Dialectic of Manipulation in Autopoietic Interpreting

Abstract

The study of manipulation in translation has drawn significant attention in translation and interpreting studies. Yet, the ontological, epistemological, and teleological aspects of manipulation have almost remained untapped. The present study argues for the critical role of dialectic of manipulation in interpreting (DMII) – manipulative interpretation of manipulative source text. To this end, Trump’s first UN address on Iran in 2017 and its simultaneous interpretation into Persian are examined, by way of exemplar, in the light of integrating Luhmann’s (1986, 1995) autopoietic social system theory at the macro-level of discourse into Baker’s (2006) socio-communicative narrative theory at the micro-level of discourse. Findings suggest that where dialectic of manipulation is at play in the interpretation of political discourse, interpreting along with its ST as an autopoietic subsystem of the communication social system could possibly play its enlightening and emancipatory role in a) laying bare the ideological moves and unequal power relations encoded and embedded in the representation of the world; b) in circulating or contesting narratives; and c) in giving rise to, interestingly enough, the autopoieticly subversive and retaliatory interpretation (ASRI) triggered by what Foucault terms regimes of truth.