Abstract
This chapter introduces the problem of consecutive interpreting as the problem of misguided attention and limited methodological applications. The chapter therefore proposes an interdisciplinary study that unites phenomenology and communication studies through a methodological interface, which could allow us to approach consecutive interpreting as a phenomenon in and of itself. With this general objective in mind the chapter opens this study by presenting different facets of interpreting, showing its ambiguous status because of an inner connectedness to translation at large. For that, the chapter offers a large number of examples from philosophy, linguistics, psychology, sociology, literature, and film, as well as from interpersonal and international politics. These examples show both the importance of interpreting and its uniqueness for language, culture, and communication.
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Notes
- 1.
According to Gadamer, the basic task of hermeneutics is to reformulate and rename the object of its investigation in the process of investigating it. For more on hermeneutic phenomenological method, see Gadamer (2004), pp. 4–38.
- 2.
Chapter 3 of this book is dedicated specifically to the description of the ‘comprehensive’ phenomenological method . For now it is sufficient to say that ‘comprehensive’ means that the proposed analysis deploys a progressively developing sequence that begins with the invariant features of consecutive interpreting and culminates in addressing the question of the phenomenon’s genesis .
- 3.
For example, one may turn to Luther’s Open Letter on Translation (1530) that does not only emphasize the importance of translating the New and Old Testaments into German for the sake of the general enlightenment of the population; it insists on the need for a particular (‘vulgar’) translation of the scripture because ‘translation should be at the service of those who cannot do any better [reading Latin]’ (Luther in Weissbort and Eysteinsson (eds.) 2006, p. 58).
- 4.
I believe that the term ‘translation’ is a master term for all the members of the translation family. From this perspective, as a member of that family, ‘consecutive interpreting’ is a subcategory.’ For this reason, when speaking about the entire category, I use the term ‘translation.’ I use the term ‘consecutive interpreting’ when a specific reference to this particular phenomenon is required and/or made.
- 5.
In the introduction to Volume I of his Logical Investigations, Husserl writes about the intrinsic relation between logic and technology, where technology is taken for the material arm of logic; hence, the pervasive illusion—persistent to these days—that ‘a mastery of technology means a mastery of logic itself’ (1970b, p. 14).
- 6.
Here and elsewhere in this study, I rely on Kristeva’s work on the foreigner , Strangers to Ourselves (1991).
- 7.
Kristeva’s own position was heavily influenced by Lacan, whose significance for translation deals with the notion of re-symbolization. For the specifics, see his Écrits: A Selection (2004, pp. 123–145).
- 8.
In his Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau-Ponty makes this point succinctly when he writes: ‘We may speak several languages, but only one of them always is the one in which we live’ (1958, p. 187).
- 9.
Yet another take on the language that is not one’s own was presented by Said, who had both English and Arabic as seemingly his absolutely first languages, but ‘in fact, neither was’ (1999, p. 4). In contrast, for Russian writer Nabokov, both English and Russian were ‘his own’ languages. He claimed that he could comfortably live in both (2003, p. 17).
- 10.
According to Derrida : ‘In the broad sense, the language in which the foreigner is addressed or in which he is heard, if he is, is the ensemble of culture , it is the values, the norms, the meanings that inhabit the language. Speaking the same language is not only a linguistic operation. It is a matter of ethos in general’ (2000, p. 133).
- 11.
- 12.
In his elaborations on translation, Eco relies much on his own experience of having his works being translated into many languages, some of which, as is the case with Russian and Chinese, are completely unfamiliar to the author and must be personally negotiated between himself and his translators.
- 13.
See Benjamin (1978, pp. 314–332).
- 14.
CNN News (2011), http://www.cnn.com, date accessed: 12 May 2014.
- 15.
I use the word ‘marginalization’ without critical connotations. In the context of my argument, marginalization means an effect of the kernel theory, which defines the discipline at large and thus creates theoretical boundaries around its sphere of influence, allowing some theories while disallowing others.
- 16.
I use the word ‘register’ in the phenomenological and not linguistic sense. A register is a way of doing a phenomenological analysis : the static register follows staticity, which qualifies as a basic approach to the phenomenon. Subsequently, each register has different ends because it would orientate itself to a different point of view.
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Kozin, A.V. (2018). Consecutive Interpreting and Its Many Facets. In: Consecutive Interpreting. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61726-8_1
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