Towards a Nomadic Ethics in Translation Praxis. Issue 2 (2nd July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: van Heerden, Chantelle Gray
• Is Part Of: English studies in Africa. Volume 59:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 88
• Page End: 100
• Publication Date: 2016-07-02
• Subjects: nomadic ethics -- historicity -- master narratives -- Engfrikaans -- Deleuze and Guattari -- Ingrid Winterbach; English literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; English language -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; English language -- Africa -- Periodicals; English literature -- Periodicals; American literature -- Periodicals; American literature; English language; English language -- Study and teaching; English literature; Africa; Criticism, interpretation, etc; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 420
• DOI: 10.1080/00138398.2016.1239421
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-8398

Abstract

Abstract : In this article I examine how translation practitioners might begin to develop a praxis that is informed by a nomadic ethics which is not reliant on a normative or regularizing ethics/morality, but rather constitutes an orientation founded on heterogeneity and the repudiation of universality. In order for such a praxis to be effectuated, I argue that translations have to take into consideration the historicity of master narratives so that meaning becomes disentangled from the semantics and grounded in a materialist philosophy. Because translation does not occur in a vacuum; it is influenced by myriad material flows, some apparent and some not which, in turn, are linked to certain forms of knowledge and power. To support my argument, I refer to the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, and apply it to the use of a number of stylistic and linguistic devices in the oeuvre of Ingrid Winterbach.