ABSTRACT
In discussing museum texts in terms of their language, and the ways in which the organisational, interactional, and representational frameworks can illuminate the meaning-making resources of these texts, it has been impossible not to draw connections between the written texts and the immediate situational setting to which these texts relate. Texts in museums are necessarily connected with the exhibits, exhibitions and institutions of which they are a part. In the preceding chapters, we have seen some of the ways in which the language of museum texts actively constructs meanings across each of the communication frameworks, and thus how language contributes to the overall meanings made in museums. The meanings at stake need to be interpreted in context, and the immediate context is that of museums themselves as a kind of ‘text’: a space which makes meanings, and which can be ‘read’. As texts, museums are a powerful, communicative resource; all their constitutive practices – the written and verbal texts that take place there, the choice of exhibits and method of their display, the activities that are made available to visitors, and more – make meaning, in multiple ways (cf. Coxall 1991; MacDonald 1998). Language is one, important part of these meaning-making processes, but to more fully understand the significance of language and its contribution to meaning-making, it is necessary to broaden the perspective, and to explore an expanded notion of ‘text’, that is, of the museum itself as a kind of text.
