Shaping memory through translation: Inclusive or exclusive museum narratives of the First World War

One of the First World War fronts, the Isonzo/Soča Front, was located roughly along today's border between Italy and Slovenia. The memory of this heritage is preserved in several museums both in Italy and Slovenia, but the narrative expressed in them can vary considerably and it can influence the way in which the events represented in the museum are experienced by visitors through the translations. In this paper, two museums will be compared, the Museum of the Great War in Cividale in Italy and the Kobarid Museum in Slovenia, which are located in adjacent areas. The aim of the article is to show how different viewpoints on the war and its resolution are reflected in the narratives of the museums, the choice of languages in which the exhibition texts are translated and in the translations themselves. The data collected for each museum (photographs of museum materials, web pages) were analysed qualitatively and compared to elicit common features and differences. Two different viewpoints were explored: 1) the museum as an instance of intersemiotic translation of experiences into images and text, which can help bring forward or marginalize different actors; 2) the museum as a possible means of cultural mediation and reconciliation.