Review of: Anastasio, Matteo and Jan Rhein (eds.): Transitzonen zwischen Literatur und Museum. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2021.Non peer reviewe

Niemi, Sanna-Mari

English

Der Sammelband Transitzonen zwischen Literatur und Museum (Hrsg. Matteo Anastasio und Jan Rhein) stellt ein breites Spektrum interdisziplinärer und intermedialer Ansätze vor, wie sich Literatur und Museum gegenseitig verschränken, reflektieren und bereichern können. Er erforscht die Bedeutung und das Potenzial solcher Konvergenzen sowohl aus der Perspektive des literarischen Erzählens als auch der musealen Praxis. Damit leistet das Buch einen wertvollen Beitrag zur Literatur-, Kultur-, Medien- und Museumswissenschaft.The edited volume Transitzonen zwischen Literatur und Museum (eds. Matteo Anastasio and Jan Rhein) introduces a wide spectrum of interdisciplinary and intermedial approaches to how literature and museums can intertwine, reflect upon, and enrich each other. It explores the meanings as well as potential of such convergences from the perspectives of both literary narrative and museum practices. As such, the book presents a valuable contribution to literary, cultural, media, and museum studies

Journals an der JLU Gießen (Justus-Liebig Universität)

KULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culturejournals.ub.uni-giessen.de/kult-online(ISSN 1868-2855)Issue 65 (May 2022)Exploring the Interrelations Between Literature and MuseumsSanna-Mari NiemiUniversity of Helsinkisanna-mari.niemi@helsinki.fi; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2193-6820Abstract:The edited volume Transitzonen zwischen Literatur und Museum (eds. Matteo Anastasio and  Jan  Rhein)  introduces  a  wide  spectrum  of  interdisciplinary  and  intermedial approaches to how literature and museums can intertwine,  reflect  upon,  and enrich each other. It explores the meanings as well as potential of such convergences from the perspectives  of  both  literary  narrative  and  museum  practices.  As  such,  the  book presents a valuable contribution to literary, cultural, media, and museum studies.Erforschung der Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Literatur und MuseumGerman Abstract:Der Sammelband Transitzonen zwischen Literatur und Museum (Hrsg. Matteo Anastasio und Jan Rhein) stellt ein breites Spektrum interdisziplinärer und intermedialer Ansätze vor,  wie  sich  Literatur  und  Museum  gegenseitig  verschränken,  reflektieren  und bereichern können. Er erforscht die Bedeutung und das Potenzial solcher Konvergenzen sowohl aus der Perspektive des literarischen Erzählens als auch der musealen Praxis. Damit  leistet  das Buch einen wertvollen Beitrag zur Literatur-,  Kultur-,  Medien- und Museumswissenschaft.How to cite:Niemi, Sanna-Mari: “Exploring the Interrelations Between Literature and Museums  [Review of: Anastasio,  Matteo and Jan Rhein (eds.):  Transitzonen zwischen Literatur und Museum. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2021.].“ In: KULT_online 65 (2022).DOI: https://doi.org/10.22029/ko.2022.1288Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 InternationalKULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culture65 / 2022journals.ub.uni-giessen.de/kult-onlineExploring the Interrelations Between Literature and MuseumsSanna-Mari NiemiUniversity of HelsinkiAnastasio,  Matteo  and  Jan  Rhein  (eds.).  Transitzonen  zwischen  Literatur  und  Museum. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2021. 282 pages, 99,95 EUR. ISBN: 978-3-11-069151-1.What can museums bring to the mediation and reception of literature? What kind of hybrid relations,  intermedial  references  and  ‘contaminations’  (Irina  Rajewsky:  Intermedialität. Tübingen and Basel 2002) exist between literature and the museum exhibition medium (p. 4)? Furthermore, what can representations of museums in literature tell us about museums and exhibition practices,  and vice versa? These are the kinds of questions that the edited volume Transitzonen zwischen Literatur und Museum inquires into. Enacting its title of being a transit zone, the book takes its readers on a fascinating journey: the stopping points include writers’ homes and other destinations of literary tourism, artistic and literary exhibitions, and literary works dealing with questions of museal display.Since the so-called “boom in museum studies” emerged around the mid-1980s, the museum exhibition as a (multi-)medium has become a focus of growing interdisciplinary interest (p. 1).  In  the  fields  of  literary  and  cultural  studies,  the  interrelations  between  museums  and literature  have  become  an  interesting  research  topic  as  well.  The  editors  note  that traditionally the topic has been approached through the questions of whether and how the literary can be displayed, and how museums and collecting have been used as a motif in literature, especially in the 19th century (p. 1,  3).  Yet,  the potential of using the toolkit of literary studies to enhance our understanding of museums goes way beyond this — especially when the museum exhibition itself is read as a text, as has been suggested in more recent research  literature.  In  accordance  with  this  view,  the  edited  volume  introduces  new theoretical  and  methodological  approaches  to  establish  “the  museum  or  the  expository dispositive in its entirety as an object of literary study” (p. 3–4, my translation). It takes into  consideration the diversity and artistic creativity behind various exhibition strategies, as well as the semiotic and narrative aspects linked with exhibiting the literary in museums (p. 1, 4).- 1 - KULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culture65 / 2022journals.ub.uni-giessen.de/kult-onlineEdited by Matteo Anastasio and Jan Rhein, the volume includes eleven contributions, eight of which are in German and three in English. The authors come from the fields of literary and cultural  studies,  museology,  and  architecture/scenography,  and  some  have  practical experience around museums and exhibiting. The book is divided into four sections (freely translated from German here): Reading and Writing Exhibitions, Museum Representation and Representation in the Museum, Media Concurrence and Transgression, and Literary Settings and  Exhibition  Spaces.  As  the  titles  evidence,  the  possible  approaches  to  the  theme are manifold,  from  the  processes  of  creating  and  reading  literary  exhibitions  to  reciprocal reflections between literature and museums, and from inter- and transmediality to literary tourism.An  interest  in  (inter-)mediality  (e.g.  Jaeckel,  Rhein),  as  well  as  acknowledging  and appreciating the special  nature of the museum as a narrative environment (e.g.  Bosshard, Schaff, Zeissig) come across as central themes in the contributions. Several authors examine how the embodied, multi-channeled, and spatial nature of the museum exhibition affects the visiting/reading experience, emphasizing for instance the immersive, participatory, and meta-reflexive qualities of reading in museums (e.g. Gfrereis, Ilbrig, Rhein).Through examples  and more in-depth case  studies,  the book introduces a  wide range of interrelations  between  museums and  literature  from across  Europe.  Noting  an increasing convergence between literature and museums in recent years, Jan Rhein takes his examples from France, where several authors have both written about and participated in exhibition practices,  and  where  museums,  including  the  prestigious  Louvre,  have  devoted  special exhibitions to authors and their works (p. 163). As reasons for this development, Rhein names on  the  one  hand  the  expansion  of  practices  of  communicating  and  marketing  literature beyond the printed book, and on the other, the opening of museums towards more creative  exhibition practices with guest curators and rising visitor-centeredness (p. 163). As a result, a discussion has evolved around new transmedial forms of literary narrative, now also created in and through museum space. One way to approach this topic is through the concept of  néolittérature, as suggested by Magali Nachtergael (“Écritures plastiques et performances du - 2 - KULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culture65 / 2022journals.ub.uni-giessen.de/kult-onlinetexte: une néolittérature?”, in:  Le bal des arts:  Le sujet et l’image: écrire avec l’art.  Ed. Elisa Bricco, Macerata 2015, 307–325).Jean-Max Colard introduces another kind of museum-related text type having flourished in France, namely, the exhibition preface that has inspired authors to meditate on the relations between verbal and visual arts since the late 19th century. Colard also brings forth a curious new phase of the exhibition preface, namely, an exhibition that works as a preface in itself. Such a ‘preface-exhibition’ can introduce exhibition programs and encourage a reflection of exhibiting strategies and exhibition texts (p. 32–33).While museums foster physical collections, throughout history museums have also operated on the level  of  imagination.  This  aspect  is  particularly palpable in writer’s  houses,  where literary creation and physical realities of authors’ lives overlap. In their contributions, Maria Gregorio traces a “literary mind map” of Europe’s museums and Matteo Anastasio focuses on relations between literature and the city through Fernando Pessoa’s Lisbon. Sophie Soccard’s exploration  of  Agatha  Christie’s  Greenway and  Barbara  Schaff’s  analysis  of  Jane Austen’s House in Chawton illustrate how writers’  houses utilize  objects,  stories,  architecture,  and embodied  experience  to  bring  visitors  closer  to  authors  and  their  fictional  works.  New materialism and the concepts of resonance (Stephen Greenblatt: “Resonance and Wonder.” Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 43 (4), 1990, 11–34) and authenticity become meaningful tools in their approaches.The edited volume shows that literary studies have plenty to offer to the study of museum exhibitions and their narratives. It thus presents a valuable contribution to literary, cultural, media, and museum studies. As convergences between literature and museums have become increasingly multifaceted in the recent years, there is a lot to discover further. - 3 - 

Exploring the Interrelations Between Literature and Museums

Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto

https://helda.helsinki.fiExploring the Interrelations Between Literature and MuseumsNiemi, Sanna-Mari2022-05-04Niemi , S-M 2022 , ' Exploring the Interrelations Between Literature and Museums ' ,Kult_Online , vol. 2022 , no. 65 . https://doi.org/10.22029/ko.2022.1288http://hdl.handle.net/10138/345723https://doi.org/10.22029/ko.2022.1288publishedVersionDownloaded from Helda, University of Helsinki institutional repository.This is an electronic reprint of the original article.This reprint may differ from the original in pagination and typographic detail.Please cite the original version.KULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culturejournals.ub.uni-giessen.de/kult-online(ISSN 1868-2855)Issue 65 (May 2022)Exploring the Interrelations Between Literature and MuseumsSanna-Mari NiemiUniversity of Helsinkisanna-mari.niemi@helsinki.fi; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2193-6820Abstract:The edited volume Transitzonen zwischen Literatur und Museum (eds. Matteo Anastasio and  Jan  Rhein)  introduces  a  wide  spectrum  of  interdisciplinary  and  intermedial approaches to how literature and museums can intertwine,  reflect  upon,  and enrich each other. It explores the meanings as well as potential of such convergences from the perspectives  of  both  literary  narrative  and  museum  practices.  As  such,  the  book presents a valuable contribution to literary, cultural, media, and museum studies.Erforschung der Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Literatur und MuseumGerman Abstract:Der Sammelband Transitzonen zwischen Literatur und Museum (Hrsg. Matteo Anastasio und Jan Rhein) stellt ein breites Spektrum interdisziplinärer und intermedialer Ansätze vor,  wie  sich  Literatur  und  Museum  gegenseitig  verschränken,  reflektieren  und bereichern können. Er erforscht die Bedeutung und das Potenzial solcher Konvergenzen sowohl aus der Perspektive des literarischen Erzählens als auch der musealen Praxis. Damit  leistet  das Buch einen wertvollen Beitrag zur Literatur-,  Kultur-,  Medien- und Museumswissenschaft.How to cite:Niemi, Sanna-Mari: “Exploring the Interrelations Between Literature and Museums  [Review of: Anastasio,  Matteo and Jan Rhein (eds.):  Transitzonen zwischen Literatur und Museum. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2021.].“ In: KULT_online 65 (2022).DOI: https://doi.org/10.22029/ko.2022.1288Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 InternationalKULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culture65 / 2022journals.ub.uni-giessen.de/kult-onlineExploring the Interrelations Between Literature and MuseumsSanna-Mari NiemiUniversity of HelsinkiAnastasio,  Matteo  and  Jan  Rhein  (eds.).  Transitzonen  zwischen  Literatur  und  Museum. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2021. 282 pages, 99,95 EUR. ISBN: 978-3-11-069151-1.What can museums bring to the mediation and reception of literature? What kind of hybrid relations,  intermedial  references  and  ‘contaminations’  (Irina  Rajewsky:  Intermedialität. Tübingen and Basel 2002) exist between literature and the museum exhibition medium (p. 4)? Furthermore, what can representations of museums in literature tell us about museums and exhibition practices,  and vice versa? These are the kinds of questions that the edited volume Transitzonen zwischen Literatur und Museum inquires into. Enacting its title of being a transit zone, the book takes its readers on a fascinating journey: the stopping points include writers’ homes and other destinations of literary tourism, artistic and literary exhibitions, and literary works dealing with questions of museal display.Since the so-called “boom in museum studies” emerged around the mid-1980s, the museum exhibition as a (multi-)medium has become a focus of growing interdisciplinary interest (p. 1).  In  the  fields  of  literary  and  cultural  studies,  the  interrelations  between  museums  and literature  have  become  an  interesting  research  topic  as  well.  The  editors  note  that traditionally the topic has been approached through the questions of whether and how the literary can be displayed, and how museums and collecting have been used as a motif in literature, especially in the 19th century (p. 1,  3).  Yet,  the potential of using the toolkit of literary studies to enhance our understanding of museums goes way beyond this — especially when the museum exhibition itself is read as a text, as has been suggested in more recent research  literature.  In  accordance  with  this  view,  the  edited  volume  introduces  new theoretical  and  methodological  approaches  to  establish  “the  museum  or  the  expository dispositive in its entirety as an object of literary study” (p. 3–4, my translation). It takes into  consideration the diversity and artistic creativity behind various exhibition strategies, as well as the semiotic and narrative aspects linked with exhibiting the literary in museums (p. 1, 4).- 1 - KULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culture65 / 2022journals.ub.uni-giessen.de/kult-onlineEdited by Matteo Anastasio and Jan Rhein, the volume includes eleven contributions, eight of which are in German and three in English. The authors come from the fields of literary and cultural  studies,  museology,  and  architecture/scenography,  and  some  have  practical experience around museums and exhibiting. The book is divided into four sections (freely translated from German here): Reading and Writing Exhibitions, Museum Representation and Representation in the Museum, Media Concurrence and Transgression, and Literary Settings and  Exhibition  Spaces.  As  the  titles  evidence,  the  possible  approaches  to  the  theme are manifold,  from  the  processes  of  creating  and  reading  literary  exhibitions  to  reciprocal reflections between literature and museums, and from inter- and transmediality to literary tourism.An  interest  in  (inter-)mediality  (e.g.  Jaeckel,  Rhein),  as  well  as  acknowledging  and appreciating the special  nature of the museum as a narrative environment (e.g.  Bosshard, Schaff, Zeissig) come across as central themes in the contributions. Several authors examine how the embodied, multi-channeled, and spatial nature of the museum exhibition affects the visiting/reading experience, emphasizing for instance the immersive, participatory, and meta-reflexive qualities of reading in museums (e.g. Gfrereis, Ilbrig, Rhein).Through examples  and more in-depth case  studies,  the book introduces a  wide range of interrelations  between  museums and  literature  from across  Europe.  Noting  an increasing convergence between literature and museums in recent years, Jan Rhein takes his examples from France, where several authors have both written about and participated in exhibition practices,  and  where  museums,  including  the  prestigious  Louvre,  have  devoted  special exhibitions to authors and their works (p. 163). As reasons for this development, Rhein names on  the  one  hand  the  expansion  of  practices  of  communicating  and  marketing  literature beyond the printed book, and on the other, the opening of museums towards more creative  exhibition practices with guest curators and rising visitor-centeredness (p. 163). As a result, a discussion has evolved around new transmedial forms of literary narrative, now also created in and through museum space. One way to approach this topic is through the concept of  néolittérature, as suggested by Magali Nachtergael (“Écritures plastiques et performances du - 2 - KULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culture65 / 2022journals.ub.uni-giessen.de/kult-onlinetexte: une néolittérature?”, in:  Le bal des arts:  Le sujet et l’image: écrire avec l’art.  Ed. Elisa Bricco, Macerata 2015, 307–325).Jean-Max Colard introduces another kind of museum-related text type having flourished in France, namely, the exhibition preface that has inspired authors to meditate on the relations between verbal and visual arts since the late 19th century. Colard also brings forth a curious new phase of the exhibition preface, namely, an exhibition that works as a preface in itself. Such a ‘preface-exhibition’ can introduce exhibition programs and encourage a reflection of exhibiting strategies and exhibition texts (p. 32–33).While museums foster physical collections, throughout history museums have also operated on the level  of  imagination.  This  aspect  is  particularly palpable in writer’s  houses,  where literary creation and physical realities of authors’ lives overlap. In their contributions, Maria Gregorio traces a “literary mind map” of Europe’s museums and Matteo Anastasio focuses on relations between literature and the city through Fernando Pessoa’s Lisbon. Sophie Soccard’s exploration  of  Agatha  Christie’s  Greenway and  Barbara  Schaff’s  analysis  of  Jane Austen’s House in Chawton illustrate how writers’  houses utilize  objects,  stories,  architecture,  and embodied  experience  to  bring  visitors  closer  to  authors  and  their  fictional  works.  New materialism and the concepts of resonance (Stephen Greenblatt: “Resonance and Wonder.” Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 43 (4), 1990, 11–34) and authenticity become meaningful tools in their approaches.The edited volume shows that literary studies have plenty to offer to the study of museum exhibitions and their narratives. It thus presents a valuable contribution to literary, cultural, media, and museum studies. As convergences between literature and museums have become increasingly multifaceted in the recent years, there is a lot to discover further. - 3 - 

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Exploring the Interrelations Between Literature and Museums

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Journals an der JLU Gießen (Justus-Liebig Universität)

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