Doing pasts: authenticity from the reenactors’ perspective

Anne Brædder; Kim Esmark; Tove Elisabeth Kruse; Carsten Tage Nielsen; Anette Elisabeth Warring

doi:10.1080/13642529.2017.1315969

Doing pasts: authenticity from the reenactors’ perspective

Anne Brædder, Kim Esmark, Tove Elisabeth Kruse, Carsten Tage Nielsen, Anette Elisabeth Warring

Institut for Kommunikation og Humanistisk Videnskab

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

Abstract

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Tidsskrift	Rethinking History
Vol/bind	21
Udgave nummer	2
Sider (fra-til)	171-192
Antal sider	22
ISSN	1364-2529
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2017.1315969
Status	Udgivet - 2017

Link til dokument

10.1080/13642529.2017.1315969

Citer dette

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title = "Doing pasts: authenticity from the reenactors{\textquoteright} perspective",

abstract = "This article investigates how authenticity is construed and negotiated in four different fields of reenactment practice in Denmark (Iron Age, Middle Age, World War II and Francis of Assisi). It first outlines some key theoretical positions within recent international academic debate on reenactment and living history. Taking the viewpoint of the reenactors themselves, the article explores and compares how they create, experience and negotiate authenticity in the very process of imitating and embodying pasts. It transpires that authenticity is articulated, construed and evaluated differently, according, inter alia, to whether the primarily purpose is to learn about the past or rather to learn from the past. For some reenactors, the attempt to get as close as possible to the past connects to an ideal of historical accuracy, a standard from which all replicas and performances are measured. Yet a pragmatic recognition that the past can never be recreated completely is constantly present. For other reenactors, the doing of pasts is a way of accessing experiences and values that are felt to have been lost in modernity. At the same time, however, it is all-important to them that the world they imitate is a past that actually existed and not a fictional universe.",

keywords = "Reenactment, World War II reenactors, authenticity, living history, medieval reenactors, pilgrims, prehistoric families, uses of the past",

author = "Anne Br{\ae}dder and Kim Esmark and Kruse, {Tove Elisabeth} and Nielsen, {Carsten Tage} and Warring, {Anette Elisabeth}",

year = "2017",

doi = "10.1080/13642529.2017.1315969",

language = "English",

volume = "21",

pages = "171--192",

journal = "Rethinking History",

issn = "1364-2529",

publisher = "Routledge",

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T1 - Doing pasts

T2 - authenticity from the reenactors’ perspective

AU - Brædder, Anne

AU - Esmark, Kim

AU - Kruse, Tove Elisabeth

AU - Nielsen, Carsten Tage

AU - Warring, Anette Elisabeth

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - This article investigates how authenticity is construed and negotiated in four different fields of reenactment practice in Denmark (Iron Age, Middle Age, World War II and Francis of Assisi). It first outlines some key theoretical positions within recent international academic debate on reenactment and living history. Taking the viewpoint of the reenactors themselves, the article explores and compares how they create, experience and negotiate authenticity in the very process of imitating and embodying pasts. It transpires that authenticity is articulated, construed and evaluated differently, according, inter alia, to whether the primarily purpose is to learn about the past or rather to learn from the past. For some reenactors, the attempt to get as close as possible to the past connects to an ideal of historical accuracy, a standard from which all replicas and performances are measured. Yet a pragmatic recognition that the past can never be recreated completely is constantly present. For other reenactors, the doing of pasts is a way of accessing experiences and values that are felt to have been lost in modernity. At the same time, however, it is all-important to them that the world they imitate is a past that actually existed and not a fictional universe.

AB - This article investigates how authenticity is construed and negotiated in four different fields of reenactment practice in Denmark (Iron Age, Middle Age, World War II and Francis of Assisi). It first outlines some key theoretical positions within recent international academic debate on reenactment and living history. Taking the viewpoint of the reenactors themselves, the article explores and compares how they create, experience and negotiate authenticity in the very process of imitating and embodying pasts. It transpires that authenticity is articulated, construed and evaluated differently, according, inter alia, to whether the primarily purpose is to learn about the past or rather to learn from the past. For some reenactors, the attempt to get as close as possible to the past connects to an ideal of historical accuracy, a standard from which all replicas and performances are measured. Yet a pragmatic recognition that the past can never be recreated completely is constantly present. For other reenactors, the doing of pasts is a way of accessing experiences and values that are felt to have been lost in modernity. At the same time, however, it is all-important to them that the world they imitate is a past that actually existed and not a fictional universe.

KW - Reenactment

KW - World War II reenactors

KW - authenticity

KW - living history

KW - medieval reenactors

KW - pilgrims

KW - prehistoric families

KW - uses of the past

U2 - 10.1080/13642529.2017.1315969

DO - 10.1080/13642529.2017.1315969

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1364-2529

VL - 21

SP - 171

EP - 192

JO - Rethinking History

JF - Rethinking History

IS - 2

ER -