Paper Short Abstract:

Discussion about methodological challenges in unwriting the space of emotions when it comes to the creation of textual and visual representations of male reproductive organs, penises, by museum visitors in the guestbooks of the Icelandic Phallological Museum.

Paper Abstract:

Guestbooks have long been used as a form of registration for the names and nationalities of people who use payment services of various kinds. In recent years, such sources have been discussed in various academic ways and have been shown to be useful for describing people's views and attitudes, the spirit of the times and emotions. Guestbooks have been used by museums around the world and they have used them to gain insight into the reactions and experiences of visitors during their visit or to explore what opinions visitors have about what the museum has to offer. In this talk, academic writing about guestbooks will be discussed and put in the context of the guestbooks of the Icelandic Phallological Museum. Special attention will be paid to methodological challenges in unwriting the space of emotions when it comes to the creation of textual and visual representations of male reproductive organs, penises, by museum visitors in the guestbooks. Outside the walls of the museum, such writing and visual practices are generally stigmatized and met with outrage, humiliation and shame. The paper is based on discourse analysis of the visitor's register of the Icelandic Phallological Museum in the period 2008-2024.