Viking Pop Culture on Display: The Case of the Horned Helmets
The travelling exhibition, Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga, featured a case containing primarily plastic horned helmets seamlessly included within a serious cultural exhibition. Never worn by Vikings, this popular culture icon embodies the disjuncture between scholarly and popular knowledge of the...
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Material Culture Review / Revue de la culture matérielle
2001
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ftuninewbrunojs:oai:ojs.journals.lib.unb.ca:article/17894 2023-05-15T17:31:31+02:00 Viking Pop Culture on Display: The Case of the Horned Helmets Ward, Elisabeth I. 2001-06-06 text/html application/pdf https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17894 eng eng Material Culture Review / Revue de la culture matérielle https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17894/22065 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17894/19169 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17894 Copyright (c) 2015 Material Culture Review / Revue de la culture matérielle Material Culture Review; Volume 54, Fall/Automne 2001 Revue de la culture matérielle; Volume 54, Fall/Automne 2001 1927-9264 1718-1259 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion research-article 2001 ftuninewbrunojs 2022-07-11T11:49:59Z The travelling exhibition, Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga, featured a case containing primarily plastic horned helmets seamlessly included within a serious cultural exhibition. Never worn by Vikings, this popular culture icon embodies the disjuncture between scholarly and popular knowledge of the Viking past. The exhibition as a whole sought to highlight the recent studies that have revealed a complex view of the Viking past at odds with the simplistic popular stereotype, and the homed helmet case was a fitting introduction to this theme. But it sim ultaneously demonstrated the lack of agency museums have over the meanings associated with modern popular culture items and was therefore an ironic, somewhat problematic, experience for the visitor. This essay examines issues that arose during the curation, design, and display of this case, suggesting an accepted, though perhaps unjustified, categorical division between popular material culture and "authentic" artifacts. Résumé L'exposition itinérante Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga comprenait une vitrine abritant surtout des casques cornus en plastique, objets déconcertants dans une exposition culturelle sérieuse. Pourtant jamais porté par les Vikings, ce symbole populaire est une manifestation concrète de la dijférence entre la connaissance que donne l'érudition et la connaissance populaire du passé des Vikings. L'exposition dans son ensemble visait à mettre en lumière de récentes études qui avaient révélé une vision complexe du passé des Vikings, contredisant le stéréotype populaire simpliste des Vikings, et la vitrine aux casques cornus constituait une bonne introduction à ce thème. Mais celle-ci démontrait en même temps le fait que les musées n'ont aucune autorité sur les significations associées aux objets de la culture populaire. L'exposition a donc été une expérience ironique et un peu problématique pour les visiteurs. L'article traite de questions soulevées parles volets conservation, conception et exposition de cette vitrine, qui supposent une division ... Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic University of New Brunswick: Centre for Digital Scholarship Journals |
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University of New Brunswick: Centre for Digital Scholarship Journals |
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ftuninewbrunojs |
language |
English |
description |
The travelling exhibition, Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga, featured a case containing primarily plastic horned helmets seamlessly included within a serious cultural exhibition. Never worn by Vikings, this popular culture icon embodies the disjuncture between scholarly and popular knowledge of the Viking past. The exhibition as a whole sought to highlight the recent studies that have revealed a complex view of the Viking past at odds with the simplistic popular stereotype, and the homed helmet case was a fitting introduction to this theme. But it sim ultaneously demonstrated the lack of agency museums have over the meanings associated with modern popular culture items and was therefore an ironic, somewhat problematic, experience for the visitor. This essay examines issues that arose during the curation, design, and display of this case, suggesting an accepted, though perhaps unjustified, categorical division between popular material culture and "authentic" artifacts. Résumé L'exposition itinérante Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga comprenait une vitrine abritant surtout des casques cornus en plastique, objets déconcertants dans une exposition culturelle sérieuse. Pourtant jamais porté par les Vikings, ce symbole populaire est une manifestation concrète de la dijférence entre la connaissance que donne l'érudition et la connaissance populaire du passé des Vikings. L'exposition dans son ensemble visait à mettre en lumière de récentes études qui avaient révélé une vision complexe du passé des Vikings, contredisant le stéréotype populaire simpliste des Vikings, et la vitrine aux casques cornus constituait une bonne introduction à ce thème. Mais celle-ci démontrait en même temps le fait que les musées n'ont aucune autorité sur les significations associées aux objets de la culture populaire. L'exposition a donc été une expérience ironique et un peu problématique pour les visiteurs. L'article traite de questions soulevées parles volets conservation, conception et exposition de cette vitrine, qui supposent une division ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ward, Elisabeth I. |
spellingShingle |
Ward, Elisabeth I. Viking Pop Culture on Display: The Case of the Horned Helmets |
author_facet |
Ward, Elisabeth I. |
author_sort |
Ward, Elisabeth I. |
title |
Viking Pop Culture on Display: The Case of the Horned Helmets |
title_short |
Viking Pop Culture on Display: The Case of the Horned Helmets |
title_full |
Viking Pop Culture on Display: The Case of the Horned Helmets |
title_fullStr |
Viking Pop Culture on Display: The Case of the Horned Helmets |
title_full_unstemmed |
Viking Pop Culture on Display: The Case of the Horned Helmets |
title_sort |
viking pop culture on display: the case of the horned helmets |
publisher |
Material Culture Review / Revue de la culture matérielle |
publishDate |
2001 |
url |
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17894 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Material Culture Review; Volume 54, Fall/Automne 2001 Revue de la culture matérielle; Volume 54, Fall/Automne 2001 1927-9264 1718-1259 |
op_relation |
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17894/22065 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17894/19169 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17894 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2015 Material Culture Review / Revue de la culture matérielle |
_version_ |
1766129140788887552 |