|
|
Translation and the Construction of Identity: Abstracts
Date: 12-14 August 2004
Venue: Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, Korea
Martin Fuchs Institute of Sociology, Free University
Berlin/South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany This paper suggests embedding the discussion of
translation by the ethnographer or professional translator in a concept of
translation and representation as interactive social praxis. A plea is made
to overcome the notions of closure inherent in the question of
representation and/or translation. Taken straightforwardly, that question
still operates within a frame of identity logic, yet ethnographic praxis –
abroad or “at home” – shows that social actors are already moving in a
multi-discursive world. The paper puts forward the idea of frames of
imagination and interpretation as experientially open articulations of the
world. It will discuss the switch between interpretive frames as part of
everyday praxis, and, on this basis, develop a critique of an understanding
of culture as text. Using results of my recent fieldwork in India I will
then make a case for a hermeneutics of interculturality and argue for a
concept of translation and interpretation as a process of reciprocal
refraction of meanings.
Panel 6: Translation and Ethnography – Modes of Representation
Refractive Hermeneutics. Ethnographic Translation as Interactive Praxis
© IATIS 2003