the geography of difference: translation as an age-old remixing practice (original) (raw)

Abstract

Over the course of history, translation has been doubted, (ab)used, outright rejected, forbidden, exalted, made compulsory, subject to metaphors (≈ translated), elected as metaphor, silenced. Never, however, has it ceased to impact on our worldview in one form or another. In this paper I would like to argue that translation may well have been the very first — or at least the most visible — form of remixing since the beginning of time, and that it was precisely this feature that has doomed it to cultural oblivion in the West. We need translations but are in love with (the idea of) originals. Thus creativity fell hostage to originality, and we began to live dans l'oubli de nos métamorphoses (Éluard, 1963). However assimilated the foreign text may be by the recipient culture, translation remains the locus of difference (Venuti, 1992), of exposure to and contagion from other worldviews, other languages, other people. To a greater or lesser extent, translation always confronts us with the "elsewhereness" of our existence, our dependence upon the other to achieve even the semblance of autonomy. Throughout centuries, the discourse on translation has reminded us of its participatory nature of translation — sometimes in spite of itself and out of its dream of total equivalence. Metaphors as different as digestion/cannibalism (du Bellay/de Campos), transplantation (Schleiermacher), transubstantiation (Mendes Leal), cross-dressing (Willamowitz-Moellendorf) all point to translation as a geography of confluence, both integrating and transgressing difference — a patchwork of creativity and dissonance, polyphony and nostalgia. Resorting to the example of Walter Scott's reception in 19th and 20th-century Europe, we seek to showcase translation as a remixing practice avant la lettre, one that both complies with and questions the laws of copyright and authority/authorship.

Alexandra Lopes hasn't uploaded this conference presentation.

Let Alexandra know you want this conference presentation to be uploaded.

Ask for this conference presentation to be uploaded.