Investigating the semiotic landscape of the house museum in Stellenbosch, South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa as a nation achieved democracy in 1994; however, the country's institutions ofknowledge and power are still grappling with the ways that they can and must facilitate transformation. The White Paper on Arts, Culture, and Heritage of 1996 and its subsequentrevised draft in 2017 challenge organisations involved in arts and culture – such as museums – to democratise and decolonise to become inclusive sources of the country's varied history and culture. Museums attract a diverse range of the public and, therefore, have the ability to foster change through the narratives of the tangible and intangible history and culture that they provide. This study focused on the town of Stellenbosch, where there is a significant lack of inclusive museological institutions that share the histories and cultures of all its communities (it is made up of ten adjoining small towns and townships, of which the Kayamandi township is one). Stellenbosch has a complex history with colonialism and apartheid and this is the history that is predominantly associated with the town. Therefore, there is a need to redefine the discourses of difference and division between the town's various sociocultural groups.Social semiotics and the dual theory of museology and curatorship formed the theoretical framework for this study. I followed a qualitative approach within an interpretive paradigmand a comparative case study research design was used. The research questioned what a comparative analysis of the semiotic landscapes of the Stellenbosch Village Museum andthe Kayamandi Creative District House Museum reveal about the broader historical and sociocultural contexts wherein each exist, with the aim to ascertain the extent to which themuseums are appropriate house museum models in a post-apartheid context. The data in this study were collected mostly through individual interviews with management, staff, docents, and homeowner docents of the Stellenbosch Village Museum and the Kayamandi Creative District House Museum. Additional data were collected through individual interviews, workshops, observations, field visits, e-mail interview and correspondence, and document analysis.The investigation revealed that the use of traditional museological practices, as mostly embodied by the Stellenbosch Village Museum, adds to the various deficiencies in inclusivity regarding the history and culture of Stellenbosch. Conversely, the use of new museological practices, as mostly embodied by the Kayamandi Creative District House Museum, could address this lack, as the black, Xhosa history and culture it represents offers a balance to the white, colonial history of the town. The study found that for democratisation and decolonisation to occur, it is necessary that Stellenbosch's museums embrace new, innovative museological practices that cater to local knowledge and previously marginalised communities. The study offers the Kayamandi Creative District House Museum as a potential new museological model that could assist in reducing differences and divisions in Stellenbosch's sociocultural divide through the cross-cultural exchange of history and culture by and in the very community that the museum represents.This study aimed to contribute to the research field of museology and curatorship in a postcolonial and post-apartheid Stellenbosch context with the expansion of the dialogue on museological transformation through democratisation and decolonisation.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University