The museum exhibition in the context of dispositive analysis

Abstract

The aim of this study is to propose and present a suitable methodological framework based on the principle of discourse analysis, which would be suitable for the implementation of research on the museum environment, in particular museum exhibitions and their narratives. The potential of the dispositive analysis of the museum phenomenon is enormous, but the elaboration of this methodology in the context of museum research in our environment is lacking. This study aims to add to this underdeveloped area and provide readers and researchers with key information concerning the possibilities and uses of this methodology. As a suitable methodological tool, the study chooses dispositive analysis, which has the advantage of allowing the analysis of materializations in addition to the discourse plane, which is an advantage for the analysis of exhibitions and the exhibits housed therein. Dispositive analysis, which in the study is primarily based on S. Jäger’s approach, enables the examination of materializations without overlooking the role of visitors and the broader context of the exhibition, which, by its very nature of membership of a cultural institution, is always discursively conditioned. The relationship between the museum and discursive reality is thus a thematic part of the study, as is the exploration of the topics of discourse (Foucault) and the dispositive.