Fiction as curatorial practice : rethinking Kyrgyz State Historical Museum through Mukai Elebaev's The Long Way

Abstract

This thesis explores the curatorial potential of exhibiting a literary novel in a historical museum, focusing on the 1916 Uprising in Central Asia. It examines Mukai Elebaev’s The Long Way and the State Historical Museum in Bishkek as narrative texts, using critical museology, narratology, memory studies, and decolonial theory. Through interdisciplinary analysis and critical museum visit frameworks, the thesis proposes a hypothetical audio-based installation integrating the novel into the museum. Curating emerges as a method blending theory and imagination, aiming to introduce narrative, affective, and decolonial strategies into a post-Soviet, didactic museological context.