Abstract
Translation is shown to work not only at linguistic ruptures as is usually believed but as a ubiquitous means of communication in the social realm. Translation is a catalyst of social interactions. Yet like a chemical catalyst it can facilitate interactions or hinder them. Translation works in the situation known in sociology as double contingency. Drawing on Jürgen Habermas, translation is examined as either a communicative action or an instrumental action. Moreover, translation can aggravate the instrumentalization of social actions or contribute to communicative actions in the public sphere. Translation, if practiced ethically, can help the instrumentally minded mediated parties to enrich their appreciation of the lifeworld of the other and thereby lessen the instrumentalization of modern public spheres.
В каждой машине расчет силы есть…
—Н.С. Лесков
‘The power of every machine is calculated’ (Nikolai Leskov; translation is mine—S.T.)
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Tyulenev, S. (2018). How Translation Works. In: Translation in the Public Sphere. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78358-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78358-1_4
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