean might it what understand to comes and meaningful personally rite the renders “victim” possessed the just (not participant given any 37 roundabout technology in goalin achieving this This as, visitor. the process I denote room in visual narrative), and following Gellisindex’s the and narrativethe path curator’sthe Farewell (please revisit curators set bythe metaphorical object and goal established intended a pre- leads to that steps procedural of acquisition the is them; directing with that a path familiar themselves make and light the into stepping are visitors the where action embodied apposed to as interviewees, by articulate the to difficult “know hasproved which knowledge andperformative how” orspace Walking abeginning, form isin with andend. this climax path away of procedural declarational in itsas movementprocessual form, being on directed narrativethe pathand in performance knowledge.seeks to follow. The experience of the interviewees at the House of Terror must be understood This planin them, narrative is whichthe processual of of path which offeredthe to paper this part is a sense of kinesthetic and Bruce Kapferer in discussing Sinhala exorcism shows how it is through performance as embodied experience embodied as performance through is it how shows exorcism Sinhala discussing in Kapferer Bruce The interviewed visitors’ experience is during this process to a largewhat degree process to this isduring experience The interviewedvisitors’ Examples ofHistory Performance and the Structuring of Meaning and Experience embodied in representingobjects memory, and sensatory 37 The visitors follow, take the . In Situ , CEU eTD Collection museum and memorial site has on the visitors consciousness in terms of embodiment in experience and art’s affect in understandingour andmeaning making of experience to embodiment of terms in consciousness visitors the on has site memorial and museum the of emotion narrativefusedwith inframed acultural ideas and leading spaces, objects techniques,in but also terms of understanding influencethe both of information,sensory interview of context the for only not implications has This abench. on or interview as a walking street on the is conducted interview departureof the and atmosphere total the our asby a has passed momentduring and ifatemporal whole: understanding of tropes special and experience its with narrative on beaconsensus to appears what from deviate to starts that in re-narration movements showing answers interpretive indicating interviews coming terms to with in narrative the visual andparts, tropes historicaldisplay, data.My upon their finding experience,intersubjectively inabsence of meaning, cognitively when whereasmany thatreflections, indicated individuals they would needmore time toreflect descriptions and gaveabstract more ofthegroup subjects insome cases asawhole, narrative the and experiences their on consensus finding collectively narrative, the of experience own re-narrationthe where moregroups dynamicin intersubjectively finding meaningfor their experience” from for example another of being“experience the in accompaniedintersubjectively this indicate byInterviewees the experience. other TV memories of suffering. In intersubjectively and bycomparison come tomeaning, is that emergent, out of our in ownbecoming,we engage of Torren and and others being processes our the following movements in andindicate re-narration: mediations also The interviews narration. “typical experience” which relates back to the common experiences and experiences in re- “the Cold Warto Experience.” relation 50 on sharing acommon history: depending interviewees Experience” inthe “Typical terms of landscape. In of urban rest the An extension of “the experience of another experience” during the narrative is the narrative the during experience” another of experience “the of extension An Sterile andLivedHistory inexperiencing isin exhibition the CEU eTD Collection 51 can in serve as a keyhole endeavor. of this House Terror have my I andothers. here experience toargue atthe ourselves of aimed thatthe interviewees CEU eTD Collection 52 Appendix: A Visual Ethnography theHouseofTerrorof CEU eTD Collection between the metal metal framebetween the andof building. historical the the architecture themes and their symbols throughout the museum.The façade is dominated by a clash is meaning like the structure of a joke. This is the first of an array of examples of clashes of jokea because notamuse. it itsdoes symbolism of Thestructure anduses comparison double pictures clearly impacts how the object at hand is felt and how meaning is made. In reference to my 53 of oftheFaçade Captures Two The HouseofTerror is presented and framed like an inverted form of humor. It is not The House of Terror The Facade : The curator’s framing of an object CEU eTD Collection 54 24. PostSocialist Politics ofMemory, Commemorationand Past:TheFarwell Room 23. 22. 21. 20. 19. 18. 17. 16. 15. 14. 13. 12. 11. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Signifier and theSignified Objects: Instruments of Violence Prison Cell in theBasement Cell with Gallows Unmasked Terror: Recreation and Immortalization of Terror andCommemorationKitsch ofVictims Fighting for Freedom Totalitarian Kitsch Totality of Bricks, Light Square with Belongings and the Temporal Freeze Church Room and TheHungarian history andnational identity creation? The Houseof Terror Narrative andSzabadsag Ter Arrow Cross and Conceptual Installations Concept: Phone Computer and Phones Technological interaction: Labor and Production:PigFat Maze andPile of Rock Installation Socialist Spaces and Installations: RedAssembly Room and GulagRoom Portrait Theme VandSocialist Space,Installation andeveryday life&VI Portrait Theme IV Portrait Theme III The main narrative of the House of Terror and Portrait Theme II Theme I Commemoration Portrait and Installation Trademark interior Spectacle Socialist Spaces:Cafeteria andlocationfor Interviews Description: Comments onFaçade Cover Page: Façade Table of Contents CEU eTD Collection 55 narrative. take note of in relation to later findings of a-historical and religious aspects of the museums in their and audiotracks impression our funeral-likeof experienceinteresting were signsto timelessness of Their self-definition art. undertakers’ of the inthedirection goes movements” by dark according to their webpage “timeless scoring for string orchestra in multiple incommunist focus. star My observation entrance this of with visualthis impression coupled House of Terror with two stone tablets with the symbols of the arrow cross and the How to kill two Stones with one Bird: Entrance to the House of Terror Illustration of the entrance hallway of the of hallway entrance the of Illustration CEU eTD Collection 56 ourselves. and interviewees the both for atmosphere more for comfortable a facilitate to in order building the outside interviews last the conducted I interview visitors. to best environment the notthiswas whether or questioning here,interviewingAfter several Istarted guests caserns. visiting inarmy rooms interviews.our Oneguest said room the that herof reminded of interior the waiting and Illustration oftheCafeteria(from Website): Socialist Spaces where we conducted the majority majority of the whereweconducted CEU eTD Collection 57 adult visitors. the was surprising to spectacle youngvisitorsand we talked to, The tank was popularthe themeamong ofthe the ofexhibition gravity rests.is center a clear There is residing. where dark slimy inpool whichthe tank the symbolbackground, andmirrored in are a of on the 4 displayed are story victims of multitude highrailingbars. Portraits showing a wall red the inthrough perspectives floor the museum seen from the 2 of and the point gravitation Theme I: Commemoration Portrait Spectacle Installation and Trademark interior Illustration of the vocal nd and 3 rd CEU eTD Collection 58 The newandtotal narrative oftheHouseTerror transitional justice. transitional or commissions truth of function the approximates also room This victimizers. of frames portraits blank are There visitor. the on effect overwhelming whole hashowever an multitudeout in this presentation, the issingled Nobody basement. ofthe in walls red bright pictureson commemorated, also is victimizers the of Illustration II: as Theme Portrait a Hungarians. of suffering collective which can translate into victims, of numbers high singled out. The focus isare on Hungarians a individual no is atheme where This main narrative CEU eTD Collection 59 change andchange politics. history, in understanding time for fragmentation and reflexive possibility the dismisses agency and affect narrative’s and concept This visualoverwhelming and evil. of whitegood categories black and the under are placed history besides the portraits that of hereasawitness examples nois focus individual on There victims. vs. victimizers of of totality is a concept and display narrative This past. Hungarian and Andrassythey 60,violence had to thedisplayedrelationship andwhat mentionNazino however are There displayed. are that portraits the over orvictimizers or victims of category a indicated is Socialist it display this of why they are Portrait Theme Portrait III: In CEU eTD Collection 60 the number displays. picture increase of to face uniform anattempt is ablankdark choiceThis perhaps using forcommemorating odd with display “pictures” anonymblank had faceincasesthat they an no picture. presumably to also decided have museum the and curator The Hungary. in regimes Nazi and Communist Portrait Theme IV: The outside is in covered of portraits presumably victims of the CEU eTD Collection 61 what their relationshipportraits. There was confusion among us researchers and visitors about whois portrayed to and onethe roomof andthe Hungary’scells inpast the is. basement.On the bottom youThe see walls another in a few of the cell walls are covered with Portrait Theme V and Space andeverydayPortrait ThemeVandSpace life&VI: The top picture is taken from taken is picture top The CEU eTD Collection 62 differences. explanation. Interpretations could be of different rooms in the house or social class offering howeverwith no many followingassociations, again explanation without installations are onpodiums and Thedesks resistance. Socialistterror, speaking about emotional Hungarians the upfacesof close showing clips narrative screens.These on TV the suppression narrativeon clip Thereisa information. is scarceeducational very of room that Socialist Spaces and Installations Space assembly Space box.] of the pull quote text formatting the change Text Box Tools tab to the Use document. in the anywhere box text the position can interesting point. You summary of an or the document [Type a quote from the USSR in the space of the room. former of vastness the feel that he could found that interviewee Gulag. the visitor travels to One train car on a map,We inthink which thea wholebeing without amusing. the roomuses irony, conveyingmeaning of simulateson the wall of the room below and heroism.” a glory,of valor matter and matter of honor, matter of and seats. podium size child miniature a and leaders ofstate portraits distorted with material wood sheet quality assembly made out of poor an and front in the cells voting Red Space: “Labor in the USSR is a The quote waswritten Thequote Communist CEU eTD Collection 63 CEU eTD Collection 64 rationalize in a museal context. museal in a rationalize cannot they that and them to familiar isinstallations that and not concepts from spectacles of bewilderment visitors are caught in moment of installations: many other the of pictures, both In peasant. the of experience the as well supposed toresemble memory of the is thefat casemightpig through maze visitors The state. withbe an experiencethe for production and labor with picturesroom.both Ithink deal that that isthe in explanation any not however Hungarian mining. Thereis silver installation is wethink what of surface. onthe nails fromand texture scratching their smell,visualus aboutthe appearance effect on the senses. Interviewees told first torture room, and as piga repulsive fat. ThisProduction: maze is next after the The second picture is an Installations onLabor and To the left is of To theamaze left CEU eTD Collection 65 visited Budapest. he when Khrushchev Nikita original and was object, used by is an Car the that out found I Later car. veiled the and lights flicking the explained that information this where by thoroughly confused room,interviewees Our center. the and is in central object a veiled car, could The etc. music, codes speeches, notlike Hungarian in material audio find historical them give will that numberup the receiverand dial a can pick visitor wall. leftThe the concept of black telephones on web page. computers hold similar info as the These resource. this utilize Visitors reported that they did informationvisitor computer. a of illustration an exception, is an left the To interaction. individual little for allows interaction: The rooms below have a have below rooms The Technological The narrative path Thenarrative CEU eTD Collection 66 phone. for carvedoutshelf the inside also tiles the newThere are clean isolation. of affect the increases This upstairs. case the as was someone and reach cells prison pick upthereceiver, butis abledialnot to a numberfrom basementthis phone nextto the dimension. This is of one thatarefound concepts the themuseum. throughout Thevisitor can Concept of visitor interaction: This is ready made socialist phone, with a nostalgic CEU eTD Collection 67 The Arrow Cross and Conceptual Installations sides of the same coin. socialist period where two the fascist period and the terror and suppression that of as history narrative interpretation and new here isthe concept Another like ghosts. around rotating are they as artificially life given wearing them, and are was person invisible however displayed as if an are uniforms communist andcross The arrow Nazi party dinner room. uniform display from the the of continuation area uniforms Left Bottom: from. wax museums benefited which art” “undertakers’ the of extension asan understood deathlike, and canbe presentsomething they that interpretation display. Iagree with his in museum dummies objected useof the to Boas Franz landscape. film going across a background of birdview the in a projection also is There facial features. with projected face, but end of the table without a dummy standing at the The participants. dinner or listeners Hungarian suggesting absence of demagogue rant, background with a in the soundtrack audio an isparty accompanied by attendantof dinnerthe only The symbol. with an unidentified “V” dining room table, plates our interviewees. The us andwas amystery to installation Hungary. The Nazi occupation of room designated for the Left above : is the only the rotating CEU eTD Collection 68 regime. The story has however a happy ending in the Farwell Room. byatotalitarian occupation another clearly butas of Nazism, liberators as communists hold forgivehenarrative whatsocialiststhe inHungary.did does not can This the whether crying, asheiscontemplating state, upof in an victim TV with emotional a a close entrance hall,next to the cloakroom entrance of the House of Terror is the visitor faced by a freedom foughtfrom forwho and that they sufferedcommunism, and prosperity.the In victims the past, the with terms to coming is on narrative Terror of House in the emphasis Bolshevik victim whom where for fighting freedom Hungary and liberated from Nazism. The the commemorates Terthat Szabadsag the at manifested narrative from the is view different revolving Naziand communist on illustrated uniforms previousthe This page. new narrative and issymbolically expressed most noteworthy by means ofvisual installations like the of Fascism and Nazism and victimizers and ofvictims The narrative as of Terror. by theHouse narrative created to the two sides of the same coin in and forforeground embassy the abackdrop backgroundasaninteresting option American is consistentthe in memorial its with square liberty the find I however throughout Terror; of House the from not also the museum, is below This picture asliberators. where portrayed Communists had wherethe anarrative An interviewee explained how the VI district Synagogue (illustrated above) she VIdistrict the (illustrated how Synagogue visited An interviewee explained The House ofTerror andAlternative Narratives Narrative CEU eTD Collection 69 magazine pictures,report in 1956, 26-45. 38 fighters. bytherevolution massacred and where theysurrendered, after headcounters committee party thecommunist of came out who men AVH defeated the of and pictures “victimizers,” below,on illustrated 1956revolution,the lynchingand massacreof public of AVH workers Please see John Sadovy “[…] the fighting really began to flare up, Hungary’s fight for freedom: a special life Yet another alternative narrative is George Sadovy’s photo narrative for Life narrative magazine Sadovy’s photo isGeorge narrative another alternative Yet 38 CEU eTD Collection 70 new Millenium Rev, Istvan. 2008. 47-89 see: please context historical its and narrative Sadovy’s on information more For basement is on the right hand side at the end of the room. unveiled underneath the wooden floor covering. The hallway to the elevator ride to the background of display the an of bishoporiginal robe,and illuminatedan crosswhich hasbeen inthe Megaphones of set be One obvious. to appeared one second the explain, and Church Room: . Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Toronto of University Toronto: . (Re) Visualizing National History: Museums and National Identities in Europe in the There are two installations, the first one our interviewees could not CEU eTD Collection execution room. execution is ared but visual direction the from visitor, the interpretation for facilitates in that flag the isvoid a There ahole has or created. of Terror House the that as asymbol of narrative the also perhaps but asawhole, anation symbol of theis strongest perhaps installation and part of an 71 The Hungarian history andnational identity creation ? The readymade object is The readymade object CEU eTD Collection 72 CEU eTD Collection 73 Totalitarian Kitsch CEU eTD Collection 74 fascism. and socialism of victims the commemorate to intended is presumably sticks metal black kitsch as a ready made posture. This sign for the red room filled with lights on the end of “Koennyek Terme” or “The hall of tears” is another example we give that has a banality of Kitsch and Commemoration ofVictims Fighting for Freedom-Kitsch Scull and Sign: CEU eTD Collection something rather than a presence. than rather something of absence an is The void symbolizing floor. concrete the faucet on the fallingfrom water visitor, butalso acoldThe emotional in audio soundtrack effect. is room this of of drops in the confusion maze. cancause This fat before pig the and restrooms to the next place, 75 Recreated Prison Cell on the 1 the on Cell Prison Recreated Unmasked Terror: Recreation and Immortalization of Terror st floor: Thisis another room that appears beto out of CEU eTD Collection 76 Cell with Gallows: placeAndrassy at 60. it clearof Terror website however makes that nodown to the basement.executions The House phase the takingelevator visitors took a liminal what canbe as described hanging in on a TV elevator, the by executions about narrative a however is There etc. sounds looked like,actually smelled, not, what the cells and basement or inthebasement where gallows there not clearwhether words isat Andrassy in 60.It other reconstruction, until isa 1985. It not butexecute political prisoners used to was not usedfrom the Budapestgift is a “this reads: It Hungarian. prison. It was in is only and entrance cells and onlyvisible from the outside small very is sign The history. its and designated was it whom for from, came it where explaining that had a small label briefly Below: an example of an object is roped of from the visitor. gallows the that fact the in irony certain gallows humor in the there is a CEU eTD Collection 77 feeling of fare she got when she visited inside the cell. position.upright A intervieweeFinnish recalled Ispoke to she that neverforget would the Prison Cell in the Basement: A cell where the prisoner would have had to stand in an stand to had have would prisoner the where A cell CEU eTD Collection 78 Objects: Instruments ofViolence Instruments Objects: CEU eTD Collection 79 time. socialist of Hungary’s narrative andthe museum experience the about confusion overall an to contribute displays of kinds these that suggest interviews they underassembled objects buildingby aconcept Our observations curator? the and exhibition and the narrative of socialism in Hungary. Are tothe important are they of theywhy orindication relation any coherent without display same the originals to Andrassy 60 or are in a labelare gathered that objects without of examples the are above shown pictures On the Signifier and theSignified however back dated to1948. documenton gallows the is 1956revolution.the The after retribution communist roomobjects and documents in the willthe that indicates sign This with object. the correspond dealA sign that does not with the CEU eTD Collection revitalization has emerged from the suffering of the past. national of era a new and circle, full comes path narrative The Communism. and Cross of the museum, they walk again and flags On Hungarian Houseof announcingpast theopeningof Terror. the visitors’ the way out the marble stone and the twothat it was Orban whotombstones had the museum built and the last TV image shows an enormous crowd of the Arrow canread in visitor the marble entrance in stone the the At 2002. general elections Hungarian the before just communism, of victims the to Day Memorial new the on Terror of House the loaded up on train cars. The last TVshows Victor Orban speaking atthe opening ceremony of spectacle) are asthepoint gravitation (used where tanks troops the soviet withdrawal of 80 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HBD5XScqZw 39 demanded from thetroops Soviet withdrawal of Hungary. Post Socialist Politics of Memory, andPast: Commemoration TheFarwell Room Clip from Imre Nagy’s reburial and Orban’s speech on Youtube: on speech Orban’s and reburial Nagy’s Imre from Clip Visitors can watch videos of the reburial ceremony Imreof Nagy,where Victor Orban 39 The opposite wall show the CEU eTD Collection tárgybemutatás, tárgybemutatás, emlékm Frazon, Zsófia and Horváth K. Zsolt. 2002. "A megsértett magyarország : a Terror Háza mint Fernandez, James. 1982. Fernandez, James. 1974. Dufrenne, Mikel. 1973. andDreyfuss, Kelly, Herbert 2011, Sean. Mary, Douglas, Damasio, AntonioDamasio, R. c1994,1998, Brunner, Edward, 1986, Brunner,In Edward, Boym, Svetlana. 2001. Methods Bernard, Russell.2002. Bernard, Alan.2000 Berger, John. 1983. Bennet, Jill. 2002. Art, Affect and the bad Death: strategies in communicating the sense of Bella, Robert. 2006. Anderson,1983. Benedict. 81 Bal, 2008. Mieke. Abrahams, Roger. 1986. in Bibliography University University Press. of of Illinois159-187. Press. Pp. Northwestern University Press. Published NewYork:Avon Books. Find Meaningina Secular Age Press. Pp.139-155. memory loss. Signs 28.1 Europe inthenew Millenium Press, Pp.45-94. of nationalism : AltaMira Press. Natural Symbols:Explorationsin Cosmology. (Re) Visualizing National History: Museums and National Identities in Once inEuropa . HistoryandTheoryin Anthropology The Robert Bellah Reader. Robert Bellah The . The Future ofNostalgia The PhenomenologyofAesthetic Experience Research Methodsin Anthropology: QualitativeandQuantitative Ħ Biwiti: on Ethnography Religious ImaginationinAfrica The Mission ofMetaphor in Expressive Culture. és politikai és rítus." Imagined communities: reflectionson the originsand spread the Anthropology ofExperience The Anthropology ofExperienceThe Anthropology . New York: Pantheon. Descartes' error: emotion,reason,andthehumanbrain Descartes' error: . Toronto: University of Toronto Press. , Simons Adult andSchuster Publishing Group. All Things Shining: Reading theWestern Classics to Regio . Basic Books. London: DukeUniversity Press. 4:303-347. . . Chicago: University of Illinois . Chicago: University of Illinois of University Chicago: . . Evanston, Ill.: Chicago: University . Princeton , CEU eTD Collection Kenneth Liberman, Giolo Fele, Vincenzo D’Andrea, Gian Marco Campagnolo, Ylenia Curzi, and healing sacral communication, Lázár, Imre Press. of Chicago University Lakoff, George. 2002. Lakoff, George. challenge toWestern thought c1999. andJohnson,Lakoff, George Mark. University of California Press. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. 1998. James, Beverly Ann. 2005. anthropology Michael. 1996. Jackson, Narratives. Jackson, Michael. 1982. Jackson, Ira. 1985.Jackson, Ira. University Press University 82 Lowenthal, 1998. David. Anthropological Institute. Layton, Robert. 2003. “Art and Agency: A Reassessment.” in Conversations with Kenneth Liberman, 2009(582KB).pdf Gianluigi Viscusi - Phenomenology and the Social Study of Information Systems: Martin Heidegger, Harrison, Rodney. 2006. “An Artefact of Colonial Desire? Kimberley Points and the Gell, 1998 Alfred. Gell,Alfred. 1992.The Revolution edited by G. W. Stocking: The University Wisconsinof Press. of Anthropology. Row, 1962 89. Technologies of CurrentAnthropology Enchantment” Volume 47,Number 1.pp.63- Index" the of "The Involution on section especially the Clarendon. Anthropology, ArtandAesthetics Bloomington: Indiana University Press. and edited by Indiana Bloomington: Published University Press. /nj : Texas University Press. : TexasUniversity . Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory se, Franz Boasand the Exhibits: On theLimitations ofthe Museum Method Being andtime. Agita. 2007. Technology of Enchantmentandthe of Technology in Allegories of theWilderness: and Ethics Ambiguity in Kuranko Moral politics: how liberals and conservativesMoral politics:howliberals think and The Heritage Crusade theSpoilsof and History Vol. 9No3,pp. 447-464. Objects andothers: essaysonmuseums and materialculture Imagining post communism: visualnarratives Hungary's 1956 of Things as they are: new inphenomenological new directions theyare: Things as . New York : Basic Books. . Newcastle, UK : Cambridge Scholars. Cosmologies of suffering: post-communist transformation, Oxford; San Francisco: Blackwell: Harper & Destination culture: tourism, museums,andheritage . J. Coote and A. Shelton, eds. pp. 40–66. Oxford: Philosophy inthe the flesh: embodied mindand its the JournalofRoyal . Oxford: Clarendon. See . Cambridge . Chicago: , . In : CEU eTD Collection in Europe the new Millenium Rev, Istvan.47-89 2008. Nijhoff.The Haugue:Martinus Rasmussen, DavidM. 1971. Books. Meridian Panofsky, Ervin. 1957. Press. Illinois of University andVictor Turner, 1986. Brunner,Edward. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Turner, Victor. 1974. Dramas, Fields and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society. 83 1970.Turner, Victor. London: Routledge. 1956. Friedrich. Nietzsche, 33. The Theories ofMihaly Csikszentmihalyi andAlfred Schutz Neitz, Mary and Spichard, James. 1990. Theorists JerryMore, D. 2004 UK. Newcastle, SacralTransformation, Communication, andHealing Luse, Agita and Lazar, Imre. 2007 Toren, Christina. 1999. University Press. Nortwestern Eavenston: Maurice.Merleau-Ponty, 1962. Collecting 2007. McIsaac, Peter. Europe. Nalepa, Monika. 2009. Press. Oakeshott, Michael. 1933. Francis Golffing :Doubleday. PublishedNewYork Merleau-Ponty, Maurice.Merleau-Ponty, 1964. Ruthledge. New York : Cambridge University Press. , Second Edition. New York: Altamira Press. . University . University University Park PA: ThePennsylvaniaState Press. . VisonsofCulture: An Introduction toAnthropological Theories and The Forest ofSymbols Museums the of Mind: German Modernityandthe Dynamics of Gothic architecture andscholasticism. Skeletons in the Closet: Transitional Justice inPost-Communist Mind, materiality,andhistory: explorationsinFijianethnography (Re)Visualizing National History: Museums and NationalIdentities Experience anditsModes The birthoftragedy and the genealogyofmorals Mythic-Symbolic Language andPhilosophical Anthropology . Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Phenemenology of Perception From MausstoLevi-Strauss . Cosmologies of Post-communist Suffering: Steps Toward aSociologyof Religious Experience: The AnthropologyExperience of . Ithaca: Cornell University. Cornell . Ithaca: . Cambridge: Cambridge University . Cambridge Scholar Publishing, . InSociological Analysis 51:1 15- . In , trans. C. Smith. London: Published New York : PublishedNew York Signs , trans. R.C. McCleary. . Chicago: , translated by , translated . . CEU eTD Collection Atrocities. Williams, Paul. 2007. integration European 84 Young and2007, Light, Moral Value”, In Stoltzfus, Michalel. 2003. Alfred Schutz: “Trancendence, Symbolic Intersubjectivity, and Davidtrans. Northwestern(Evanston: Lachterman University 137.Press, 1973), Scheler, Max. Society. Rehabilitation of Skill Van Yolanda.Ede, 2009. NewYork: Berg Publishing. Selected PhilosophicalEssays Human Studies ”, in Heritageand ”, Media in Europe. . Anthropological 15(2): 61-75. Notebooks Slovene Anthropological Memorial Museums: theGlobalGoldRushtoCommemorate “ Sensuous Anthropology: Sense andSensibility andthe Communist heritage tourism: between economic development and development economic between tourism: heritage Communist 26:183-201. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. , "Phenomenology and the Theory of Cognition,"