Welcome to my world: researching the role of personal narrative and affective presence at Graceland
Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study explores the visitor experience at one of the world's most \nfamous historic houses, Graceland, Elvis Presley's home. The research \nmethodology prioritises the visitor's voice, examining the impact of the Graceland \nexperience on visitor perception. Particular attention is paid to theories of \npersonal narrative and affective presence as interpretive devices. Personal \nMeaning Maps from 170 visitors form the core data and provide evidence of the \nprofound conceptual changes that occur in visitors' perceptions of Elvis. Visitors \nconsistently describe Elvis as a 'real' person, with personal characteristics such \nas humility and generosity proving more memorable than his fame or career. \nThe Graceland tour is designed for visitors to connect with Elvis in an \naffective manner, evoking emotions and relying on narratives of family and \nnostalgic discourses. This succeeds in providing visitors with an experience that \nchallenges and extends their pre-visit views of Elvis as the 'King of Rock and \nRoll.' The ability to change visitor perception is linked to the quality of the \nexperience, as Adams et al. (2003) suggests, 'the better the experience, the \ngreater the change' (p. 22). The transformations documented at Graceland \nprompted investigation, searching for indicators of quality interpretation through \nanalysis of the audio tour content and visitor photographs. This examination \nreveals a set of interpretive practices potentially useful for other historic \nproperties, including the contextualising of space through personal accounts, the \nintroduction of emotive media, and a reliance on a narrative that is personal \nrather than objective. This set of practices is framed within the context of the \n`Experience Economy,' which proves to be a useful tool for examining the \nsuccesses of the Graceland tour and visitor impact. While historic sites struggle to find new audiences and compel current audiences to return, this experience \nframework yields new insights into concepts of effective historic house \ninterpretation.
Source: IOE EPrints
Author: Mariruth Leftwich
Language: English
Subfield: Museology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W607516583