Translators as mediators of citizenship

Rethinking Community in Relational Translation

Bibliographic Data

ID4524946
AuthorsReiko Shindo (0000-0001-5145-4545, Tampere University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume25
Issue6
Pages843-859
Publication date2021-08-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCitizenship Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-1025 • E-ISSN: 1469-3593
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13621025.2021.1968722
OpenAlexW3197896655
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited31

Translation is often assumed to be successful if it builds understanding beyond linguistic barriers. In contrast, failed translation signals miscommunication. The article challenges this assumption to explore the potentials of failed communication for the idea of community: how we might come together to build relationships when we fail to understand each other. The article is based on the case of multilingual migrant activism, where participants of activism rely on translators because they do not share the same language for communication. I will demonstrate that, deliberately or accidentally, voice and silence are misunderstood through the figure of the translator, and how unintelligibility comes to shape interactions. Drawing on the works of contemporary political thinkers including Jean-Luc Nancy, Iris Young, and Slavoj Žižek, I will argue that such communication failure allows us to realise community in the sharing of our own limitations of being, beyond the binary between ‘us’/‘host’ and ‘them’/‘guest’

Aesthetics · Citizenship · Epistemology · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Silence · Sociology · Translation studies · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics