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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The interpreter as a citizen diplomat

Birgit Menzel

subject

050101 languages & linguisticsLinguistics and Language030504 nursingLiterature and Literary TheoryMovement (music)media_common.quotation_subjectInterpretation (philosophy)05 social sciencesMedia studiescomputer.software_genreHuman Potential MovementLanguage and Linguistics03 medical and health sciencesPoliticsGrassrootsPolitical scienceCold war0501 psychology and cognitive sciences0305 other medical sciencecomputerInterpreterDiplomacymedia_common

description

Abstract The article presents a case of interpretation as a political activity during the Cold War. In the 1980s and 1990s, a grassroots citizen diplomacy movement was initiated by the Californian Esalen Institute, the center of the American Human Potential Movement. In and around its Soviet-American exchange program, numerous individuals, NGOs and organizations established personal relationships and professional exchange with citizens of the two super powers and travelled in both directions. Interpreters had a complex and crucial role in this exchange which was different from both the professional experience of conference and of communal interpreting.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2019-07-24Translation and Interpreting Studies
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.19030.men