Special issue of T&I on "Translating and Narrating Solidarity"

In recent years, there has been a surge in publications addressing the political impact of translation and interpreting across a variety of locations and settings (Baker, 2016a and 2016b; Doerr, 2018; Evans and Fernández, 2018; Fernández, 2020a; Valdeón and Calafat, 2020; Tesseur, 2022, to name a few). In this context, this special issue seeks to highlight the importance of translation and interpreting for the practice of solidarity.

Although this is a powerful and frequently used concept, it is also conflicting and has generally remained undertheorised (as argued by Bayertz, 1999; Pensky, 2008; Featherstone, 2012). In this sense, this project will follow Featherstone (2012, pp. 5) in understanding solidarity as ‘a relation forged through political struggle which seeks to challenge forms of oppression’. Importantly, this also implies that solidarity is ‘transformative’, as it constructs ‘relations between places, activists, diverse social groups’, while creating ‘new ways of relating’ (ibid.). In other words, solidarity does not need to happen exclusively between groups that are similar and homogeneous; quite on the contrary, it can be innovative, developing unexpected links between previously unconnected realities.

In this light, the practice of solidarity shows strong similarities with the work of translation and interpreting, as both seek to establish new connections between individuals and groups. In fact, translation can be the decisive factor in the construction of solidarity, as it brings to the fore an issue or conflict that would normally remain unnoticed due to linguistic and cultural barriers. Despite these affinities, solidarity has been rarely used as a frame of analysis in Translation Studies (some notable exceptions being Abou Rached, 2020; Baker, 2016b, 2016c and 2020; Mortada, 2016). This seems even more striking if we consider that solidarity could play a central role in understanding a variety of issues and practices that are already relevant within the discipline, such as the activity of volunteer translators —either individually (Guo, 2008; Cheung, 2010) or as part of communities (Baker, 2006a; Boéri, 2012; Pérez-González and Susam Saraeva, 2012)— and the involvement of interpreters in the protection and well-being of migrants (Aguilar-Solano, 2015; Taronna, 2016; Fathi, 2020).

At the same time, solidarity can be also understood as a narrative (in the sense proposed by Baker, 2006b): citizens and activists who engage in the practice of solidarity frequently rely on a narrative, that is, a kind of shared story that guides their behaviour and legitimises their purposes and motivations, shaping the identities of those involved in the process and the elements that bring them together. While some narratives might be based on ‘universal’ values (e.g. justice, human rights, moral duty), others might depend on more concrete factors (i.e. supporting the same political values or belonging to the same creed). Furthermore, the mobilisation of a successful and convincing narrative is often a key factor for the expansion of a political cause (Baker, 2006b, pp. 21-22), particularly among those who are not familiar with it. Taking into account the great importance that narratives have played in recent research within Translation Studies (e.g. Boéri, 2008; Baker, 2010; Harding, 2012; Probirskaja, 2016; Jones, 2018; Fernández, 2020b) and beyond it (Engebretsen and Baker 2022), this special issue would also like to encourage the interaction between narratives and solidarity as a promising research path.  

A list of potential research topics includes, but is not limited to, the following:

-       Solidarity as a motivation for activist and volunteer translators and interpreters

-       The emergence and development of solidarity campaigns thanks to translation

-       Narratives of solidarity and translation: How is solidarity narrated? Which ‘frames of solidarity’ are constructed through translation? How are narratives of solidarity (e.g. in literature and the arts) translated?

-       Conceptual and theoretical affinities between solidarity and translation

-       Solidarity with/between migrants and the importance of translation/interpreting

-       Solidarity, identity politics (e.g. LGBT+ groups, feminism, Black Lives Matter), and translation/interpreting

-       Solidarity and translation projects for fundraising purposes

-       Solidarity, translation, and interpreting in armed conflicts.

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Deadline for abstracts: 1 March 2023