Sociolinguistics can help us grasp how collective memory cultures are (in part) shaped by representations of historic events through varied linguistic – and other – sources (e.g. education, news media, conversations and museum displays). In this study, we specifically zoom in on the curatorial selection process of a Belgian Second World War (WWII) memorial museum, whilst simultaneously exploring the reflexive relation between this curatorial process and the wider WWII remembrance context. To this end, we compare exhibited video testimony fragments to the full testimonies available in the museum's research centre, to examine which narratives were selected or silenced. Additionally, we confront fine-grained analyses of the testimonies with master narratives on WWII remembrance. As our analyses illustrate, the exhibited fragments align with these – typically coherent – master narratives, while the full testimonies are complex. Overall, we show that museums not only reflect master narratives, but are also sites for forging them.

中文翻译：

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反思与塑造大师叙事：比利时二战博物馆策展人选择过程的话语分析

社会语言学可以帮助我们了解集体记忆文化是如何（部分）由通过各种语言和其他来源（例如教育、新闻媒体、对话和博物馆展示）对历史事件的表征塑造的。在这项研究中，我们特别放大了比利时二战 (WWII) 纪念博物馆的策展选择过程，同时探索了这一策展过程与更广泛的二战纪念背景之间的反思关系。为此，我们将展示的视频证词片段与博物馆研究中心提供的完整证词进行比较，以检查哪些叙述被选择或沉默。此外，我们用二战纪念的主要叙述来面对对证词的细粒度分析。正如我们的分析所示，展出的片段与这些——通常是连贯的——主要叙述一致，而完整的证词则很复杂。总体而言，我们表明博物馆不仅反映了大师的叙事，而且还是锻造它们的场所。