Translating cultural studies

ABSTRACT

This paper engages with the transculturalization of Cultural Studies by focusing on the theoretical and political implications of translating it. This is a question that has been discussed over the years, especially in the context of the global spread and the institutionalization (or lack thereof) of cultural studies in universities outside of Britain in the early 1990s. In this context cultural studies practitioners have questioned the very use of labels such as ‘internationalization’ or ‘globalization’, and expressed concerns about whether its expansion would happen at the expense of its distinctiveness. I pick up this discussion while re-framing it from a perspective which focuses on the politics of translation. I argue that translation is not a linear or automatic process (you bring something from A to B and it gets translated), but a collective work which is translingual, trans- and extradisciplinary. From this perspective, cultural studies has always been characterized by a strong commitment to translation. If labels such as ‘British’ or ‘American’ cultural studies obscure this commitment, this is because of a narrow understanding of translation as a cultural practice. In light of these considerations, I point to translation as a fundamental means to oppose cultural elitism, and the fragmentation of intellectual engagement produced by disciplinary, (inter)nationalizing and globalizing trends. Against this background, the paper stresses the potential of translation work with respect to re-thinking cultural studies’ distinctiveness in the current conjuncture.

KEYWORDS:

• Translation
• transculturality
• globalization
• language diversity
• cultural studies
• disciplinarity

Acknowledgements

I want to thank the many colleagues and friends who encouraged me to think in translation while working on this article. I am particularly grateful to Gil Rodman, who offered critical feedback and support in most productive ways. I am also very grateful to Susan Ingram, John Clarke, Markus Reisenleitner, Ted Striphas, the two anonymous reviewers, and the editorial team.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The English translation of the book title reads ‘Mouse or Rat? Translation as negotiation’. The literal translation of the Italian title would be instead ‘Saying Almost the Same Thing’.

2 It is telling that Nestor García Canclini, comes to comparable results by analyzing heritages in Latin America from a postcolonial perspective (García Canclini 2009).

3 Original source: ‘Le voci dell’altrove, pur se immerse nella travolgente dinamica del mercato globale tardocapitalistico (compreso quello accademico), hanno introdotto linguaggi (in tutti i sensi della parola) che minano le basi stesse dell’umanesimo occidentale’ (Chambers and Cariello 2019, p. 61).

4 Original source:

[…] una differenza profonda nel benessere materiale, come anche di un diverso rapporto storico dell’essere umano con l’ambiente, e ancora, una specifica visione delle categorie di monumentale e vernacolare. E’ specchio, però, anche di un’ulteriore dicotomia, ossia quella tra urbano e non urbano, tra città e campagna. (Chambers and Cariello 2019, p. 68)

5 ‘Kulturwissenschaf’ is the singular, ‘Kulturwissenschaften’ the plural form in German.

6 In Lutter’s words:

Es war schon um 2000 klar, dass es sich dabei vielfach um Scheingefechte handelte und dass solche vereinfachenden Abgrenzungen mehr den Blick für wesentliche gemeinsame Zugänge verstellten als sie weiterhalfen, wichtige differenzierende Arbeiten an den Begriffen zu leisten. Ebenso verschleierten solche Kategorisierungen wesentliche Unterschiede unter ähnlichen Etikettierungen. (Lutter 2021, p. 197)

7 The board of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft submitted a petition to the DFG in order to obtain its own board for the Kulturwissenschaften in 2021, but the request has been declined. The DFG offered in exchange the possibility to nominate candidates for the three boards devoted to literary studies.

8 For further details I point to Pelillo-Hestermeyer (2022).

9 The Bologna Reform is the process of standardizing university curricula in Europe with the aim to achieve more direct comparability and to foster academic mobility. It is called after the University of Bologna, where the final agreement has been signed in 1999.

10 The original source reads:

Mit dem Satz “Niemand ist einsprachig” meine ich genau das: eine Erfahrung, die jede_r kennt, jene des Dazu-Gehörens oder eben nicht Dazu-Gehörens aufgrund unterschiedlicher Arten des Sprechens. Einsprachig wäre demnach nur, wer diese Erfahrung nie gemacht hat, wer sich im Sprechen nie als “anders” erlebt hat. (Busch 2012, p. 7)

11 I will mention here only few reasons and refer to Pelillo-Hestermeyer (2021) for further details and a broader discussion.

12 Art. 3(3) sub-para. 4 of the Treaty on European Union, for example, reads: ‘It [the EU] shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe's cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced’ (Official Journal 2012 C 326/13).

13 The Russian government has justified the invasion as an act of protection towards the Russian-speaking minorities living in Ukraine. On the other hand, the Ukrainian president Wolodymyr Zelenskyy has contrasted this rhetoric, among others, by making regular use of his ‘native’ Russian to exhort the Russian soldiers to leave Ukraine. In both cases linguistic diversity has been made relevant to, respectively, escalate and deescalate the conflict.

14 In Italian the idiomatic expression traduttore-traditore (translator-traitor) is linked to the polysemy of the Latin verb tra-ducere, which means ‘to transfer’, but also ‘to secretly transfer’ (transferring a city to the hands of the enemy =  to betray). In metaphorical sense the pun points to the ambiguity of translation and the risk that the translator ‘betrays’ the core message of what they translate.

15 Original source:

La conclamata fedeltà delle traduzioni non è un criterio che porta all’unica traduzione accettabile […]. La fedeltà è piuttosto la tendenza a credere che la traduzione sia sempre possibile se il testo fonte è stato interpretato con appassionata complicità, è l’impegno a identificare quello che per noi è il senso profondo del testo, e la capacità di negoziare a ogni istante la soluzione che ci pare più giusta. Se consultate qualsiasi dizionario vedrete che tra i sinonimi di fedeltà non c’è la parola esattezza. Ci sono piuttosto lealtà, onestà, rispetto, pietà. (Eco 2003, p. 364)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Olympia-Morata-Program, University of Heidelberg.

Notes on contributors

Giulia Pelillo-Hestermeyer

Giulia Pelillo-Hestermeyer is a senior lecturer for Cultural Studies in the Department of Romance Studies of the University of Heidelberg (Germany). She studied Italian Studies and History in Rome and completed a Ph.D. in Romance Linguistics at the University of Heidelberg. Her research and teaching focus on linguistic diversity and intersectionality in the context of the transculturalization and mediatization of communication. Giulia is a founding member of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, where she serves on the Governing Board, as Co-chair of the ‘Transcultural Life-Worlds’ Section, and Co-editor of the book series ‘Studien der Kulturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft’. She is a former fellow of the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (Cluster of Excellence ‘Asia and Europe in a Global Context’) and has engaged in several projects on multilingualism and media pedagogy relating to her activism at a free radio station.