Translation, simulacra, resistance

Abstract

Translation can constitute a cultural means of resistance against multinational capitalism and the political institutions to which the current global economy is allied. A translated text might tamper with the print and electronic simulacra on which capital relies so as to question them and the practices of consumption that they solicit. This political intervention may be imagined as a local revolt that challenges dominant discourses. It can involve discursive practices that are not only interlingual but intersemiotic, that not only deploy translation in the strict sense but such other forms of rewriting as adaptation. The social impact of a politically engaged translation depends on the ways in which diverse cultural constituencies receive it, although the very rapidity and heterogeneity of the simulacra can foster a critical reflexivity in social agents.