TRANSPHILEUR · TOWARD A PHILOSOPHICAL RETHINKING OF TRANSLATION: Effects of Translation in a Contemporary European Space

TOWARD A PHILOSOPHICAL RETHINKING OF TRANSLATION: Effects of Translation in aContemporary European Space

How to understand translation? What does it mean to say one thing a second time in another language? What can we learn about us by thinking of translation? What are the political and social conditions for translation practice? TRANSPHILEUR project moves from these general questions in order to propose a new approach and rethink translation through the lens of philosophical inquiry. It works in the intersection between different theoretical perspectives broadening the range of the research from philosophy and translation theory to political theory and cultural studies. The project "TOWARD A PHILOSOPHICAL RETHINKING OF TRANSLATION: Effects of Translation in a Contemporary European Space" (TRANSPHILEUR) has set two main objectives: a) to propose and conceptually elaborate translation as a self-reflective transformative practice b) to explore the effectiveness of translation in the context of contemporary European cultural and political space conceived as a “translational” space. The combination of the speculative-philosophical analysis of the translation process (a) with the examination of its political and cultural dimensions in reference to the European context (b) constitutes the framework of the project. The main achievement of the research consists in using the conceptual structure of Hegel’s dialectical thinking in order to conceive translation as self-reflective transformational practice. The project proposes a pioneering approach in philosophy of translation by examining ideas such as translation as self-differentiation, translation as a reflective practice, translation as the experience of contradiction, or the notion of translational universality. Building upon a dialectical analysis of translation, the research frames also its cultural and political aspects discussing some issues in the contemporary debate on cultural difference and universalism. More concretely: Can a translational approach generate a new framework for political communities as “communities of translation”? Is it possible to conceive Europe as “translational space”? What is the common language of Europe? Can translation help us to construct an alternative model for the common social space? TRANSPHILEUR was hosted at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology (University of Padua), and included a secondment period at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. The project was carried out according to the training-through-research principles and included scientific publications, presentations at the conferences, organization of events, working exchange with professors, researchers and students, and involvement of different profiles of interdisciplinary scholars.

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