In our globalized and transcultural world it has become more common than ever to live among different languages, to cross geographical and cultural borders frequently, to negotiate between multiple spaces and loyalties: from global businesspeople to guest workers, from tourists to refugees. In this book, Siri Nergaard examines translation as a personal, intimate experience of a subject living in and among different languages and cultures and sees living in translation as a socio-psychological condition of transmigrancy with strong implications on emotions and behaviour.
Adopting a wide transdisciplinary approach, drawing on theories in psychology, anthropology, cultural studies, semiotics, and philosophy, the author investigates the situations of translation affecting individuals, and in particular migrants. With examples from documentaries, photographs, exhibitions, and testimonies, Nergaard also analyses how migrants get translated in political discourse and in official documents, and how they perform their lives as transmigrants. The first part examines in particular three issues and concepts: the figure of the migrant, hospitality, and the border, which are viewed as representing the most fundamental questions of what living in translation means. The second part of the book presents examples of lives in translation through representations in a variety of modes and expressions.
This timely book is key reading for researchers and advanced students in translation and interpreting studies, anthropology, migration studies, and related areas.
Preface and acknowledgments
Introduction
PART 1
1 Figures of the Migrant
2 Hospitality
3 Borders
PART 2
4 Migration experiences in Europe
5 Translating the Self
Index
Biography
Siri Nergaard teaches Norwegian at the University of Florence, in Italy, and non-fiction writing at the University of South-Eastern Norway. In the past she has taught translation studies at the Master Programme in Publishing at the University of Bologna, Italy. In addition to numerous articles, she is author and editor of several books on translation, mostly in Italian, and has served as editor-in-chief of the journal translation: a transdisciplinary journal.
'This is an important and illuminating book that sheds light on the ambivalence of both translation and migration, seen as complex, interconnected processes. Nergaard draws not only on her considerable knowledge of translation in both theory and practice, but also on her personal experience of movement between two cultures.'
Susan Bassnett, University of Glasgow, Scotland
'With the passing of Umberto Eco, the mantel of expertise on semiotics and translation has passed to Siri Nergaard. With Translation and Transmigration, her ideas have arrived, and they are brilliant indeed, pushing not just the boundaries of theories of translation, but also paradigm-shifting for all studies of language, literature, movement, migration, gender, and nation. Monolingualism has enjoyed its day; welcome to the new and exciting age of translation.'
Edwin Gentzler, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
'In addition to offering a broad picture of the societal and linguistic issues that migration involves, Translation and Transmigration contains a lengthy reflection on what it means to live outside one’s home country in a multilinguistic state of virtually permanent translation. It provides us with a valuable and timely framework for considering how these crucial issues, which affect communities all over the world, can be addressed and resolved.'
Ross Smith MCIL
