Det postkoloniala museet - ett avslutat kapitel?

Sammanfattning: This master’s thesis aims to compare national museum in Norway and Sweden throughout different time periods. The study consists of a literary analysis of yearly reports from 1905-06 and 2010 from the open-air museums: Norsk Folkemuseum and Skansen, and the national art museums: Nationalmuseum and Nasjonalmuseum for kunst, arkitektur og design. With the dissolution of the political union between Norway and Sweden 1905 as its starting point, the study explores now and then through a postcolonial perspective focusing on the following ideal types: idea, intent and aim. In order to research the museums the following questions were asked: what were the ideas, intents and aims of the museums in 1905? What were they in 2010? How do the ideas, intents and aims of the museum 1905 relate to those of 2010? In 1905 different ideas on what the "true" national identity ought to be was presented in the national museums. The art museums largely embraced the nation's former greatness by portraying Sweden’s era as a European empire or Norway's Viking age. The open-air museums, on the other hand, saw the farmer and country people as bearers of the true national identity. Today, in 2010, national heritage is still important, but the national museums no longer have the ambition to construct a national identity. The intention of the national museums in 2010 is rather to act as an arena where the question of what it means to be a Norwegian or Swede can be discussed.