CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Owens, Jordan Tillitt |
|---|---|
| Title | (Mis)Performing the Holocaust: A Study of the Shifting Narratives and Taboos of Tourist Self-Portraiture at Auschwitz Museum |
| Summary | Auschwitz Museum is simultaneously a site of one of the darkest points in modern history, and a popular tourist attraction for millions of international visitors. Academic literature, as well as Auschwitz Museum’s own materials, depicts the site as the ultimate example of ‘dark tourism’, where tourists can learn about and reflect on the horrors of the Holocaust. Such literature also suggests that visitor behaviour is governed by the seriousness of the site’s history, pre-existing Holocaust narratives, and a Foucauldian sense that they are being watched and judged. However, for several years, mass media commentary has focused on tourists’ inappropriate behaviour when visiting Auschwitz Museum, particularly the ways that younger tourists take selfies and pose for self-portraits, just as they would at any other site of mass tourism. This mismatch leads one to ask whether Auschwitz Museum is a site of dark or mass tourism, what impact tourism and social media have on existing Holocaust narratives and taboos about visual depictions of the Holocaust, and whether selfies and self-portraits are as widespread as mass media would suggest or as non-existent as seen by academics. This thesis examines the impact that tourism has on existing Holocaust narratives and taboos about visual depictions of the Holocaust. It does this by looking at the conflict driven by the Museum’s educational mandate, which requires its acceptance and encouragement of tourism, and the extent to which signifiers of mass tourism suggest to tourists that they can behave as they would at any other mass tourism destination. It studies previous examples where there have been public debates about taboo-violating tourist photography at Auschwitz Museum, and qualitatively and quantitatively examines six months of Auschwitz Museum visitor selfies and self-portraits posted on photo and video sharing app Instagram, finding three themes: self-placement, witnessing, and rebellion. |
| Supervisor | Fetzer, Thomas |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/owens_jordan.pdf |
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