The Role of the International Exhibitions in the Construction of National Cultures in the 19th Century

Bibliographic Data

ID3061435
AuthorsBjarne Stoklund (University of Copenhagen, corresponding author)
Year1994
Volume24
Issue1
Publication date1994-11-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnologia Europaea (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0425-4597 • E-ISSN: 1604-3030
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.16995/ee.1837
OpenAlexW2514882355
LanguageEN
Citations received13

In the latter half of the 19th century, the great international exhibitions, with their millions of visitors, grew into gigantic instruments for education and refinement where contemporary ideas were formulated and imprinted through visual communication, often in symbolic form (e.g. the aesthetic ideals of the bourgeoisie; human progress in evolutionary perspective; the superiority of the white race based on the sovereignty of the people). The article discusses the role played by the international exhibitions in the construction of what Orvar Löfgren has called an "international cultural grammar" of nationhood, choosing among other symbols the elements of folk culture that were later put on exhibition in the folk museums (folk costumes, vernacular buildings, peasant living rooms)

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Bourgeoisie · Exhibition · Folk culture · Grammar · Linguistics · Literature · Peasant · Political science · Sociology · Sovereignty · Vernacular · Anthropology · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Cultural Identity and Heritage · European Cultural and National Identity · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · Law · Philosophy

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