Summer School as School 2023
The Public Program
August 11, 2023, 20:00

Politics of Translation
Presentation by Boris Buden.

Venue: Boxing Club, Mark Isaku 8, 10000 Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo

Abstract

What makes translation political? The most usual answer to this question never goes beyond the scope of the common-sensical understanding of translation and the promise of what one might call a benevolent kitsch of the liberal multiculturalism. The story goes like this: regrettably, humans are divided by different tongues (or cursed, according to the Biblical myth of Babel), but luckily there are translators who are able to restore the broken communication and make them understand each other. Moreover, they build bridges across cultural divides bringing people the experience of cultural differences, which at the end makes them more tolerant. Thanks to translation we can create a society based on mutual understanding, recognition of all sorts of differences and peaceful coexistence of majorities and minorities.

But what if translation is not that innocent as liberal multiculturalism wants us to believe? What if it can also tear people apart creating boundaries even there where they have never been before? In short, what if it can make an already divided world, full of hostile identities even worse?

It is this ambiguity of translation that makes it truly political, which is why it must be openly addressed and discussed.

Biography:

Boris Buden is a writer and cultural critic based in Berlin. He studied philosophy in Zagreb and received his PhD in cultural theory from Humboldt University in Berlin. In the 1990s he was editor in the magazine Arkzin in Zagreb. His essays and articles cover the topics of philosophy, politics, cultural and art criticism. He has participated in various conferences and art projects in Western and Eastern Europe, Asia and the USA, including Documenta XI. Buden is a permanent fellow at The European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies in Vienna. Buden has lectured at universities in Europe and the USA. Currently, he teaches cultural theory at The University of Applied Arts Vienna. Buden is co-editor and author of several books, including Barikade Zagreb (1996/1997), Kaptolski Kolodvor, Belgrade (2001), Der Schacht von Babel, Berlin (2004), Übersetzung: Das Versprechen eines Begriffs, (Together with S. Nowotny), Vienna 2008, Zone des Übergangs, Frankfurt/Main (2009), Findet Europa. Eine Suche in der Dolmetscherkabine, (Vienna 2014), Transition to Nowhere: Art in History After 1989, (Berlin 2020) etc.