How Museums Tell Stories

How Museums Tell Stories is the first book to try to explain how museums “work” as a medium that narrates stories, both intentionally and unintentionally.

Story—in life and in museums—is a phenomenon that people perceive, represent, and interpret thanks to the qualities of tellability and narrativity. Tellability attracts our attention; narrativity is the set of elements that enable us to perceive a story is being told—or could be. The book discusses how and why these qualities are so present in museums, and how they enable these institutions to tell stories in many forms; at many scales; through many styles of representation; and to varying degrees. Drawing on conceptions of narrative from literary theory, psychology, and cognitive science, Wong offers a shared vocabulary for understanding and analyzing how story manifests in museums at the level of objects, collections, exhibitions, and space.

How Museums Tell Stories will be essential reading for researchers and students who are interested in how museums engage audiences, as well as museum and cultural heritage practitioners who are seeking concepts and analytical tools that will help them to approach and evaluate their work in a more critical and conscientious way.