Complicity and the Colonial Force of Law in the Courtroom of Katie Kitamura’s Intimacies

Abstract

This article analyzes the account of the courtroom interpreter portrayed in Katie Kitamura’s novel Intimacies and argues that the book’s account presents the interpreter as an actor who must erase the subjective self in the service of advancing legally defensible narratives. The article contends that this vision of the interpreter, and the novel’s treatment of its judicial setting function as a critique of the colonial roles of law in both systemic and personal terms, and highlights the law’s pursuit, not of monolithic truths, but of procedurally defensible narratives.