Article published In:
'Translaboration': Translation as CollaborationEdited by Alexa Alfer
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 3:3] 2017
► pp. 291–303
Edited by Alexa Alfer
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 3:3] 2017
► pp. 291–303
New possibilities for translation
Care theory as criteria for negotiation
Pioneered by feminist ethicist and psychologist Carol Gilligan in her 1982 work In a Different Voice, care theory rests, according to philosopher Rita Manning, on four key elements: Moral Attention, Sympathetic Understanding, Relationship Awareness, and Harmony. Combined with the notion of voice present in Gilligan’s title, each of these components represents a key portion of the translator-text-author relationship, particularly when translation is seen as negotiation. In this contribution, after examining the notion of translation as negotiation as Eco describes it, I will offer an overview of the psycho-sociological theory of care, with the aim of presenting it as a framework for ethical decision-making in negotiating the act of translation. The importance of translaboration will become evident through the theories of Ricoeur and an emphasis on the cooperative nature of ethically negotiated decisions; i.e., ‘trans’ and its insistence on moving across, beyond, through; and ‘laboration’ and its insistence on the continuing and ongoing process of working.
Keywords: translation, negotiation, care theory, ethical decision-making, translaboration
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