Museology and Its Others: Analyzing Exhibition Storytelling through Narratology, Space analysis, Discourse analysis, and Ethnographic Research

This chapter aims to investigate how methodologies from fields as diverse as literary studies, art history, exhibition design, sociology, and ethnography can enrich the study of exhibition storytelling. It focuses on fieldwork done in 2020 at the Museum of the Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean (Marseille, France) on the semi-permanent exhibition Connectivities. Because of the content and form of the exhibition and the multimodal nature of museum communication, I chose to employ a range of interdisciplinary methods to analyze the exhibition. This enabled me to distinguish my approach from previous practices in museum studies, which, because of the tendency toward “evidenced-based” policies and funding in the cultural field, have frequently adopted a positivist approach to their research. Instead, I aimed to analyze not only the intent of the institution when it comes to narrative production but also its legitimacy to and its impact on audiences.