This paper picks up from extensive literatures that have addressed the relationship of heritage to national identity. Much work focuses upon the symbolic construction of the past through heritage institutions, but in so doing it tends to underplay the affective experience of heritage sites. In this paper we argue that it is the felt experience and the organisation of sensibilities towards heritage which are often as important, and that these have racialised modalities. We thus look at attempts to foster civic inclusion and argue that they need to work through not just civic openness but felt exclusions and fears. We take two canonical heritage sites to exemplify these issues. First, the British Museum was chosen as an urban national institution that is conventionally seen speaking in an unemotive, pedagogical register. The history of the museum as collecting artefacts from around the world and bringing them to London is related to diasporic communities' feelings about the collections, focusing on the Oceanic gallery. The second exemplar is the English Lake District, chosen as a rural national park that is seen to mobilise more visceral affective responses, which is deeply bound up with national sensibilities but has attracted attention for racial exclusivity.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AhmedS, 2000, Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-coloniality (Routledge, London).
AlizarT V, 2009Role of Museums and Libraries in Strengthening Communities (Nova Science Publishers, New York).
4.
AndersonK, 2007Race and the Crisis of Humanism (UCL Press, London).
5.
AskinsK, 2006, “New countryside, new country: Visible communities in the English national parks”, in The New Countryside?: Ethnicity, Nation and Exclusion in Contemporary Rural Britain Eds AgyemanJNealS (Policy Press, Bristol) pp 149–172.
6.
AskinsK, 2009, Crossing divides: Ethnicity and rurality”Journal of Rural Studies25365–375.
7.
BateJ, 1991Romantic Ecology: Wordsworth and the Environmental Tradition (Routledge, London).
8.
BeddoeJ, 1971 [1885] The Races of Britain: A Contribution to the Anthropology of Western Europe (Hutchinson, London).
9.
BennettT, 2002, “Archaeological autopsy: Objectifying time and cultural governance”Cultural Values629–47.
BennettT, 2005, “Civic laboratories: Museums, cultural objecthood and the governance of the social”Cultural Studies19521–547.
12.
BhattacharyyaG, 1998Tales of Dark-skinned Women, Race, Gender and Global Culture (UCL Press, London).
13.
BohrerF, 1994, “The times and spaces of history: Representation, Assyria, and the British Museum”, in Museum Culture: Histories, Discourses, Spectacles Eds ShermanDRogoffI (Routledge, London) pp 197–222.
14.
BresseyC, 2009, “Cultural archaeology and historical geographies of the black presence in rural England”Journal of Rural Studies25386–395.
15.
CliffordJ, 1997Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
16.
ColleyL, 1992Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837 (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT).
17.
CrangM, 1999, “Nation, region and homeland: History and tradition in Dalarna Sweden”Ecumene6447–470.
18.
CrangM, 2003, “On display: The poetics, politics and interpretation of exhibitions”, in Practising Cultural Geography Eds MayJBluntAGruffudPOgbornMPinderD (Arnold, London) pp 255–268.
19.
CubittSSarderZAraeenR, 2002The Third Text Reader: Art, Theory and Culture (Continuum, London).
20.
DanielsS, 1993Fields of Vision: Landscape Imagery and National Identity in England and the US (Polity Press, Cambridge).
21.
DarbyW J, 2000Landscape and Identity: Geographies of Nation and Class (Berg, London).
Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2005Understanding the Future: Museums and 21st Century Life (Department for Culture, Media and Sport, London).
24.
DeQuincey, 1921, “Wordsworth's poetry”, in Poetry and Prose, with Essays by Coleridge, Hazlitt, De Quincey (Clarendon Press, Oxford) pp 36–44.
25.
DibleyB, 2005, “The museum's redemption: Contact zones, government and the limits of reform”International Journal of Cultural Studies85–27.
26.
DriverFGilbertD, 1998, “Heart of Empire? Landscape, space and performance in imperial London”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space1611–28.
27.
DuncanC, 1991, “Art museums and the ritual of citizenship”, in Exhibiting Cultures: The Politics and Poetics of Museum Display Eds KarpILavineS (Smithsonian Press, Washington, DC) pp 88–103.
28.
DurransB, 1979, “Ancient Pacific voyaging: Cook's views and the development of interpretation”, in The British Museum, Captain Cook and the South Pacific Ed. MitchellT C (British Museum Publications, London) pp 137–166.
29.
DyerR, 1997White: Essays on Race and Culture (Routledge, London).
30.
DysonL, 2005, “Reinventing the nation: British heritage and the bicultural settlement in New Zealand”, in The Politics of Heritage: The Legacies of Race Eds LittlerJNaidooR (Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon) pp 115–129.
31.
FaggW, 1953The Webster Plass Collection of African Art: The Catalogue of a Memorial Exhibition held in the King Edward VII Galleries of the British Museum (British Museum Press, London).
32.
GilbertDDriverF, 2000, “Capital and empire: Geographies of imperial London”Geojournal5123–32.
33.
GilroyP, 1993The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
34.
GLA, 2005Delivering Shared Heritage: The Mayor's Commission on African and Asian HeritageGreater London Authority, London.
35.
HallS, 1990, ‘Cultural identity and diaspora”, in Identity, Community, Culture, Difference Ed. RutherfordJ (Lawrence and Wishart, London) pp 222–237.
36.
HallS, 1997Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (Open University Press, Maidenhead, Berks).
HallS, 2000, “Conclusion: The multicultural question”, in Un/settled Multiculturalisms: Diasporas, Entanglements, Transruptions Ed. HesseB (Zed Books, London) pp 209–241.
39.
HetheringtonK, 2006, “Museum”Theory, Culture and Society23597–603.
40.
HillK, 2005Culture and Class in English Public Museums 1850–1914 (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants).
41.
HoganJ, 2009Gender, Race and National Identity: Nations of Flesh and Blood (Routledge, New York).
42.
Hooper-GreenhillE, 1992Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge (Routledge, London).
43.
JazeelT, 2005, “‘Nature’, nationhood and the poetics of meaning in Ruhuna (Yala) National Park, Sri Lanka”Cultural Geographies12199–227.
44.
JensenS, 2007, “Museums and emotion: Fear and passion in public spaces”, in Museum of Antiquities Maurice Kelly Lecture (Museum of Antiquities, Arnidale, NSW) pp 1–33.
45.
KarpIKratzASzwajaLYbarra-FraustoT, 2006Museum Frictions (Duke University Press, Durham, NC).
46.
KaufmannE, 1998, “‘Naturalizing the nation’: The rise of naturalistic nationalism in the United States and Canada”Comparative Studies in Society and History40666–695.
47.
KeanH, 2008, “Personal and public histories: Issues in the presentation of the past”, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity Eds GrahamBHowardP (Ashgate, Farnham, Surrey) pp 55–70.
48.
KingA, 1966Wordsworth and the Artist's Vision: An Essay in Interpretation (Athlone Press, London).
49.
KingS M, 2007Whiteness in the English Countryside: A Case of the National Trust PhD thesis, Department of Geography, University of Durham.
50.
KinsmanP, 1995, “Landscape, race and national identity: The photography of Ingrid Pollard”Area27300–310.
51.
LionnetF, 2004, “The mirror and the tomb: Africa, museums and memory”, in Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts Ed. CarbonellB (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 92–103.
52.
LittlerJNaidooR, 2005The Politics of Heritage: The Legacies of Race (Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon).
53.
LorimerHLundK, 2003, “Performing facts: Finding a way over Scotland's mountains”, in Nature Performed: Environment, Culture and Performance Eds SzerszynskiBWatertonC (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 130–145.
54.
McCormackD P, 2003, “An event of geographical ethics in spaces of affect”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series28488–507.
55.
McCroneDMorrisAKielyR, 1995Scotland—The Brand: The Making of Scottish Heritage (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh).
56.
MackJ, 2003The Museum of the Mind (British Museum Press, London).
57.
MasseyD, 2006, “Landscape as a provocation–reflections on moving mountains”Journal of Material Culture1133–48.
58.
MatlessD, 1998Landscape and Englishness (Reaktion, London).
59.
MelsT, 2002, “Nature, home, and scenery: The official spatialities of Swedish national parks”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space20135–154.
MoscatiP (Ed.), 2007“Virtual museums and archaeology”Archeologia e CalcolatoriSupplement 1.
62.
NaidooR, 2005, “Nevermind the buzzwords: ‘race’, heritage and the liberal agenda”, in The Politics of Heritage: The Legacies of Race Eds LittlerJNaidooR (Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon) pp 36–48.
63.
NealS, 2002, “Rural landscapes, representations and racism: Examining multicultural citizenship and policy-making in the English countryside”Ethnic and Racial Studies25442–461.
64.
NealSAgyemanJ (Eds), 2006The New Countryside?: Ethnicity, Nation and Exclusion in Contemporary Rural Britain (Policy Press, Bristol).
65.
NielsenC, 2008To Inspire and Instruct: A History of Medieval Art in Midwestern Museums (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne).
66.
O'NeillM, 2004, “Enlightenment museums: Universal or merely global?”Museums and Society2190–202.
67.
PileS, 2010, “Emotions and affect in recent human geography”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series355–20.
68.
SaldanhaA, 2006, “Reontologising race: The machinic geography of phenotype”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space249–24.
69.
SchildkroutE, 2004, “Ambiguous messages and ironic twists: Into the heart of Africa and the other museum”, in Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts Ed. CarbonellB (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 181–192.
70.
SchwartzB, 1996, “The expansion and contraction of England”, in The Expansion of England: Race, Ethnicity and Cultural History Ed. SchwartzB (Routledge, London) pp 1–9.
71.
SmoutC, 2003, “The alien species in 20th-century Britain: Constructing a new vermin”Landscape Research28(1) 11–20.
72.
SquireS, 1988, “Wordsworth and Lake District tourism: Romantic reshaping of landscape”Canadian Geographer32237–247.
73.
StarzeckaD C, 1996, “The Maori collections in the museum”, in Maori Art and Culture Ed. StarzeckaD C (British Museum Press, London) pp 145–158.
74.
SwallowD, 1998, “Colonial architecture, international exhibitions and official patronage of the Indian artisan: The case of a gateway from Gwalior in the Victoria and Albert Museum”, in Colonialism and the Object: Empire, Material Culture and the Museum Eds BarringerTFlynnT (Routledge, London) pp 52–67.
75.
SylvesterC, 2009, “Cultures, nations and the British Museum”, in Art/Museums: International Relations Where We Least Expect it Ed. SylvesterC (Paradigm Publishers, Boulder, CO) pp 33–53.
76.
ThienD, 2005, “After or beyond feeling? A consideration of affect and emotion in geography”Area37450–454.
77.
ThriftN, 2004, “Intensities of feeling: Towards a spatial politics of affect”Geografiska Annaler, Series B8657–78.
78.
Tolia-KellyD, 2006, “Affect—an ethnocentric encounter?: Exploring the ‘universalist’ imperative of emotional/affectual geographies”Area38213–217.
79.
Tolia-KellyD P, 2007a, “Fear in paradise: The affective registers of the English Lake District landscape re-visited”Senses and Society2329–351.
80.
Tolia-KellyD P, 2007b, “SPILL: Liquid emotion and transcultural art”, in SPILL Exhibition Catalogue (SASA Gallery, Adelaide).
81.
Tolia-KellyD, 2008, “Investigations into diasporic cosmopolitanism: Beyond mythologies of the ‘non-native”’, in New Geographies of Race and Racism Eds DwyerCBresseyC (Ashgate, Farnham, Surrey) pp 283–296.
82.
TrentmannF, 1994, “Civilization and its discontents: English neo-romanticism and the transformation of anti-modernism in twentieth-century Western culture”Journal of Contemporary History29583–625.
83.
VoogtP, 2008, “Can we make a difference?: museums, society and development in North and South”, Bulletin 387 of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT Publishers, Amsterdam).
84.
WinlowH, 2001, “Anthropometric cartography: Constructing Scottish racial identity in the early twentieth century”Journal of Historical Geography27507–528.
85.
WinlowH, 2006, “Mapping moral geographies: W Z. Ripley's races of Europe and the United States”Annals of the Association of American Geographers96119–141.
86.
WordsworthW, 2004Guide to The Lakes (Frances Lincoln, London).
87.
YoungR C, 2008The Idea of English Ethnicity (Blackwell, Oxford).
