Krzywoszynska, A. (2015) On being a foreign body in the field, or how reflexivity around translation can take us beyond language. Area, 47 (3). pp. 311-318. ISSN 0004-0894
Abstract
Translation in cross-cultural research is being increasingly acknowledged as a serious methodological issue in geography. Translation dilemmas present researchers with incommensurabilities of meaning, thus providing insights into culturally specific ways of being as expressed in language. However, reflexivity around translation in the field can also highlight those moments of cultural practice where language falls short of experience. Engaging with Wittgenstein's late work on language, and with more-than-representational theories, I explore a personal experience of investigating the local relationship between expression and experience in ethnographic fieldwork. Translation dilemmas, I demonstrate, may highlight not only culturally specific areas of meaning, but may also point to where the local language fails to account for the fullness of locally significant ways of being. Translation in cross-cultural research, I argue, is less about the decoding of texts, and more about coming to understand a form of life. This understanding must include practical as well as linguistic aspects. Researchers-as-translators need thus to remain sensitive to the limits to verbal communication in meaning-making; this sensitivity is aided by reflexivity encouraged by translating in the field.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015 The Author. Area published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | translation; auto-ethnography; reflexivity; Wittgenstein; cross-language research |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Geography (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ECONOMIC & SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL RES-060-23-0007 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 22 Sep 2016 11:13 |
Last Modified: | 22 Sep 2016 11:13 |
Published Version: | https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/area.12202 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/area.12202 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:104970 |