Translation and transnational narratives of revolution: Constructing a critical history in the present

TY - JOUR

T1 - Translation and transnational narratives of revolution:

T2 - Constructing a critical history in the present

AU - Perovic, Sanja

PY - 2024/5/29

Y1 - 2024/5/29

N2 - Translation profoundly influenced the creation of a pan-European and transatlantic revolutionary movement at the end of the eighteenth century. Yet, the role of translation in extending radical ideas of equality and democracy still remains largely hidden from view. This article draws on the AHRC-funded Radical Translations Project to recover the vitality of translation practices during this period. It argues that activist and militant translators of the revolutionary period turned to translation to construct new genealogies of what they hoped would be a new present and future. These genealogies were transnational in nature. They were also frequently expressed in the form of elaborate metanarratives by which translators sought to give meaning to a sequence of revolutionary events that were still unfolding. The article discusses the significance of these metanarratives for our understanding of how new genealogies come to be forged during a historical moment of great upheaveal. It illuminates the role played by multiple, simultaneous chronologies in the transnational circulation of revolutionary concepts and modes of action. It concludes by showing how translation studies can offer the historian new methods for contextualising the temporality of both national and transnational narratives of revolution. Keywords. Activist translation; metanarrative; French Revolution; transnationalism; prosopography; revolutionary movements

AB - Translation profoundly influenced the creation of a pan-European and transatlantic revolutionary movement at the end of the eighteenth century. Yet, the role of translation in extending radical ideas of equality and democracy still remains largely hidden from view. This article draws on the AHRC-funded Radical Translations Project to recover the vitality of translation practices during this period. It argues that activist and militant translators of the revolutionary period turned to translation to construct new genealogies of what they hoped would be a new present and future. These genealogies were transnational in nature. They were also frequently expressed in the form of elaborate metanarratives by which translators sought to give meaning to a sequence of revolutionary events that were still unfolding. The article discusses the significance of these metanarratives for our understanding of how new genealogies come to be forged during a historical moment of great upheaveal. It illuminates the role played by multiple, simultaneous chronologies in the transnational circulation of revolutionary concepts and modes of action. It concludes by showing how translation studies can offer the historian new methods for contextualising the temporality of both national and transnational narratives of revolution. Keywords. Activist translation; metanarrative; French Revolution; transnationalism; prosopography; revolutionary movements

U2 - 10.35562/encounters-in-translation.167

DO - 10.35562/encounters-in-translation.167

M3 - Article

VL - 1

JO - Encounters in Translation

JF - Encounters in Translation

IS - 1

ER -