Eco-translation in the study of particular linguistic and cultural translation strategies that "knowingly engage with the challenges of human-induced environmental change" (Cronin 2017:2)
How is translation relevant to the transformation of society towards a better relationship with our planet? Does it matter which terminology we use (climate change or climate crisis)?, which metaphors and images? (Drowing Islands in the South Pacific or Disappearing Islands in Friesland?) Does the translation of certain works help to draw awareness to our current situation (Walden by Henry David Thoreau or Das Lied des Waldes by Klara Jahn)? Does it matter which memory and information databases we use (the human brain, books, the library database, google scholar)?
Does culture matter in technological, scientific, legal or other "non-art" areas of translation? Are cultural theories a good tool to understand and navigate the decision-making processes that lead to the selection, editing and translation of a text - or to being employed as a translator?
Indigenous knowledges are travelling across the geographical, temporal and cultural borders drawn by colonial and post-colonial structures of power. This travelling needs to be explored from the place of the in-between: a space filled with arbitrary checkpoints, contested solidarities, undemanding betrayal, obscure intimacy and other spacio-temporal specters.
Creative Nonfiction is fact-based writing that addresses important sociopolitical topics in ways that make them more accessible without being dimished in their complexity or literary value. New Journalism is a particular brand of creative nonfiction in that it often additionally raises questions about systemic and structural bias within the news industry.
A current example of this in the German context is Sara Schurmann´s Klartext Klima! in which the author addresses shortcomings of contemporary journalism with respect to communicating the climate crisis through the lens of her personal experience of being a journalist.
Research questions in this area are, can good storytelling achieve better socio-political onboarding? If so how? Is storytelling a scientific method we should take more seriously? If so why?
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