Communication is Translation, or, How to Mind the Gap

• Main Author: Kyle Conway
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de La Sabana 2017-06-01
• Series: Palabra Clave
• Subjects: Cultural studies; translation studies; Stuart Hall; Charles Peirce; materialist semiotics; rhetorical invention
• Online Access: https://palabraclave.unisabana.edu.co/index.php/palabraclave/article/view/7005

In this age of globalization, scholars in cultural studies and translation studies would seem to have a lot to talk about. It is strange, then, that they talk so little with each other. This article seeks to bridge that gap by asking what a theory of translation would look like if it were grounded in the field of cultural studies. It proposes three axioms: 1) to use a sign is to transform it; 2) to transform a sign is to translate it; and 3) communication is translation. Its argument is performative rather than simply expository: it is structured as an example of the phenomenon it describes. It explores the three axioms inductively, starting from strategically chosen examples to arrive at a notion of translation that prompts a final conjecture: translation is inextricably linked to rhetorical invention and, as such, it helps us reframe questions about our relationship with and responsibility toward cultural others.   doi: 10.5294/pacla.2017.20.3.2