Trace 1: Western Ghosts and the Politics of Translation

Author: Jiuchai Zhishu
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2002-08-01
Features: This book is a multilingual international academic collection aimed at examining the global traces of theoretical knowledge produced in specific places, exploring how theories themselves are constituted and transformed by actual social relations in different locations. We seek to identify theories originating from completely different regions, including critical theoretical works that emerged in the complex relationships between North America and Western Europe over the past few centuries, often shaped by colonial and semi-colonial dynamics. The research papers, opinion pieces, and reviews published here will cater to a multilingual readership, encompassing not only interdisciplinary fields such as cultural studies, feminist studies, critical race studies, or postcolonial studies but also traditional social and humanities disciplines. At the same time, Traces aims to create a dialogue and debate between different geopolitical economic theories and empirical materials, as well as among diverse theoretical perspectives themselves. Every article in this collection will appear in all its language versions. Each contributor fully understands that they are writing for a multilingual audience—much like an intellectual under colonial rule, every contributor must pay attention to this multiplicity. This book forms and supports an international space, yet it fundamentally differs from what is termed an internationalist journal. Internationalist journals are built on the dominance of a single dominant language over other marginalized languages. We sincerely hope that the social space in which we debate and exchange ideas will challenge the space defined by nations and national languages. Our space is constituted by the process of translation, involving multiple languages and participants, sustained and expanded through our debates, as well as through exchanges between authors, critics, translators, and readers.