EXCAVATING FREYTAG’S PYRAMID NARRATIVE, IDENTITY AND THE MUSEUM VISITOR EXPERIENCE David William Francis 2019 UCL Research Degree: Institute of Archaeology Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1 I, David William Francis, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Abstract In this thesis, I attempt to trace the thread that links the theoretical concept of narrative to the museum blockbuster exhibition. I adopt a qualitative dialogic approach, exploring the topic of narrative from the perspective of both exhibition makers and museum visitors. Semi-structured interviews with museum professionals provide an insight into the strategies and practices involved in the encoding of narrative in museum exhibitions. Interviews with members of the public reveal how visitors decode exhibition narratives, while also illustrating the role museums play in the stories people tell about themselves. Narrative is a term that is often used in reference to museums but is frequently under-theorised. My case studies – three blockbuster exhibitions held at the British Museum from 2013 to 2015 – each approach the question of how is narrative as a concept relevant in helping us understand the critical issue of the museum from different perspectives. Drawing on the work of the Roland Barthes and the Mikhail Bakhtin, I investigate how concepts taken from literary theory such as plot structure and narratorial perspective might manifests themselves in the space of a museum exhibition. Using the concept of cultural capital taken from the work of the French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, I also explore the role a visitor’s social background and familiarity with museums plays in their decision to follow a narrative or reject it. Two threads run throughout my thesis. One is the use of the term narrative to describe the multimodal, multi-authored nature of museum-making. The other is the role museums play in the construction of narratives about the past. It is in the dialogue between the two narrative threads that this thesis seeks to explore and untangle. 3 Impact statement This thesis aims to contribute to the growing body of research into narrative and exhibition design. Its original contribution to knowledge lies in its dialogic approach, which brings together the accounts of museum makers who create exhibition narratives with the accounts of the visitors who experience them. It also contributes to the increasing level of research into how narrative theory can be applied to non-textual media. In adopting a case study approach, using the British Museum as a case it provides a particular insight into the British Museum’s history during a time when it was undergoing an important period of change under the directorship of Neil MacGregor. This research will therefore be useful to practitioners working within the field of museum-making, as it will allow them to reflect on their exhibition-making practices and how concepts taken from narrative theory can be applied to the interpretation of exhibitions. This is particularly true for myself, as I undertook my thesis part time while working as an interpretation practitioner. As a result, my research fed into my own work and my theories around narrative can be seen as manifested in a number of projects I’ve worked on over the course of the seven-years of the thesis. This includes a series of experimental exhibitions focussing in on single objects in room three of the British Museum, India and the World: A history in the world in nine stories hosted by the CSMVS Museum in Mumbai and Raffles in Southeast Asia hosted by the Asian Civilisation Museum in Singapore. Although the British Museum is my case study, a key aspect of my research has been sharing and contrasting my case with museumscapes and researchers involved in the study of museum narratives. This includes the Centre for Anthropological Research in Museums and Heritage in Berlin and the curatorial training school jointly run by the Beijing Paleozoological Museum and the School for the Study of Architecture and the Built Environment at Nottingham University. Through co-hosting a series of workshops involving both theorists and practitioners, I hope that this has allowed some of my research to filter 4 into both my academic colleagues’ research and fellow interpretation consultants’ practice. I foresee this leading to further dialogue, exchange and collaboration in the future. 5 Contents Abstract 3 Impact statement 4 Contents 6 List of tables 10 Acknowledgements 11 Chapter 1. Introduction 20 1.1 Unpicking the thread 20 Chapter 2. Narrative structure and the museum: critical perspectives 27 Introduction 2.1 Narratology and the quest to define narrative structure 28 2.2 Linearity and non-linearity in the museum 33 2.3 Walking the line 39 2.4 Defining the line 48 2.4.1 Defining the line – Narrative climax 48 2.4.2 Moving narrative forward – binary 52 2.4.3 Pace and dynamism 57 2.5 Objects of desire: Application of narrative theory to museums 62 Summary 64 Chapter 3. Narrative perspective and the museum: critical perspectives 66 Introduction 3.1 The shift towards perspective in narrative theory 67 3.2.1 Bakhtin and the dialogic 74 3.2.2 Museum as dialogic spaces 77 6 3.3.1 Perspective in other media 78 3.3.2 The riposte to narrative – the material turn against narrative 78 3.3.3 Perspective as existing beyond text 83 3.4.1 The multiple lenses of visitor perspective 86 3.4.2 Motivation and identity 91 Summary 103 Chapter 4. Narrative histories: The encyclopaedia and the blockbuster 105 Introduction 105 4.1 The revival of the British Museum 106 4.2 Encyclopaedic museums 109 4.3.1 The blockbuster reborn 121 4.3.2 Narrative perspective and the multimodality of museum exhibitions 127 4.3.3 The visitor, the blockbuster and commerciality 131 4.3.4 Political narratives 139 Summary 142 Chapter 5: Methodology / methods 143 5.1 Research questions 143 5.2 A qualitative case study approach 144 5.3 Research design 148 5.3.1 Selection of micro-cases 149 5.3.2 Recruiting participants 151 5.3.3 Narrative interviews with exhibition makers 151 5.3.4 Episodic group interviews with visitors 153 5.3.5 Observation 155 5.3.6 Documentary sources and reading the exhibition as a text 156 5.4 Ethical considerations and reflexivity 157 5.5 Analysis 157 5.6 Summary 159 7 Chapter 6: Disasters narratives and Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum 160 6.1 The space of the round reading room 161 6.2 The introduction – establishing a structure 166 5.2.1 Visitors and the everyday 171 6.3.1 Digital media and the reconstruction of reality in Pompeii and Herculaneum 178 6.4 Space and the house 183 6.4.1 The house and themes 186 6.4.2 Space and tone: Archaeology and the garden room 190 6.5 The exhibition climax: The death of the cities 194 6.5.1 The exhibition climax and the hermeneutic code 197 6.5.2 Aftermath – alternative endings 206 Chapter 7: Reinterpretation and Vikings: life and legend 213 Introduction 213 7.1 Reinterpretation and narrative 220 7.1.1 Reinterpretation and visitors 226 7.1.2 Reinterpretation and multimodality 231 7.2 Narrative – Journey and Climax 245 7.2.1 The ship as narrative climax 250 7.4 The Vikings and identity 257 7.5 Conclusion 263 Chapter 8: Anti-narrative and Defining Beauty: The body in Ancient Greece 266 Introduction 8.1 What might an anti-narrative approach look like? 266 8.1.1 Interpretation approach – the ekphrastic encounter 269 8.2 Exposition 283 8.2.1. Form into thought and non-linearity 288 8.2.2 Visitor responses to the non-linear space 292 8.3 The ‘turn’ 295 8 8.3.1 The overall narrative: a non-chronological approach 297 8.4 Act three – The shock of the new 303 8.6 Summary 314 Chapter 9 Narrative and the museum visitor: A comparative perspective 316 Introduction 316 9.1 Comparing the demographics of the exhibitions 321 9.2.1 The relationship between family and education 324 9.2.2 Cultural capital and education 327 9.3.1 Cultural capital and narrative 330 9.3.2 Abandoning the narrative 335 9.4 Visitors' own reflections on social class 341 Chapter 10 Conclusion – The end of the thread 347 Introduction 347 10.1 Structure 347 10.2 Perspective 351 10.3 Dialogue 355 10.4 The agency of narrative 358 Appendix 347 Appendix 1: List of staff interviewed for each exhibition 342 Appendix 2: Pompeii and Herculaneum: Visitor group demographic information 343 Appendix 3: Vikings: Life and legend: Visitor group demographic information 345 Appendix 4: Defining Beauty: Visitor group demographic information 346 Bibliography 347 9 List of Tables Table 1: The narrative structure of Labov and Waletzky’s model of oral narratives 50 Table 2: McKee’s (2006) model of the stages of cinematic narrative 55 Table 3: Barthes’ five narrative codes 58 Table 4: Barthes’ (1974) ten-part structure showing the unfolding of the hermeneutic code 61 Table 5: Summative evaluation data 320 Table 6: Breakdown of UK and non-visitor groups featured in my case study 321 Table 7: The frequency of visiting for visitor groups in my case study. 321 10 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Theano Moussouri and Jeremy Tanner for all their hard work and support they have provided throughout the creation of this thesis.