The escape room as commemorative and edutaining tool to the Allied bombing of Nijmegen: A playful approach to fraught history
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2023-10-20
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en
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This thesis analyzed the possibility for a commemorative and edutaining escape room based on the Allied bombing of Nijmegen and its consequently problematic commemoration history: it has never been apologized for by the perpetrator; was executed by a friendly partner which months later liberated the city and caused for a perpetrator-liberator paradox where citizens could not express their negative emotions regarding the attack; regardless of the enormous impact of the bombing it was never adopted into Dutch collective narrative, nor did the Dutch government and the Queen adequately respond to the situation; and the local municipality never delivered on their responsibility to provide its citizens with proper means of commemoration for the city’s civilian casualties. This situation where people do not recognize their feelings and emotions in institutional war-commemoration has occurred in different situations of fraught history as well, where it was dealt with by a playful manner which stands opposite of saturating educational approaches and the institutional meanings of the monument. Within the playful approach a free space is opened where one can interact with fraught history and emotions, and where no one can impose on how one should play. This playful approach is connected to the case-study of Nijmegen where it should fill the gap between the tragedy and its modern commemoration.
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Faculteit der Letteren