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The Posthuman Condition and a Translational Agency That Leaks

Authors

  • Shabnam Naderi 📧 Ph. D. Candidate, Department of English Translation Studies, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran
  • Gholamreza Tajvidi Associate Professor, Department of English Translation Studies, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran

Abstract

The present conceptual paper seeks to investigate the notion of agency within the field of translation studies drawing on Barad’s (2007) agential realism and Ferrando’s (2019) classification of philosophical posthumanism. Diffractively reading insights through the two approaches, one from quantum physics and the other from philosophy, the paper gives an elaboration on translational agency. The traditional, i.e. Cartesian-Newtonian, understanding of matter considers humans as active, self-moving agents and matters as passive entities whose movements are tied up with external human forces. Within this frame of thought nonhuman beings are excluded from the discussions of agency. This humanist take on agency considers separateness as an inherent feature of the world’s being. On the other hand, the posthuman take on agency levels criticism against the Cartesian ‘cogito’ and the ontological dualism it entails and lays the groundwork for an agency of ‘becoming’, rather than being, which places emphasis on a relational ontology and the mutual constitution of an entangled agency. A posthuman translational agency, in this respect, goes beyond acknowledging human-nonhuman relationship or assemblage to maintain that the material is no longer an exterior to the human and the human itself is no longer a closed, rigid notion. It is not about the differences, rather it is about how differences are made and remade; i.e. against the backdrop of a posthumanist, agential realist, translational agency, inquiries into “who” and “what” are not in disjunction from inquiries into “how”.

Keywords:

پساانسان‌گرایی، پساانسان‌محوری، پسادوقطبی‌گرایی، رئالیسم کنش‌گرایانه، کنش‌گری ترجمانی

References

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Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter an Meaning. Durham, USA: Duke University Press.

Barad, K., & Kleinman, A. (2012). Intra-actions. Mousse, 34, 76–81.

Birlik, N. (2022). A reconsideration of subjectivity? Lacan’s response to posthumanism. In Z. Antakyalıoğlu (Ed.), Post-theories in literary and cultural studies (pp. 65–74). Pensylvania: Lexington Books.

Bozalek, V., & Fullagar, S. (2021). Agential cut. In K. Murris (Ed.), A Glossary for doing postqualitative, new Materialist and critical posthumanist research across disciplines (pp. 30–32). London: Routledge.

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Braidotti, R., & Hlavajova, M. (Eds.). (2018). The posthuman glossary. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Ferrando, F. (2019). Philosophical posthumanism. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Haraway, D. J. (2004). The Haraway reader. London: Routledge.

Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Olohan, M. (2011). Translators and translation technology: The dance of agency. Translation Studies, 4(3), 1–23.

Pickering, A. (1993). The Mangle of practice: Agency and emergence in the sociology of science. American Journal of Sociology, 99(3), 559–589.

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Published

2023-01-23 — Updated on 2023-02-17

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How to Cite

Naderi, S., & Tajvidi, G. (2023). The Posthuman Condition and a Translational Agency That Leaks. Iranian Journal of Translation Studies, 20(80). Retrieved from https://journal.translationstudies.ir/ts/article/view/1040 (Original work published January 23, 2023)

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Academic Research Paper

DOR