Language, culture and the quest for commensurability

Abstract\ud The thesis examines the key concept of 'incommensurability' in\ud relation to issues of language and culture as they became salient to\ud developments in English as a school subject in the United Kingdom\ud during the 1960s and 1970s. Beginning with an outline of the notion of\ud incommensurability as it has been discussed within anthropology and\ud philosophy within the 20th century, the thesis traces the roots of a\ud complex of educational issues through their immediate intellectual\ud and social background in the mass culture debates in the 1920s and\ud 1930s and as they were developed in the post-war period. The thesis\ud analyses the dominant themes within the paradigm shift towards a\ud focus on language that took place in English education during the\ud 1970s. This it does particularly with respect to their immediate\ud intellectual heritage, paying special attention to the position of F. R.\ud Leavis, Basil Bernstein, James Britton and M. A. K. Halliday in the\ud intellectual field.\ud The thesis continues to pursue its analysis of ideas underlying\ud issues in the period by tracing their origins and interrelations in the\ud work of 18th century German philosophers of language, in particular,\ud J. G. Hamann, J. G. Herder and W. von Humboldt. Within the work of\ud these three writers, fundamental notions concerning the relation\ud between language and thought and language and culture are found\ud complexly explored. Some of the concepts generated by these thinkers\ud came to have a direct and obvious influence on the thinking and\ud writing of subsequent generations. However, this thesis attempts to\ud clarify some of the contradictions and confusions evident within the\ud domain of English education during the 1960s and 1970s with reference\ud to less well knoWn aspects of the work of these thinkers. The\ud argument attempts to draw together the threads of its investigation\ud particularly to shed light on the question of the extent to which\ud communication/understanding across difference is achievable

Emerging trends in reassessing translation, conflict, and memory

New Approaches on Translation, Conflict, and Memory: Narratives of the Spanish Civil War and the Dictatorship is a collection of essays that endeavours to establish a new dialogue between translation, conflict, and memory studies. Focusing on cultural representations of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco Dictatorship, it explores the significance and the effect of translation within Spain and beyond. Drawing on fictional and non-fictional texts, reports from war zones, and audiovisual productions, the contributors to this volume examine the scope of translation in transmitting the conflict and the dictatorship from a contemporary perspective. Narratives produced during and after the Civil War and the dictatorship both in Spain and abroad have led to new debates arising from the reassessment of a conflict that continues to resonate

Mediating Zones of Uncertainty: interpreter agency, the interpreting habitus and political asylum adjudication

This paper builds on previous work by the author (Inghilleri 2003) which explored the status of norms in relation to the notion of an 'interpreting habitus' and the contexts and cultures of interpreter training and practice. It attempts to further elaborate one aspect of the conceptual framework used in this previous work, namely the notion of an interpreting habitus, considering it in relation to translation and interpreting theory more generally. The paper argues for a view of interpreted events within the asylum system as crucial sites for the convergence of competing fields and their accompanying habitus. It suggests that, given the present constitution of the public service interpreting profession as a 'zone of uncertainty', a term Bourdieu uses to refer to weak positions located in the gaps between fields within social space, the status of interpreters' knowledge within interpreted events remains vulnerable to exercises of power outside of their control. Under these conditions, the 'interpreting habitus' – the 'product' of the convergence of fields, habitus and capital – remains oriented toward the maintenance of control of the social/interactive space by the dominant legal and political institutions involved in the political asylum process. The paper is based on a current ethnographic investigation of interpreting activity in the political asylum application process in the United Kingdom

The sociology of Bourdieu and the construction of the 'object' in translation and interpreting studies

This article introduces Bourdieu's sociological perspective and its relevance to translation and interpreting studies. It discusses Bourdieu's key concepts – habitus, field, capital and illusio – and their contribution to theorizations of the interaction between structure and agency in sociological and philosophical debates. Considerable attention is paid to the relationship between Bourdieu's reflexive sociology and the emergent interest in the ethnographic tradition within translation and interpreting studies, particularly the influence of the interpretive approach of Geertz and the subsequent work of Clifford and Marcus within the culturalist paradigm. The question of methodology is addressed in relation to Bourdieu's reflexive sociology and the construction of the 'object' of sociological research. The article further explores how Bourdieu's concepts may be made to work empirically within translation and interpreting research and how much this depends on embracing Bourdieu's ontological and epistemological stance. Bourdieu's work is briefly explored in relation to other sociological theories that have begun to emerge as relevant to translation studies, in particular the work of Latour and Luhmann, and additional future directions for research within the sociology of translation and interpreting are suggested

Habitus, field and discourse: Interpreting as a socially-situated activity

Taking Toury's model of norms as its starting point, this paper examines the macro–micro relationship evident within the context and culture of interpreting activity. The paper theorises this relationship drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and field and Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse. It proposes a model which directs the analysis of norms to the social dimension of language and cognition, as well as to the sociological and ideological determinants of what counts as a legitimate meaning in a particular context. The paper draws on the analysis of a particular context — the interpreted political asylum interview. However, it suggests the possibility of applying a similar theoretical model across a range of interpreting contexts