Visitor experience as translation: Intertextuality and identity in experiences of an American Chinese museum

Robert John Neather*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    Abstract

    This paper explores the museum visitor experience as a form of translation. It argues that if a given exhibition can be seen as a cultural translation, then it is also true that the visitor’s reading of that exhibition constitutes a further layer of translation, as the visitor enacts their own transformation of the culture on display. The paper draws on intertextuality as a means to understand the ways in which this transformation occurs. It delineates a three-level typology of intertexts employed by the visitor and considers how the use of such intertexts constructs the visitor’s positionality in regard to the exhibition. The paper focuses on data from a diasporic museum, the Museum of Chinese in America, and applies a methodology involving analysis of TripAdvisor reviews and post-visit diaries to the online museum. The paper concludes that diaspora museums are a case in which the particular nexus of identity issues at work provide a more complex view of the visitor experience as translation.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)615-636
    Number of pages22
    JournalBabel
    Volume70
    Issue number5
    Early online date13 May 2024
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Aug 2024

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Communication
    • Language and Linguistics
    • Linguistics and Language

    User-Defined Keywords

    • museum translation
    • visitor experience
    • intertextuality
    • diaspora
    • Museum of Chinese in America

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