Twenty-first-century views of historical violence have been immeasurably influenced by cultural representations of the Second World War. Within Europe, one of the key sites for such representation has been the vast array of museums and memorials that reflect contemporary ideas of war, the roles of soldiers and civilians, and the self-perception of those who remember. This volume takes a historical perspective on museums covering the Second World War and explores how these institutions came to define political contexts and cultures of public memory in Germany, across Europe, and throughout the world.

In response to systemic racism and institutions’ implications in histories of colonialism, nationalism, and exclusion, museum curators have embraced new ways of storytelling to face entangled memories and histories. Critical museum practices have consciously sought to unsettle established forms of representation, break with linear narratives of progress, and experiment with new modes of multivocal, multimedia, and subjective storytelling. The volume features analyses of narratives and narration in museums and heritage institutions today, as well as visions for future museum practices on a local, regional, national, transnational, and global scale. It is divided into three sections: Narrative Theory and Temporality, Ruptures and Repair, and Difficult Memories and Histories. Essays from a variety of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences examine museum practices in history, memorial, anthropological, and art museums across six continents. They develop narratological categories, reflect on immersive and virtual narratives, challenge colonial violence and hegemonic forms of representation, query the performance of heritage, parse exhibition design, and unearth techniques to express narratives of social justice.

The Second World War is omnipresent in contemporary memory debates. As the war fades from living memory, this study is the first to systematically analyze how Second World War museums allow prototypical visitors to comprehend and experience the past. It analyzes twelve permanent exhibitions in Europe and North America - including the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden, the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk, the House of European History in Brussels, the Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester, and the National WWII Museum in New Orleans - in order to show how museums reflect and shape cultural memory, as well as their cognitive, ethical, emotional, and aesthetic potential and effects. This includes a discussion of representations of events such as the Holocaust and air warfare. In relation to narrative, memory, and experience, the study develops the concept of experientiality (on a sliding scale between mimetic and structural forms), which provides a new textual-spatial method for reading exhibitions and understanding the experiences of historical individuals and collectives. It is supplemented by concepts like transnational memory, empathy, and encouraging critical thinking through difficult knowledge.

Twenty-first-century views of historical violence have been immeasurably influenced by cultural representations of the Second World War. Within Europe, one of the key sites for such representation has been the vast array of museums and memorials that reflect contemporary ideas of war, the roles of soldiers and civilians, and the self-perception of those who remember. This volume takes a historical perspective on museums covering the Second World War and explores how these institutions came to define political contexts and cultures of public memory in Germany, across Europe, and throughout the world.

The Second World War is omnipresent in contemporary memory debates. As the war fades from living memory, this study is the first to systematically analyze how Second World War museums allow prototypical visitors to comprehend and experience the past. It analyzes twelve permanent exhibitions in Europe and North America - including the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden, the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk, the House of European History in Brussels, the Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester, and the National WWII Museum in New Orleans - in order to show how museums reflect and shape cultural memory, as well as their cognitive, ethical, emotional, and aesthetic potential and effects. This includes a discussion of representations of events such as the Holocaust and air warfare. In relation to narrative, memory, and experience, the study develops the concept of experientiality (on a sliding scale between mimetic and structural forms), which provides a new textual-spatial method for reading exhibitions and understanding the experiences of historical individuals and collectives. It is supplemented by concepts like transnational memory, empathy, and encouraging critical thinking through difficult knowledge.

This study shows for the first time how performative historical writing emerged as a historical necessity in the German-speaking world of the late 18th century. In the long term this development paved the way for modern historiographic narrative. It discusses texts that use representational strategies to express the essentials of the course of history. The book is aimed at those interested in the history of literature and historical writing and also at those interested in literary and historical theory and historical philosophy.

Die zunehmende Skepsis in der 2. Halfte des 20. Jahrhunderts gegenuber ganzheitlichen Konzepten von Subjekt und Geschichte (z.B. als "Ende der Geschichte" und als "Tod des Subjekts") ist in den vergangenen Jahren im Zuge der Wenden zur Anthropologie und zur Geschichte - insbesondere in den Kulturwissenschaften - einer neuen Aktualitat beider Begriffe gewichen. Die internationalen Beitrage des Bandes skizzieren als erste ubergreifende systematische Auseinandersetzung das durch neuere Subjektkonzeptionen und Geschichtsmodelle eroeffnete theoretische Feld, in dem die Vielfaltigkeit des Handelns von Subjekten in und mit der Geschichte deutlich wird. Aus der Perspektive von Philosophie, Geschichts-, Kunst-, Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft werden die Wechselverhaltnisse sowie Denk- und Darstellungsweisen von Subjekten und Geschichte(n) auf ihre epistemischen, asthetischen und handlungstheoretischen Konsequenzen hin untersucht. Der Band unterteilt sich in drei Sektionen "Subjekt und Geschichte im nachmetaphysischen Zeitalter", "Theorie und Geschichtsschreibung" sowie "Inszenierungen von Subjekt und Geschichte".