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Translation and the Construction of Identity

Special Panel: Empowering Research in Crosscultural Communication - The Role of International and Pan-National Institutions

Chaired by : Annie Brisset

Communication implies reciprocity. The globalization - or the commodification - of exchange tends, by contrast, to accentuate imbalance in the weight of different cultures and languages. In this new context where, in effect, the hegemony of one part of the world dominates, equality and reciprocity have become a pressing issue. The main purpose of the panel will be to discuss how a new global balance in communication could be achieved, taking into consideration current research programmes and projects in such domains as the information and knowledge society, the networking society, translation and interpreting, language industries, cultural industries (publishing, multimedia, audovisual production). Various critical perspectives will be considered, most notably the following:

(1) The notion of "identity" as a polysemous category, which is used to define participants in the global process along national, ethnic, religious, social or political divides, and how it impacts on crosscultural communication and knowledge transfer (e.g. terminology development and the empowerment of minority language groups; translation as a component of nation building; literacy and the Internet; multilingualism in education).

(2) The commonly-held belief that "crosscultural communication" effectively occurs in the global "post-modern", "post-industrial", "post-communist", "post-historical" space as a "democratic" process. Within this ideological and axiological framework, it also becomes necessary to identify and assess various initiatives and measures taken by national and international institutions which aim at empowering certain communities or countries (e.g. spreading the philosophical, political and economic "Western model" in post-communist Europe through the translation of specific works in the humanities and social sciences)

(3) The emancipatory role of national and international organizations: how do they promote and support research towards equal partnership in crosscultural communication? Examples may include UNESCO policy on "intangible heritage" with a focus on languages; the European Union's legal terminology and translation policy in relation to the admission of new countries; EU's programmes for facilitating communication among member states; INFOTERM and the establishment of partnerships for terminology development in Asia; the Academy of African Languages (ALCALAN) designed to promote the use of local languages in education, administration and politics; the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA) and its commitment to enhance the visibility of minority literatures; the European Network of International Centres for Literary Translation.

 

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