Performance of Viking Identity in Museums

Gudrun D. Whitehead is an assistant professor in Museology, University of Iceland. She focuses on the display and uses of cultural stereotypes such as Vikings, subculture, the uncanny and disruptive elements of society, including horror, punk, human remains and unconventional museum displays.

“In her important study, Guðrún D. Whitehead demonstrates that museum visitors use the Viking image to make sense of their place in society, and outlines the role of museums in this process of meaning-making. Her profound fieldwork shows that this process is only possible through a partnership between visitors and museums, and suggests that museums need to actively approach their visitors’ preconceived ideas of the Viking Age to allow for further learning. She also demonstrates convincingly that the Viking image is a contradictory one in visitors’ minds, and that the image of the violent barbarian is used in both Yorkshire, Manx, Icelandic, and Norwegian museums to create a positive view on the national or local past and identity. Her study is the first one to offer a systematic, comparative analysis of contemporary museum displays on the Viking Age and their effect on visitors’ constructions of personal and collective identities. It is therefore an important contribution to museum studies, and especially to visitor studies, and can serve as a template for similar research on other historical phenomena. To this end, samples of the questionnaires applied could have been a useful complement to the book and might be a valuable asset to future publications on the topic. Guðrún D. Whitehead’s work contributes further to the field of heritage and cultural identity studies. Last but not least, it is a highly valuable reading for museum professionals working in one of the numerous museums presenting the Viking Age in and outside Scandinavia, who would like to learn more about how their communication of the Viking Age impacts the constructions of personal, local and national identities of their visitors.”Charlotte Wenke, PhD researcher, University of Greifswald, GermanyRezension zu: G. D. Whitehead: The Performance of Viking Identity in Museums | H-Soz-Kult. Kommunikation und Fachinformation für die Geschichtswissenschaften | Geschichte im Netz | History in the web

• Introduction: Introducing the VikingsPart 1. Guide us through storms that whip: Methodology and case study analysisChapter 1. Case studies analysed Chapter 2. Visitor and staff interpretations of the exhibitionsPart 2: Fara á brott með víkingum: Historical Vikings and images of the pastChapter 3. The Viking Age and the Viking image: A brief overviewChapter 4. Are You a Viking? The current image of Vikings Chapter 5. Collective Memory and the Viking image Chapter 6. Creating Meaning: Representation of Vikings in Museums Part 3. This Viking sure is striking: Present day influences and uses of VikingsChapter 7. Historical distancingChapter 8. Identity creation in museums Chapter 9. NationalismChapter 10. Otherness of past and present