Translating and Interpreting Conflict

Book excerpt: The relationship between translation and conflict is highly relevant in today's globalised and fragmented world, and this is attracting increased academic interest. This collection of essays was inspired by the first international conference to directly address the translator and interpreter's involvement in situations of military and ideological conflict, and its representation in fiction. The collection adopts an interdisciplinary approach, and the contributors to the volume bring to bear a variety of perspectives informed by media studies, historiography, literary scholarship and self-reflective interpreting and translation practice. The reader is presented with compelling case studies of the 'embeddedness' of translators and interpreters, either on the ground or as portrayed in fiction, and of their roles in mediating, memorizing or rewriting conflict. The theoretical reflection which the essays generate regarding mediation and neutrality, ethical involvement and responsibility, and the implications for translator and interpreter training, will be of interest to researchers in translation, interpreting, media, intercultural and postcolonial studies.