Center for Intercultural Studies Mainz

The Center for Intercultural Studies (ZIS) concentrates and initiates research projects, lecture series and symposia which function as interdisciplinary mediators between academic departments and disciplines. The Center promotes the study of global cultural phenomena, such as Politics of Translation Processes and forms of cultural opening and closing Migration and mobility It is creating and participating in cooperations for externally funded research initiatives, i.e. CEDITRAA (Cultural Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation in Africa and Asia) and the Forum for Human Differentiation (Forum Humandifferenzierung). The Center for Intertercultural Studies (ZIS) additionally endeavors to …

Übersetzen, erinnern, gratulieren: İyi ki doğdun, Sevgi!

2016

Translational transitions: “Translation proper” and translation studies in the humanities

2009

The increasing use of “translation” in the humanities during the past few years has brought about a broader variety of perspectives on translation than previously allowed for by modernist and positivist approaches. For centuries, attempts to control meaning and the metaphysical idea of translation which extended this desire for control beyond linguistic boundaries have resulted in a concept of translation which, since the second half of the eighteenth century, has progressively added to the constraints faced by both translators and translation theorists. The fact that now their “master word” is being celebrated by other disciplines is understandably being welcomed with enthusiasm by scholar…

Instrumental thinking in Translation Studies

2014

This paper concentrates on instrumental thinking to analyse the conceptualization of translation in praxis and theory. First, instrumental thinking is introduced as a general mode of thinking which can be traced across different academic disciplines. A critical position is adopted with reference to Horkheimer/ Adorno and Bourdieu. Based on Bourdieu’s work on “the state of the unthought” and the “pre-constructed,” some examples from academic discourse are discussed to foreground how a certain type of instrumental thinking is linked to market-oriented politics and how this shapes concepts in academic discourse as well. It is argued that the effects of the instrumental can be found on several …

Translation und Grenze. Versuch einer translationswissenschaftlichen Neufiguration

2019

Das Verstandnis von Translation als ein Verfahren, das Sprachgrenzen uberwindet, fuhrt Denkvoraussetzungen mit, die theoretische und methodische Folgen haben. So verstellt die Annahme der Existenz von Spracheinheiten, die Translationsprozessen vorgeschaltet seien, den Blick auf die Rolle, die Translation in der Konstruktion und Aushandlung von Sprachgrenzen spielen kann. Mit einem Fokus auf die Zuordnung von Sprecher*innen zu Sprachgemeinschaften in asylrelevanten Kontexten eruiert der Beitrag die Moglichkeiten, Translation als Katalysator von Grenzziehungen zu figurieren. Die Begriffsreflexion soll zu einem besseren Verstandnis der Funktionen von Translation uber ihre rein instrumentelle B…