A series of talks for translation scholars and other interested parties
Organized by Anthony Pym as holder of the Walter Benjamin Chair
& Doktorandenkolloquium des ZTW
All translations are political acts in the sense that they mark the border between at least two polities, on different sides of relations of belonging. In this, translations assume a performative status, creating and re-creating lines of separation, rather than merely assuming them.
Seen from this perspective, the politics of translating concern not just the nature of the two sides but more importantly the power relations that bear on the translation situation itself: between translators, clients, project managers, technological experts, cultural policies and state regimes, not to mention the communication technologies themselves, who controls what, and to what end?
Similar questions can be asked of translations themselves: What choices to they offer to their users? Which choices do they take off the table? Is there a way in which the performative use of translations might enhance political liberty, rather than use mediation merely in order to control?
And beyond the production and use of translations, what repercussions do these decisions have on the history and future of political bodies as such?
This series of talks seeks to sketch out the questions to be answered by a politics of translating.
[Click on the poster to get to the video of the respective talk!]