Performing the past : a cultural history of historical reenactments
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2002
Open Access
Copyright Clearance Process
- Recently Added
- In Progress
- Open Access
This item is open access.
The reenactment of the past itself has a history. This thesis analyses self-styled 'historical
reenactors' in the West and traces the history of the broader phenomenon of historical
reenactment in the Australian context from the late nineteenth century to the present.
The historical section focuses on several events significant in Australian cultural memory
that have been reenacted over time. Historical parades, pageants and reenactments
dramatically narrate culturally specific historical sensibilities and demonstrate inter and
cross cultural exchanges of historical consciousness. I contend such performances have
had a significant position in the formation of popular history since the late nineteenth
century and that there is a continuity of conventions in performing the past. I have
addressed the position of reenactments as part of a constant interest in the status and
power of history in, and for, popular culture. I have shown how a form of history that
operated for the public was transformed into a form of history operated by the public in
a struggle for authority over the form and content of history. Historical reenactments
have been useful avenues for elites to create didactic spectacular history that have also
offered the opportunity for marginalised groups to make social and political gains
through their participation in the making of public history. Considering the significance
of reenactments in the formation of a distinctly Australian public history, they have
received little attention from historians. As ephemera, reenactments sit awkwardly in
the explanatory frameworks regularly used by historians. Using methodologies from a
range of academic disciplines such as performance studies, anthropology and cultural
studies, this thesis documents and interrogates the specific form of historical
reenactment. In the sections of this thesis that analyse contemporary historical
reenactments, I use my own experience as an historical reenactor of more than ten
years in an ethnographic approach that reflects on the pleasures, promises and
problems 'dressing up as if from the past' offers. In this history I draw continuities
between past reenactments and present practices that assist in understanding historical
reenactment as a specific cultural form. This thesis contends that reenactments over time
have been characterised by three main elements: a collapsing of past and present, an
avenue for a 'connectedness' with the past through a sensual experience, and an
essential relationship with I authenticity.'
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: