E. L. Waterton, Rhetoric and Reality: Polities, and the Discourses of Heritage' in
Submission of thesis for PhD. Bibliographic details: 493 pages; 9
illustrations, 9 in colour; 26 tables; 29 figures, 27 in colour; 69pp. bibliography.
Over the past few decades, heritage has taken up a prominent position on public,
academic and policy agendas. However, precisely what heritage is, and what cultural
and social `work' it does, has yet to be adequately apprehended in a policy sense.
Instead, the immense range of concerns, values and meanings conceived by an array
of interest groups has been distilled and generalised into a seemingly coherent
collection of policies. I low does this work?
This research examines the discursive constructions of heritage and charts the
development and dissemination of an aiilhorised Lierrluge discourse (AlID). Asa point of
conflict, the thesis takes up a particular interest in the intersection of this discourse
with recent calls of social inclusion. Primarily, the aim is to reveal the work (both
linguistically and socially) the Al ID does in diminishing alternative heritage
perspectives. In order to do so, this thesis places acute focus on policymaking and
draws on a range of debates emerging from the social sciences. Principally, it employs
the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of Critical Di. icoitrso, Analysis, but
this is supplemented with Q illelhodoloiy, in-depth interviewing and participant
observations. This multi-method approach requires a dual focus that examines both
the social contexts and linguistic features surrounding the practice of heritage
management. As such, considerable interest is placed upon the syntaxical,
grammatical and lexical constructions of heritage internal to a collection of policy
documents, including the ANIA11 (1979), the NI1r1 (1983), PPG 15, Power of Place: I he
Fntrire o% the Ilistoric fnviro, rmeiit, The Historic Environment:
. -A Force for our Future, and
the IIerila; e Protection Review. The constructions of `heritage' embedded within these
documents is simultaneously analysed against the external context of the heritage
sector in England.
The research concludes that the dominant notion of `heritage', revolving around an
uncritical collection of assumptions regarding the immutable, physical nature of
heritage, revered for its rarity, aesthetics, age and monumentality and conserved for
the educational and informational benefit of future generations, continues to hold
considerable influence. 'this dominance has continued despite recent calls for social
inclusion and an increased interest in `public value'. As such, it is argued that new
emphases of inclusivity and plurality operate at the level of rhetoric only, and rarely
translate in reality. Instead, the : AIID continues to create, sustain and promote a
particular way of seeing heritage. Moreover, this dominant vision does not appear to
dominate, it appears as natural.