ABSTRACT

Leila Aboulela’s short story, “The Museum”, was the winner of the first Caine Prize for African Writing in 2000, arguably the most prestigious contemporary award for African writing. Ben Okri, the chair of the first Caine Prize, praised the story as “moving, gentle, ironic, quietly angry and beautifully written”. This article examines how Aboulela’s story engages the interrelated politics surrounding museums – as institutions of power, sites of knowledge production and of memory and memorialization that construct particular narratives of the past and present, cultural spaces that narrate the nation; and as “contact zones” or spaces of encounter and conflict. Aboulela’s story contributes to the timely discourse about the politics and poetics of museum spaces and practices in the context of the work of decolonizing institutions and knowledges, and serves as a reminder that western museums have not kept pace with the complex realities of a rapidly globalizing and multicultural world.

摘要

莱拉·阿伯勒（Leila Aboulela）的短篇小说“博物馆”（The Museum）是2000年第一届凯恩非洲写作奖的获得者，可以说是非洲文学最负盛名的当代奖项。第一届坚毅奖得主本·奥克里（Ben Okri）称赞这个故事“动人，温柔，讽刺，安静地愤怒和写得精美”。本文探讨了阿博埃拉的故事如何与博物馆相关的政治互动-权力机构，知识生产场所，记忆和纪念馆，构成了过去和现在的特殊叙事，以及描述国家的文化空间；以及作为“接触区”或遭遇与冲突的空间。Aboulela的故事有助于在非殖民化机构和知识的工作背景下适时论述博物馆空间和实践的政治和诗学，