Translation and Epistemicide: Racialization of Languages in the Americas (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780816547821)

Translation has facilitated colonialism from the fifteenth century to the present day. Epistemicide, which involves destroying, marginalizing, or banishing Indigenous, subaltern, and counter-hegemonic knowledges, is one result. In the Americas, it is a racializing process. But in the hands of subaltern translators and interpreters, translation has also been used as a decolonial method.

The book gives an account of translation-as-epistemicide in the Americas, drawing on a range of examples from the early colonial period to the War on Terror. The first chapters demonstrate four distinct operations of epistemicide: the commensuration of worlds, the epistemic marginalization of subaltern translators and the knowledge they produce, the criminalization of translators and interpreters, and translation as piracy or extractivism. The second part of the book outlines decolonial translation strategies, including an epistemic posture the author calls "bewilderment."

Translation and Epistemicide tracks how through the centuries translation practices have enabled colonialism and resulted in epistemicide, or the destruction of Indigenous and subaltern knowledge.

Author: Joshua Martin Price
ISBN-10: 0816547823
ISBN-13: 9780816547821
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Language: English
Published: 01/03/2023
Pages: 208
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.83lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 0.70d