Local and global voices in the discourse of the Vesuvian International Institute PDF

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Lista saggi per svolgere l'esame di lingua e traduzione inglese I professoressa Rammairone....

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LOCAL AND GLOBAL VOICES IN THE DISCOURSE OF THE VESUVIAN INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE HUMANITIES: TACTICAL MANIPULATION AND CRITICAL MISALIGNMENTS The Vesuvian International Institute for Archeology and the Humanities is an establishment housing the Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation (RAS), which encouraged and contributed to the creation of the Institute in 2002 and currently promotes its activity. The RAS is a non-profit / not for profit Italian cultural organization founded in Washington and it is the result of a common initiative between the University of Maryland, the region of Campania and the Superintendency for Archeological of Naples and Pompeii. Their mission is to promote the richness of the Vesuvian area to foreign Universities and encourage academic tourism on and near the site. Thus the RAS has organized two touring exhibitions of archaeological finds: In Stabiano and Otium Ludes and, also promoting the creation of an Archaeological Park of almost sixty hectares on the site of ancient Stabiae. The Vesuvian International Institute for Archaeology and Humanities is additionally the only complex that houses schools, Italian and foreign universities, culture groups and scientists who study the Vesuvian area. The Foundation bases its activities on the belief that cultural heritage belongs to the whole world and sees archeology as an opportunity to meet and exchange experiences with different cultures. The idea of a tourism that is more focused on environmental and social value is then adopted. The discourse of the Vesuvian Institute may be of interest to a linguist because the strategies the Institute employs to present a common voice from the various aspects and interests of its individual members, will be identified in the following text. Nowadays it is crucial for a company of any size to be alert to misalignments among its multiple identities which can weaken its reach. The materials making up the small corpus to be analyzed are: -RAS Master Plan -the “In Stabiano exhibition brochure” - the Vesuvian Institute “Italy Pleasure and Culture” and “Vesuvian Archaeology” brochures -the Vesuvian Institute website Essentially, the analysis will focus on the specific genres of Master Plans, the Public Relations (PR) brochures and websites and their lexico-grammatical and rhetorical features in the specific texts identified. ANALYSIS From the analysis of the external and internal communication of RAS, it is possible to identify the strategies to build identities which are manifested in the discourse by offering/allowing different (sometimes contradictory) experiences into a coherent temporal structure. The documents analyzed are: -Internal communication (Internal Reporting): RAS Master Plan 2001 - External communication (PR discourse): “In Stabiano”, the brochure produced for the first exhibition of Archaeological Finds (2004); “Italy Pleasure and Culture”, a generic promotional brochure; “Vesuvian archaeology”, a two-week program; and a website. RAS INTERNAL COMMUNICATION In this section the focus will be on the “conversations” within the Vesuvian Institute. All the actors involved in the RAS project are considered and the different voices are regarded as a single entity. Their communication is thus viewed as internal. The specific document analyzed is the RAS Master Plan 2001. Trough a Master Plan, it is possible to understand the nature and beliefs of an Institution and, consequently, the strategies the institution employs to present a single voice. Indeed, in this document, multiple identities have to merge and express themselves in a coherent, convincing manner. The two RAS Master Plan sections of major interest in terms of communications, are: “Introduction: The Restoring Ancient Stabiae Project” (which has a narrative value in the first half and a descriptive/normative

value in the second half) and “The Didactic Mission” (which moves between descriptive, argumentative and normative). in the first pages emerges a unique and multifaceted entity of Vesuvian Institute discourse (thanks to a unified collaboration of archaeologists, architects, planners, conservators etc.). In the same pages are identified the main actors of Master Plan: the Soprintendenza, the City of Castellammare di Stabia and the Ministry of Culture. The main objective is outlined quite clearly: The shaping of an archaeological park which focuses primarily on placing the great seaside luxury villas of the Late Roman Republic and early Empire in their total cultural and environmental context, by using the The Discourse of the Vesuvian International Institute 413 known archaeological remains at Stabiae. This context is the culture of “otium” [...] (Ibidem: 12) The RAS target seems far-reaching, since its list of stakeholders features not only staff at the University of Maryland but the international professional communities of archaeology and architecture, reaching out to include tourists, local schools, Italian and American professional archaeologists, designers, and conservators, and the whole city in which the future archaeological park is located. The RAS Master Plan deploys mainly present and future tenses and this choice is probably meant to convey a sense of planning for the future and near future fulfilment. Another important section of the RAS Master Plan is the penultimate section, which outlines the RAS foundation's ‘Principal Didactic Mission’: “The central experience of the tourist or student visitor to the archaeological park at Stabiae should focus on the culture of art and power of the great seaside villas of the late Roman Republic and early Empire” (ibidem: 121). One of the core aspects of the RAS Master Plan is that it draws a neat divide between the different realities of a park and a site: - The archaeological park aims to present this culture in its total human-made, natural, and social context; the presentation must consist of a combination of material found on the site and archaeological comparanda from literature, other sites, and comparative studies. - A normal archaeological site focuses on the physical remains on the site. Creating an obligation is an act based on social power of some kind. The specific targets to be achieved by the Master Plan are therefore described in the document mostly through recourse to a modal of weak or 'hedged' obligation: [...] where the speaker, in subjective examples of Root MUST, demanded action, with subjective SHOULD, he only suggests it. In the case of MUST, the speaker expects to be obeyed, but in the case of SHOULD there is no such expectation. (Coates 1983: 58-59) So far, there is no published study on the lexico-grammatical and rhetorical aspects of Master Plans. A high occurrence of the modal 'shall' expressing the volition and prediction category could be assumed likely in a genre that manifests itself as a communicative event with the purpose of setting out how something will develop. “Shall” is, indeed, “fairly common in legal texts” and is used “to issue directives”. The RAS Master Plan has been contrasted with a Master Plan similarly aimed at setting out the objectives and strategies to manage the development and change over time of a similar site, revealing that the vision

to guide the growth and development of that specific center is often outlined in the document in question by using 'shall', as appears in this short extract: ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCES RECOMMENDATIONS The following guiding principles shall form the basis of the Archaeological Resource Recommendations for Maximo Park. Guiding Principles - Protect and safeguard for coming generations. - Promote respectful visitation. - Recognize the sacred nature attributed to the mound by tribal people. (Maximo Park Master Plan: 13) In other cases, in the same document, this objective is sketched out in a simple list. The modal 'shall' seems to reappear in the list at regular intervals, as we can see in this extract: The new mound shall be accurate, like a museum exhibit, with signage clearly identifying it as a reconstruction. The mound shall not be constructed with any materials from the historic mounds and middens. (Ibidem: 14-18) In other cases, particularly when the reference is to works that are already under way, the future tense is used to indicate prediction: Boat Ramp Improvement Project fill will be placed in portions of the archaeological site with less deeply buried artifacts to help avoid adverse impacts to the newly identified site. Some of the proposed ground disturbances will be shallow enough so as not to impact the intact archaeological deposits. (Ibidem: 12) Comparison with another similar Master Plan, the Istanbul Historic Peninsula Site Management Plan, has helped identify yet another strategy that can be used to convey the idea of a detailed plan setting out how something will develop. The modal 'shall' seems to be the strategy most frequently employed in the two documents. The choice of 'should' in the RAS Master Plan seems to stand out as a crucial stylistic choice betraying a precise intention: leaving the objectives and strategies described at the level of recommendations. This choice is probably also an identity-managing mechanism. The preference for 'should' seems to be a result of the complex, common yet multifaceted identity of the Vesuvian Institute expressing itself. The crucial role of such local scholars is clearly stated in the RAS Master Plan, as this extract shows: In addition to the international scholars centered on Pompeii who have worked and published on the site, there are now almost two generations of local scholarship and publishing begun by Libero D’Orsi in 1950 and continued by the Comitato per gli Scavi di Stabiae. The persistence of this type of “local” scholar is essential for coordinating the highly fragmentary chance finds of the last centuries and incorporating them into a coherent picture. (RAS Master Plan: 129) This is just a tentative explanation for a linguistic signal which seems to stand out on the basis of solely personal intuition. The RAS Master Plan effectively manifests the foundation’s desire to encourage both resident involvement through clearly detailing what it can offer them, and the interest of a world-wide ‘curious and self-educating public’ that it aims to educate possibly so as to instill in them ‘the belief that cultural heritage belongs to the whole world’.

The 2004 In Stabiano exhibition presented itself as a concerted publicity programme, using coordinated advertising through a variety of media focused on a specific objective: the promotion of the RAS ‘cause’. This becomes ‘a win-win agreement’ from the American perspective, quoting a 2002 treaty intended to suppress illegal exportation of antiquities by allowing for long-term loans from Italy to the US: Italy benefits from the U.S. import restrictions that will protect its preclassical, classical, and imperial Roman antiquities [...] that [...] long lain unstudied and unpublished in Italian storerooms for lack of personnel [...]. Meanwhile, American museums will be able to mount a variety of loan exhibitions [...], and the public will have new opportunities [...]. (Waldbaum 2003) RAS is mentioned in the article quoted above as a foundation ‘which helped sponsor the show’. But the exhibition seems to become a subtle form of 'commercial' advertising when seen from the Italian’s perspective. It seems to be and occasion to raise funds, as may be seen in this extract from the In Stabiano brochure: [...] to supplement funds from European and Italian public institutions, which will provide some 70% of the projected 140 million dollar ten-year global budget, RAS is researching a fundraising structure in the US which will combine a private fundraising institutional structure with the nonprofit status of the University of Maryland. (Vesuvian Institute, In Stabiano) In contrasting this advertising brochure, the voice of RAS for a specific event, with the other documents analyzed in this section, considered together as the part of RAS external communications that may be described as Public Relations (PR) and longer-term discourse – it is also interesting to notice consistent recourse to the third person singular pronoun, probably used as a strategy both to test the water, avoid taking on too much responsibility in a new enterprise, particularly in a foreign country, and to abdicate or to minimize direct responsibility in financial matters. The Public Relations (PR) discourse mentioned above, the efforts to maintain mutual understanding between the foundation and its public, is in the brochures and website produced and maintained by RAS and the Vesuvian Institute joint venture. In the comparison between the Italian and English documents for this study, it can be noticed how language has been used and pictures have been manipulated differently in the two languages/cultures to the identical end of selling' the RAS idea. Only the salient aspect Will be Lister in what follows. The characteristics seem to reveal a "schizophrenic" identity of the Vesuvian Institute, maybe because of the fact that many people wrote it together and/or a poor translation and/or the low quality of the original documents. The most recent documents present different pictures, better communications between the voices and improved translation skill, possibly as the result of the attention brought to the issue by this study. In terms of verbal communication, in the Italy Pleasure and Culture brochure, with its switches from/into the impersonal voice across the two languages which may have been caused, to a great extent, by translation problems, the Vesuvian Institute seems to identify with their excellent cultural mediators guiding prospective participants to discover the beauties and treasures of the area (‘i nostri eccellenti operatori culturali’/ ‘our excellent cultural mediators’, rendered as an awkward ‘Our primary focus is to present local culture in the company of specialized archaeologists and researchers, who accompany the visitors on an unforgettable experience’). The Italian version seems to promote the involvement of local residents by the identification with a common culture (la nostra cultura/ our culture). It becomes "local" instead of "common" in the English

version, since It speaks to an International audience. In this case, indeed, the Vesuvian Institute speaks about its educational mission (‘We offer numerous excursions for elementary, middle and High schools’), but ‘le proposte turistico-culturali’ (‘tourist/cultural packages’ or ‘tourist/cultural initiatives’) mysteriously turns into ‘excursions’. As for non-verbal communication, the Vesuvian Institute speaks about the change to open to the world of international, young, (privileged?) multiethnic students. By contrast, the ‘local’ presence is presented to the international youthful public in the shape of an elderly man placed on the left, and so represented as "Given", an "agreed-upon point of departure" that the producers of the photograph seem to have aligned themselves with. With his hands on hips, he man is looking at (talking to?) two younger men. This may represent the stereotype that Americans have of Italians about the hands on hips sign. It can be better described with this New York Times article: "Putting the hands on hips expresses a variety of meanings. Authority, self-assertion. Not only among Neapolitans, but among peoples of all nations, placing the hands on the hips with the chest pushed out and the head held high or even tilted back a little represents someone who, with or without foundation, claims talent, power or superiority of any kind. Sovereigns, generals and heroes and other haughty people are commonly depicted in this posture." It Is interesting to notice that, in one of the new brochures, the elderly man was artfully cut out of the picture, maybe for a change of perspective or because of the attention on external communications. Moreover, there are no used of the first person pronouns in both languages, and there appears to be an emphasis on the cultural and scientific nature of the whole enterprise instead. It also speaks about the culture of food and gastronomy. However, the online discourse seems to stress the tourist rather than the cultural component, switching the terms of the equation (from ‘a cultural and scientific association of researchers and food enthusiasts but also a place to taste, learn, and experience firsthand the cuisine that makes this area so renowned for its gastronomy’ to ‘a holiday within a scientific and archaeological research structure’, thus merely promoting the symbolic consumption of Italy's products in general: ‘archaeology, history, art, environment, good food and conviviality’). The communicative strategies deployed ultimately seem to have the effect of turning ‘the richness of the Vesuvian area’ into just another object of trade, and the expertise and welcoming warmth of its human component (the team of specialists at the Vesuvian Institute and the local community at large) into mere economic items intended for exchange. As unintentional as this may be, the market value of the Italian ethnic identity seems to replace its human and social value, and the latter thus becomes ‘spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish’, an 'Other' to eat, a resource for pleasure, in short a cultural commodification. A similar thing happened to Americans (transformed into urban Disneylands, simulacra through commodification), indeed the Vesuvian Institute seems to be willing to give a semiotic shape of a "Little Italy" to Italy, a sort of cultural Disneyland abroad. Interestingly, one Ornella Valanzano, a spokesperson of the RAS foundation for the international visitors at the In Stabiano exhibition, speaks about the face that Stabiae was the wealthiest and most amusing place on earth, "like Palm Beach". Valanzano says of the bluff above her home town of Castellammare di Stabia. “At that time, marble was more expensive than gold”.

The enduring American interest in classical culture has recently found newer, more culturally sophisticated forms of expression, switching from the earlier influences on architecture to the current taste for historical and epic parallels (amongst many, those between Obama and Commodus in Grygiel 2014 and those between Trump, Gilgamesh, Achilles and David in Heer 2015). The form of business communication of this paper Is based on this fascination that made possible a collaboration in the Vesuvian area that is ‘unusual in the annals of modern archaeology’ in so far as it was expected to envision ‘a unified collaboration of archaeologists, architects, planners, landscape architects, conservators, museologists, engineers, ecologists’ from different cultures, and invites the institutions to improve the development and management of archeology in Europe. What seemed to emerge from this preliminary analysis (the examination of the linguistic, visual and intuitive data), there is a schizophrenic representation of the identity of the Vesuvian Institute, most probably as a result of the different voices making it up, and certainly of the surprisingly poor quality of the documents produced up until the time when information for this study was retrieved. The Institute’s internal communication has been analyzed focusing on its Master Plan, which is a crucial document in identifying the strategies deployed by a company to present a single voice, since this document normally provides a long-range and shared vision of its goals: it guides decisions about the main issues affecting the activities of all stakeholders. The RAS Master Plan would seem to be an interesting object of analysis due to the paucity of either modals "shall" (expressing the volition and prediction category) and "must" expressing obligation and necessity would seem to be typical of a genre that manifests itself as a communicative event whose purpose is to set out how something will develop) in its key sections (second and penultimate). The Master Plan of the Vesuvian Institute, of compared with the ones of the 2013 Maximo Park Master Plan and the 2011 Istanbul Historic Peninsula Site Management Plan, shows more hedged forms of expressing how the institution’s activity will develop in the future seems to stand out as a crucia...