Psychoanalytic Structures in Museum Critiques: A Path to Post-Critical Analysis

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Histories, Museum Studies, and Postfoundational Thought (Table 5)

Abstract

This research conducted at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art examines the museum's historical transition towards critical narratives through a poststructural lens, utilizing Foucault and Deleuze and Guattari's frameworks to explore the embedded psychoanalytic structures within critical theories. It critiques the reductive structures prevalent in conventional critical theory, which often limit the generation of new ideas and compel individuals to define themselves through restrictive relational frameworks. This study aims to propose a post-critical approach that advocates for a shift from the 20th-century episteme to more dynamic and inclusive modes of knowledge and identity formation in cultural and educational institutions.

Author

• William Zhou, The George Washington University