Högskolan i Skövde

This work is about fiction in the museum, and an approach towards transmedia storytelling with two different methods of mediation. With background in literature on cultural heritage, mediation in museums, mediation of history, fiction, transmedia storytelling and adaptation, visitors’ discussions about an exhibition and a fictional text was examined. In order to make the two methods of mediation converge, a number of themes from the existing exhibition were adapted and encapsulated in a fictional story.The visitors were primarily interested in a historical discussion in regards to the two methods of mediation. The message in both methods was considered to be historical, although different reasons as to why were expressed. The discussion about the fictional text emanated from a traditional view of historical fiction, i.e. was considered by the visitors to be provocative or compelling fictional prose that may guide a visitor to the exhibit. Somewhat contradictory to this expressed meaning, the visitors’ discussion about the fiction revealed a more suggestive and imaginative relationship with the subject matter, suggesting that fiction in the museum is a means to problematize meaning making in the museum, if they should promote experiences or build frameworks for learning in an authoritative method of mediation.