Time and the Museum: Literature, Phenomenology, and the Production of Radical Temporality

Time and the Museum challenges the conventional understanding of museums as temporal spaces and argues that time should be considered a political entity with ethical consequences. The book explores how time is experienced and performed in three museum spaces in Oxford using literature and phenomenology, advocating for a reevaluation of museum time as a radical and politically significant aspect of the museum experience.

Format: Hardback
Length: 200 pages
Publication date: 25 July 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Time and the Museum presents a compelling argument that the conventional understanding of museums as temporal spaces, characterized by notions of death, othering, memory, and history, is overly simplistic and has led to a reduction of museum temporality to a peculiar and enigmatic heterotopia, as described by Foucault. To fully comprehend the production of museum temporalities and timescapes and their impact on display and visitor response, it is essential to recognize that time itself holds political significance, with ethical consequences. This book aims to highlight the ethical and political dimension of time within the museum space, utilizing the fields of literature and phenomenology to explore how time is experienced and performed in the public areas of three prominent museums in Oxford: the Ashmolean, Pitt Rivers, and Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Through the exploration of concepts such as shape, structure, form, presence, absence, authenticity, and aura, the book argues for a reevaluation of museum time as a resource with immense potential and political weight. This book will appeal to academics and postgraduate students, particularly those engaged in the study of museums, culture, literature, and design.

Time and the Museum challenges the conventional understanding of museums as temporal spaces, suggesting that this perspective is overly simplistic and has resulted in a reduction of museum temporality to a peculiar and enigmatic heterotopia, as described by Foucault. To fully comprehend the production of museum temporalities and timescapes and their impact on display and visitor response, it is essential to recognize that time itself holds political significance, with ethical consequences.

This book aims to highlight the ethical and political dimension of time within the museum space, utilizing the fields of literature and phenomenology to explore how time is experienced and performed in the public areas of three prominent museums in Oxford: the Ashmolean, Pitt Rivers, and Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Through the exploration of concepts such as shape, structure, form, presence, absence, authenticity, and aura, the book argues for a reevaluation of museum time as a resource with immense potential and political weight.

This book will appeal to academics and postgraduate students, particularly those engaged in the study of museums, culture, literature, and design.

Weight: 550g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032164069