The National Museum of Beirut : a study -

Abstract

This thesis examines the National Museum of Beirut (NMB) by focusing on the interplay between museum characteristics, manifestations of identity and private capital. In other words, how does the NMB configure a relationship between “the state” and “the nation,” and in what ways is money involved? In pursuit of productive approaches to the museum rather than fixed answers, this thesis does not subscribe to a particular theory or discourse. The resulting eclecticism presents an account that frees the museum from classical ways of interpreting museums as institutions conveying monolithic state narratives. The tolerant vernacular of this account fleshes out the possibilities of imagining nationhood engendered at and by the museum, which yields experiential and unassuming analyses of the NMB. Experimentally presented as a biography of the museum, the chapters bring together the NMB’s history, museum theory, and observations. The institutional history reveals apparent disagreements between written sources on the museum and an outdated legislation. Postmodernist museum theories locate the NMB as a place for imagining nationhoods. Experiences at the NMB expose contingent understandings of identity and reveal a trail of private capital in the form of statements on object labels and donation plaques. In short, this study identifies manifestations of private capital and references to national identity at the NMB through an eclectic analysis of the museum.