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- Volume 1, Issue 1, 2022
Translation in Society - Volume 1, Issue 1, 2022
Volume 1, Issue 1, 2022
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Where translation studies and the social meet
Author(s): Luc van Doorslaer and Jack McMartinpp.: 1–14 (14)More LessAbstractThis article outlines some main developments that have led to the recent emergence of research on the ‘sociology of translation.’ Such research adopts approaches from the broader social sciences, particularly sociology, but is also directly related to the so-called ‘cultural turn’ within translation studies. The scope of translation research has subsequently expanded to include cultural and power-related issues, creating common ground with the social sciences both in terms of how translation is conceptualized and the methods used to study it. Translation has come to be understood as a socially situated relation with difference, just as translation practitioners and researchers have been understood as complex, situated agents acting within and across the social spheres that condition cross-cultural, multilingual exchange. This orientation opens the way for new discoveries at the intersection of translation studies and the social sciences – work Translation in Society seeks to advance.
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Translating (political) religious and secularist worldviews in a post-secular age
Author(s): Salah Basalamahpp.: 15–34 (20)More LessAbstractInspired by the works of François Burgat, Jürgen Habermas and Jean-Marc Ferry, this paper addresses the notions of the religious, the political, the radical/extreme, the conservative, the secular and the social as the objects of an extended conception of translation that defines translation as a mode of intercomprehension between competing or adversary groups within a single or among diverse societies. Shifting focus away from textual manipulations, it conceives of translation as a form of active engagement in social and discursive negotiations and explores translation as it brings about change in the dynamics of intergroup and intercultural relations.
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Palimpsests of plague
Author(s): David Inglispp.: 35–64 (30)More LessAbstractThis paper examines aspects of how language, translations, narratives, and plagues have been in interplay in the past, with a view to setting out some possible lessons for today. It looks at two types of practices. First, when people make plague-related translations of texts with religious or medical content from one language to another, producing and reproducing texts that enjoy certain forms of persisting authority in guiding thought and practice related to handling and making sense of major disease outbreaks. Second, when people turn plague phenomena into narratives with story arcs, narratives which can endure over time and shape subsequent understandings of later outbreaks. Despite more complexity and multiplicity in social configurations and communications today, many of the phenomena concerning translation and narration that have happened in plague scenarios of the past have again played out during the Covid-19 pandemic, albeit with distinctive modern colourings.
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On polarization
Author(s): Brian James Baerpp.: 65–82 (18)More LessAbstractThe ideological incommensurability of the worldviews or master narratives represented by the two opposing superpowers during the Cold War and embodied in the image of an impenetrable iron curtain gave particular salience to translation theory while also questioning the very possibility of translation. At the same time, the neoimperialist projects of the two superpowers produced startlingly similar approaches to the instrumentalization of translation as a vehicle for propaganda and diplomacy. Presenting polarization as a distinct state of semiosis, the effects of which are highly unpredictable, this article explores the various ways in which the radical polarization of the Cold War shaped the theory and practice of translation both within and across the ideological divide. Plotting the entanglements of the light and dark sides of translation during this time challenges traditional histories of the field that construe the period as one of progress and liberation.
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After the storm
Author(s): Nicole Doerr and Beth Gharrity Gardnerpp.: 83–104 (22)More LessAbstractThis study investigates the translational practices of far-right activists in Germany through content analysis of storytelling about the January 6 storming of the US Capitol in influential German alternative news websites. Findings reveal how far-right commentators used their intermediary position to re-narrate, translate, and convert ‘mainstream’ accounts of an exceptionally contentious event into stories supporting far-right- wing and extremist identities. Re-narrations of January 6 events characterized protesters as victim-heroes and contrasted them with the true villains responsible for the chaos and violence, which included a broad spectrum of political actors on the ideological left writ large.
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From translation zone to sacrifice zone
Author(s): Michael Croninpp.: 105–124 (20)More LessAbstractOne of the most extreme challenges facing humanity at present is the climate crisis. Responding appropriately to this crisis requires a fundamental re-examination of received ways of thinking about translation, among other things. Contrasting the eco-minor with the eco-major mode of representing ecological crisis, we argue for the importance of minority perspectives in developing an expanded remit for translation studies in the context of the climate emergency. The concepts of relational and situational minority are advanced to explore how indigenous translation hermeneutics can inform climate debates. In line with environmental debates around the importance of ‘thinking outdoors’, we advocate for a notion of ‘translating outdoors’ and seek to incorporate this line of enquiry into the development of the concept of the city as more-than-human translation zone. In the coming age of extreme climate conditions, no socially responsible understanding of translation can afford to ignore ecological perspectives on the practice.
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Review of Nergaard (2021): Translation and Transmigration
Author(s): Wenjie Lipp.: 125–129 (5)More LessThis article reviews Translation and Transmigration
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Translaboration
Author(s): Cornelia Zwischenberger and Alexa Alfer
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Global translation history
Author(s): Diana Roig-Sanz
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After the storm
Author(s): Nicole Doerr and Beth Gharrity Gardner
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