The Labor of Translation
Imagining the Politics of Translation Beyond Communication and Articulation

Sandro Mezzadra

The talk will start from a brief review of different attempts to reframe the politics of translation in contemporary debates. The point will be made that translation has a deep relationship with violence, domination and exploitation. In particular the possibility (and the necessity) of thinking of capital as translation will be briefly discussed. This relationship and this possibility point to the strategic relevance of a set of problems that are often underestimated when the politics of translation is framed in terms of communication and/or articulation. The outlines of a different theory of the politics of translation will be proposed within a dialogue with insights coming from such scholars as Étienne Balibar, Rada Iveković, Naoki Sakai, and Gayatri Spivak.

Sandro Mezzadra

biography

conference