Living in transition : toward a heterolingual theory of the multitude

Abstract

"It is impossible to undo the consequences of the history of imperialism no matter how desperately one wishes that imperialism had never been effectuated" (Sakai 1997: 18). Let us start from this quite generic statement by Naoki Sakai in order to map the particular conditions under which his theory of translation can provide us useful tools in an attempt to establish a new ground for a critical theory of politics. I will look to these conditions fi rst of all from the point of view of the meaning of the global dimension that is taking shape under our eyes - in a process of transition that does not seem to be close to its end. Far from being characterized by homogeneity, the global dimension is deeply heterogeneous as far as both its spatial and its temporal constitution is concerned. Problems of articulation of the multiplicity of spaces and times that make up the global dimension lie at the very core of the processes through which power relations are rede fi ned in the present and global capital itself works