Abstract:
The field of museum translation research has tended to focus on issues of translation in cultural, art and ethnographic museums, while presentations of a more scientific nature have seen less attention. A theme of particular importance for museums in recent years has been that of extinction, climate change and ecological disaster. While these closely interlocking issues have been the subject of museological research, little has been said from the translation studies perspective.
This presentation begins to address this gap by exploring how scientific narratives of extinction and climate change are translated in the museum context. Translation here is understood in the broadest terms as a form of cultural representation in which the many curatorial strategies employed in the museum exhibition may be seen as “translational processes” (Decroupet, 2024, p. 6), and in which interlingual translation is only one element of translational activity taking place in the museum “translation zone” (Neather, 2021). The presentation will begin with an overview of recent museum exhibitions on extinction, climate change and ecological disaster, and provide a short account of an ongoing project that examines museum representation and visitor experience of such exhibitions. It will then proceed to a more detailed analysis of a specific exhibition from the perspective of narrative theory as developed by Baker (2006). In addition to understanding the “translational processes” at work in the exhibition, it thus also seeks to suggest how a narrative understanding of museum exhibitionary practices might contribute to existing models of narrative analysis.
About the Speaker:
Robert Neather is Associate Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, where he was previously also Head of Programme and Department (2013-2022) and Director of the Centre for Translation (2013-2019). His research has focused mainly on translation in the Chinese museum context, and has explored several areas including verbal/visual interactions in translation, intertextuality in translated museum narratives, and issues of expertise, identity and collaboration in the production of museum translations. He has published in various venues including Meta, Semiotica, Babel and The Translator. His book Translating for Museums, Galleries and Heritage Sites (2024) is published in the Routledge “Translation Practices Explained” series.
Background Readings:
Baker, M. (2006). Translation and conflict: A narrative account. Routledge
Decroupet, S. (2024). Translating environmental memory in a natural history museum. Museum Management and Curatorship, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2024.2331458
Neather, R. J. (2021). Museums as translation zones. In E. Bielsa & D. Kapsaskis (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of translation and globalization (pp. 306-319). Routledge.