Museum metaphysics

Abstract

This review deals with the book by S. V. Klimenko, a well-known philologist, a staff member of the N. G. Chernyshevskiy Estate Museum. It shows the academic character of the book under review. The book is timed according to the periods of the author’s creative life, but at the same time the identified periods appear to be crucial for the history of the museum as they were linked to anniversaries of N. G. Chernyshevskiy or memorable dates in the history of the museum itself. The content of the book combines fascinating stories about the creation of new museum “products” and the definition of the essence and purpose of the profession of someone whose life is connected to a literary museum. A literary museum worker is presented in the book as a person for whom the literary studies of sources become not only a process inseparable from the museum work but also an object of academic research and exploration. Considerable attention is paid to the problems of museum work as the most important area of humanitarian knowledge. S. V. Klimenko is also concerned with the issues of personnel training and funding. An important point for the author of the book becomes the question of what materials a separate museum exhibition or a large exposition should be based on. S.V. Klimenko assigns great importance to the development of the concept of an exhibition or exposition in museum work. Discussions that accompany the emergence of any new “product” represent the birth of the concept, i.e. understanding of the principles of material selection, logic of its presentation and scientific commentary. The author of the book advocates the conceptual approach to the presentation of museum exhibits in showcases or on walls in an essentially rigorous way. S. V. Klimenko has succeeded not only in opening the world of the literary museum to the reader, but in showing its heartbeat in several dimensions, projected on the science, source studies, archives, education, working with the visitors, and the work of exhibition designers.