New Feminist Paradigms of Contact and Exchange in Translation

• In Event: Feminist Translation as a Praxis of Transnational Dreams, Solidarities, and Connectivities

Abstract

Translating the work of two feminist theorists from French into English helped me rethink the modes of transnational contact that exist in translation. Bracha Ettinger, a Franco-Israeli artist and psychoanalyst, describes “subjectivity-as-encounter,” refashioning a conventional trading in losses across defined borders in favor of more holistic interactions. French philosopher Catherine Malabou’s analysis of our era in terms of “plasticity” helps me parse the transformative solidarities of translation. Ettinger and Malabou’s interventions prompt new feminist approaches to translation within a transnational framework. I explain how their paradigms respond to the contemporary need to articulate alternative modes of contact, exchange and connection.

Presenter

• Carolyn Shread, Mount Holyoke College