Polture and CuliticsOn political prospects of cultural translationLecture by Boris Buden: Translation: The Mother Tongue of a Future Society?
The reason
why we are so fascinated by the idea of cultural translation is obvious: it
offers a new vision of cultural identification which promises to escape the
notorious ‘clash of cultures’. Within the paradigm of liberal multiculturalism,
cultural translation is believed to improve all sorts of cultural interactions
and to soften the traumatic encounter between cultural differences. Understood
as synonymous with an open-minded dialogue between cultures, it is supposed to
secure their peaceful cohabitation and , in the end, to reconcile cultural
particularism with the political universalism of contemporary democratic order.
In challenging the multiculturalist belief in the originality of cultural
identities, postcolonial theory has used the notion of translation to
conceptualize a new space of cultural hybridity – a synonym for cultural
translation – beyond the binary logic of cultural exchange, hoping to subvert
the very ground for conflict between cultures. The problem with both concepts
is that they retroactively recognize cultural differences as the main cause of
today’s social and political conflicts. It is therefore doubtful whether these
concepts can actually help in situations like the cartoon debate or the French
banlieue riots. Did the youth of French suburbia really get violent because of
its lack of cultural competence? Do Muslims around the World really feel
offended by the Danish caricatures because they are badly informed about the
hybrid character of their own culture as well as of the culture of their
alleged offenders? Finally, should we really accept today’s all-embracing realm
of culture as the ultimate horizon of our political mind? |
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