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Article published In:
Computer-mediated communication in class: Fostering access to digital mediascapes
Edited by Stefania Maci and Marianna Lya Zummo
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 10:1] 2024
► pp. 74–93

Narrating/translating online plantation tourism

| University of Ferrara

The purpose of the essay is to conduct an analysis of plantation tourism websites in the USA South, measuring the degree to which the history of slavery remains (in)visible or is explained within online promotional texts like websites, and to outline if today the digital space can become a space for inclusivity and equality. The essay will be divided in two parts: the analysis of a corpus of 10 major Historical Plantations websites in order to outline the principal verbal and visual strategies used to portray the history of slavery in the American South, and a comparison of 3 websites which offer translations in Italian and/or French in order to outline differences, adaptations, omissions, changes in the target texts. The methodology used will refer to CDA, Social Semiotics and Tourism Translation with the primary aim of outlining all the aspects of a website as a multimodal text. The essay will offer the results of both a quantitative and qualitative analysis trying to show how plantations as tourist attractions are represented through linguistic, cultural, and visual choices that represent the tourist experience in a highly codified way, and to demonstrate how this representation is adapted into different languages/cultural contexts, often reducing information and useful data to attract international tourists, and simplifying the message.

Keywords: plantation tourism, museum website, tourism translation, social semiotics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Plantation tourism websites
  • 2.Data, methodology, and typologies
    • 2.1Typology 1: “Slaves as labourers”
      • 2.1.1San Francisco Plantation website
      • 2.1.2Magnolia Plantation and Gardens website
    • 2.2Typology 2: “Slaves history as part of the tourist site”
      • 2.2.1Middleton plantation
      • 2.2.2Boone hall plantation
    • 2.3Typology 3: Slavery as counter narrative
      • 2.3.1Menokin plantation
      • 2.3.2Somerset plantation
      • 2.3.3Oak alley plantation
    • 2.4Typology 4: Teaching inclusivity and equality
  • 3.Translating plantation tourism into Italian
    • 3.1Case studies: Laura a Creole Plantation and Whitney Plantation
      • 3.1.1Laura a Creole plantation
      • 3.1.2Whitney plantation
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 9 February 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00127.fed
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