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Translation policies frequently aim towards cultural assimilation and adaptation. The legal conceptions, religious standards, and other manifestations of the cultures of colonial powers, for example, were enforced not least of all with the aid of translations geared to adapt the target culture to the source culture. Conversely, the translation of a foreign-cultural narrative, for example, might pursue the objective
of adaptation to a target culture. Regardless of which way the hierarchy slopes, translation policies pursue a norm- or order-stabilizing function. At the same time, precisely in the context of translation, these adaptation processes do not take place without ruptures. On the contrary, in the interplay between cultures they often also bring forth contrarieties ranging from more or less unavoidable ambiguities to deliberate acts of subversion. The interdisciplinary conference will adopt this counter-perspective—hitherto little taken into account in the study of Early Modern translation cultures—as a way of sharpening the focus on ambiguity and subversion as catalysts of cultural resistance. In the process, it will draw equally on the approaches of classical rhetoric, translation studies, and postcolonial theory, which it will thus link in an innovative manner. The aim will be to discuss how concepts of ambiguity and subversion shaped by research in the disciplines of literary and cultural studies as well as social and political science can be employed productively in translation studies and research settings devoted specifically to Early Modern history. Please submit your title and an abstract (approx. ½ page) in German or English to Annkathrin Koppers by 21 February 2021.
