Authors’ names:
- Elena V. Glushko, Aleksandra P. Zhukova, Polina A. Esakova, Elmira R. Musaeva – The Odintsovo Branch of MGIMO University, Odintsovo, Russia
Abstract:
The paper views translation as a complex social activity used, among other things, for further development of the museum culture and for adapting information for foreign-language visitors of museum exhibitions. After describing legal issues related to and linguistic features of museum labels and other types of exhibition texts, the authors provide contextual analysis of translation strategies used to render into English Russian exhibition texts for the projects ‘After Impressionism. Russian Painting in Dialogue with Modern Western Art’ (April 18 — August 20, 2023) and ‘The Excellent’ (February 9 — May 21, 2023), displayed at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Russian Impressionism in Moscow). The authors give specific examples from their collection of parallel Russian and English texts and conclude that Russian-English translation of exhibition texts and other textual materials for these projects could have been done more effectively, especially in terms of producing a desired emotional impact on foreign visitors. A thorough analysis of translated labels and other English exhibition texts used in current museum shows at the PSMF and the Museum of Russian Impressionism demonstrates a general adequacy of the translations made for the exhibitions, as the translators have succeeded in rendering the interactive character of the source texts by attending to the pragmatic aspect of translation, and used appropriate strategies for tackling non-equivalent units, successfully navigating both temporal and theme-rheme relations in both languages, and keeping in mind their potential audience — all in order to satisfy the intellectual and emotional needs of foreign visitors as well as present objects of Russian cultural heritage to their best advantage.
| Section | LANGUAGE AND CULTURE |
| DOI: | 10.47388/2072-3490/lunn2023-64-4-69-84 |
| Downloads | 93 |
| Key words | labelling; museum; translation from Russian into English; translation strategies; legal terms of museum collection storage and exhibititon |