Translation: The role of intercultures Anthony Pym Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Tarragona, Spain Facoltà di Scienze Politiche Università degli Studi di Milano February 25. 2005 © Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili Plaça Imperial Tàrraco 1 43005 Tarragona Fax: (++ 34) 977 55 95 97
Davos Culture? University degrees Employed by institutions Travel Neo-liberalism ...the values of 1% of the world’s population
Forget this culture? We study power, not people These are the people who might bring about change They might even listen to us ...because we are their experts(?) ...and the elite is thus much larger.
A clash theory:
What’s missing? Cross-cultural intertextuality Overlaps of cultures Positions for receivers (how many meanings?) Positions for translators Positions for experts…
An alternative model:
An even better alternative model: Locale 4 IC Locale 2 Locale 1 Locale 3
What is different here? Translation moves out from a shared centre (an interculture) It moves towards locales There are no target texts in the interculture
What is an interculture? Relations are professional They have secondness with respect to monocultural communication They become more independent the more technical their tasks are. (They will one day rule the world?)
Examples of intercultures: Professional associations of translators Localization teams Multinational communications companies University language departments (most of our classrooms?)
Where are cultures?
Where are intercultures?
Which means... Translators work in networks (of intermediaries). Translations mark the limits of cultures. The communication borders are nodes, increasingly in cities. Translation precedes cultural identity.
General hypotheses The provenance paradox: Diversity of provenance reinforces the group’s identity. Agent-principle reversal within the field of expertise Growth with technologization Extension and loss of secondness.
The effects of globalization Communications are characterized by complexity Cooperation requires reduction of complexity The intercultural can reduce complexity through calculation; the monocultural does so through imagery.
Monocultural vs intercultural Pure vs hybrid Sedentary vs nomadic Image vs calculation Iconic vs symbolic.
Why intercultures do not rule Intermediaries are subject to mistrust. Intermediaries use the iconic badly; they have no imagery for their identity. Professionalism is exclusive and fragmentary. Nations seek to protect their system of sovereignty.
How to intervene Normatively (teach people how to reduce complexity). Critically (deconstruct the iconic; develop alterity; restore complexity). Analytically (understand the reductions socially necessary for action).