A museum, the city, and a nation

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to understand how a corporate museum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia works to create proleptic myths of nationhood to under-gird a broader state-centric project of nationalist—capitalist modernization. The article examines how these myths are expressed in the museum's design plans and are manifested in the museum's displays and spatial layout. From this analysis it becomes apparent that, first, the museum's designers intend for Malaysian museum-goers to both learn and embody particular myths of national modernization. Second, the museum's displays are dedicated to establishing a Malay-centric origin narrative for the contemporary nation-state. Third, as one moves through the museum, Malay-centrism gives way to narratives of a `multi-racial' society that link technological modernization with social progress. Eventually, however, `race' is trumped by `class' as the social identity category deemed appropriate for `information age' citizenship and nationhood in

Standort
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
Umfang
Online-Ressource
Sprache
Englisch
Anmerkungen
Postprint
begutachtet (peer reviewed)
In: Cultural Geographies ; 15 (2008) 1 ; 119-142

Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wo)
Mannheim
(wann)
2008
Urheber
Lepawsky, Joshua

DOI
10.1177/1474474007085781
URN
urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-231843
Rechteinformation
Open Access unbekannt; Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
Letzte Aktualisierung
14.08.2025, 11:00 MESZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Beteiligte

  • Lepawsky, Joshua

Entstanden

  • 2008

Ähnliche Objekte (12)