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Translation and the Construction of Identity: Abstracts
Date: 12-14 August 2004
Venue: Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, Korea
Doris Bachmann-Medick Independent scholar, Göttingen Cultural anthropology at present is developing into a
distinctive and comprehensive science of cultural translation, and as such
presents a massive challenge to philological translation studies.
Translation of and between cultures can only mean translation of broader
concepts, not of single words, sentences or texts. It demands
contextualization. But translation in anthropology is not merely a means to
the end of either cultural transfer or an understanding of cultures. It is
itself a medium of cultural encounter. My paper claims that it is above all
contemporary conditions of globalization which motivate ethnographic
attempts to expand the notion of translation from the conceptual level of
crosscultural analysis, understanding and “transfer” to a pragmatic level of
intercultural encounter. On the conceptual level translation affects the
question of translatability between disciplines. But in what respect does
the concept of translation motivate a new self-understanding of
anthropology? Does it contribute to anthropology’s move away from cultural
relativism and initiate a kind of translational universalism which refers to
the global conditions of actions – in which people translate, are translated
and translate themselves? In this context anthropology is no longer to be
considered as a “Leitwissenschaft” for the cultural turn in other
disciplines, but is forced to translate itself into an encounter both with
other disciplines and with other cultural practices. But exactly this
practical turn demands increased epistemological reflexivity: Translation
can be considered as an alternative to cultural comparison, as an impulse
for a new conceptualization of comparative approaches and as a critique of
hybridity concepts. This notion of translation can be connected with
translation as an intercultural practice: with self-translation, translation
as a way of life, migration, entangled histories. In this context
translation is no longer to be seen as a medium of representation, but as a
medium of performance, which not only appeals to understanding, but also
involves a broader anthropology of translation itself (including an
anthropology of meanings, misunderstandings etc.). On this level translation
gains an important significance for cultural politics. In my paper I will deal with the connections between
translation of cultural concepts and translation as cultural concept,
involving a special kind of intercultural practice which implies
self-translation in situations of migration and cultural encounter. Taking
up literary examples, my aim will be to demonstrate the interferences
between the conceptual level and the pragmatic level, especially concerning
translation as a critical concept questioning one-sided understandings of
the concept of identity, which represents an important framing term of the
conference itself. Thus, my paper could contribute to the revisiting of an
established correlation between translation and identity.
Panel 6: Translation and Ethnography – Modes of Representation
The Anthropology of
Translation: Cultural Concepts and Intercultural Practice
© IATIS 2003