Abstract
For the young, yet already well-established academic field of cultural studies, linking translation and culture is not a new task. Many social thinkers agree on the fact that today translational practices have become a truism; while in translation studies every linguistic translation is cultural, cultural theory introduces translation as one of its most important conceptual tools. The tighter relation between language and culture, motivated by the linguistic turn criticises the methodology of the “modern historical sciences” (as practiced until the first half of the 20th century) for proceeding as if aspects of tradition were historical objects.
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Notes
- 1.
The most known structuralist methodologies for social analysis are found in the so-called founding fathers of sociology: August Compte, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber, who suggested studying society as a social thing. This methodology is often quoted in the original French formulation as “considérer les faits sociaux comme des choses”. For a compared discussion on the classical perspectives on the objectivity of social facts, see: Pharo (2000).
- 2.
See for example the edited volumes by Susan Bassnett and André Lefevere Translation, History and Culture (1990), and Lawrence Venuti’s The Translation Studies Reader (2004). Both offer a vast selection of texts from Benjamin to the contemporary moral philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah. See also the volume Postcolonial Translation (2002) edited by Bassnett and Harish Trivedi and their introduction polemically entitled: “Of colonies, cannibals and vernaculars”.
Also, the cultural critical thinkers Douglas Robinson (1970), Aamir Mufti (2007), Eric Cheyfitz (1997) and Tejaswini Niranjana (1992) develop a political definition of cultural translation based on the analysis of colonial linguistic mappings, and the hierarchies of value given to languages in postcolonial settings.
- 3.
Extract from De finibus bonorum et malorum (“On the Limits of Good and Evil”), dated 44 BC (In: Lefevere 1992: 47).
- 4.
When does modernity begin? The periodization of this paradigmatic break in the history of ideas and in global social history, that Koselleck calls Sattelzeit, are discussed in the chapter on the Valladolid Debate.
- 5.
I refer to the thinkers in the tradition of Ernest Renan and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, who defined the nation principally through the virtues of the respective national languages. For a comparison of the nationalisation of culture through language in the French and the German case see: Balibar 1997 and Cahen/ Landwehrlen 2010.
- 6.
In Against World Literature, Apter (2013) develops a critique on the inflationary translations into English as a linguistic regime, in which the category of world literature builds a domestic Western genre defining the non-European literary production. This critique is also formulated by Mufti in Orientalism and the Institution of World Literatures (2010) and Forget English! Orientalisms and World Literatures (2016).
- 7.
In an article entitled “European Parliament—never lost in translation” published in 2008 by the European Parliament on the official news online page of this institution, the European Union (EU) is defined through the normative meaning given to linguistic plurality: “The EU is a community of 27 countries, whose unity and diversity is expressed via 23 official languages, as well as plethora of other national, regional and local languages. It is home to nearly 500 million people with diverse ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Multilingualism contributes to European values of democracy and equality. The European Parliament is committed to debate and discussion in all EU languages. The reason for this and how it is achieved is explained in this focus. Preserving this unique linguistic diversity is a big challenge. As the EU has recently started operating in 23 languages, it is worth looking at the meaning of multilingualism, its benefits and its costs”. The tautology in the definition of multiculturalism if its value is solely measured in plurilinguism is discussed in the chapter on multiculturalism.
- 8.
Whereas in 2005 the total cost of interpretation in all EU institutions was almost €190 million, for 2006 the cost of translation is estimated at €800 million. “This amount represents one third of the total expenditure of Parliament” (European Parliament 2008).
- 9.
One of the contemporary postmodern voices, Zygmunt Bauman (2011) states in an interview: “a ‘nation’ needs the coercive power of the state to make its unity (‘sharing’) real—to replace the multitude of local traditions or dialects with one history, one language. With the emergence of the modern state, the trinity of nation, state and territory has been established as the seat and holder of sovereignty.” See also: David Miller’s National Responsibility and Global Justice (2007). Within cultural feminism, see: Moller Okin’s controversial article: “Is Multiculturalism bad for women?” (1999).
- 10.
See: Arjun Appadurai: “Patriotism and Its Futures” (1993); Bhabha: Nation and Narrations (1990); Chatterjee: “Beyond the Nation or Within?” (1997); Ranajid Guha: “On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India” (2000) and Spivak: “The Politics of Translation” (in: Spivak 1993).
From a decolonial perspective see Walter Mignolo: The Idea of Latin America (2008); Ramón Grosfoguel: “World-System Analysis and Postcolonial Studies. A Call for Dialogue from the ‘Coloniality of Power’ Approach” (2008) and “The Structure of Knowledge in Westernized Universities: Epistemic Racism/Sexism and the Four Genocides/Epistemicides of the Long 16th Century” (2013).
- 11.
Similarly, Fanon (1991) amends Marx’s fatalistic view on the expansion of capitalism worldwide as a translation of its stages into the colonies. Fanon also analyses the translation of infrastructure materialized in urban architecture, notions of the ‘civilized life’, and the limits of ‘privacy’. These geographic notions contextualize the globalization of capitalism and the monetarization of social relations. For a comparison of Marx and Fanon on the question of capitalist and imperialist expansion see the edited volume by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (1988).
- 12.
From Canada to Guinea-Bissau, Fanon’s work has been translated into many languages. The transnational validity of his thinking renders it powerful and exceptional. He inspired movements for independence, postcolonial and decolonial theory and anti-racist teaching. To mention a contemporary example of pedagogic and artistic work that builds on Fanon in Germany see: Grada Kilomba’s Plantation Memories (2016). See also my own engagement with pedagogies of difference inside and outside the university.
- 13.
The use of natural landscapes as metaphors for describing cultural identities is a recurrent topic in Caribbean critical political thought. The figure of the mangrove appears in the works and poems of Aimé Césaire (1955) and in Éloge de la Créolité (1989) written by Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant.
- 14.
See the projects: Translation: the Mother Tongue of a Future Society? (2008), Translate (2005–08) and Europe as a Translational Space: The Politics of Heterolinguality (2008–2012). These include several essays written by Buden and Iveković (unfortunately the pages are unnumbered).
- 15.
Both members of the European Institute for Progressive Cultural Politics (EIPCP), Buden and Iveković share the understanding of migration and of the European postcolonial nation with their colleagues Etienne Balibar (1997; 2011) and Sandro Mezzadra (2007; together with Nielson 2013). It is important for me to mention that the philosophers Iveković and Buden grew up in the former Yugoslavia and share the experience of intellectual exile in central European countries.
- 16.
La Malinche, also known as Malinali Tenepal or Malintzín, was personal interpreter and lover of Hernán Cortés (one of the most brutal Conquistadores of Central America). In Latin American historiography, she is traditionally depicted as the betrayer of ‘her own’ people. Her biography however demonstrates that betrayal is a highly contingent accusation, which depends more on the power of the accuser than on the crime of the accused. For a discussion on her politicized and ever-present biography in Mexico’s historiography see: Lanyon 1999 and Luziris 2011.
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Mancheno, T. (2023). Translation and Culture—in Five Currents of Thought. In: Ma(r)king the Difference . Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-40924-1_2
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