Description

Book Synopsis

This ground-breaking book assembles 31 portraits of people who interpret languages, cultures and situations, and offers graphic interpretations of their collective experience. Their individual stories are part of the larger history of interpreters, interpretation and interpretive readings, and they demonstrate how language intersects with race, class, gender and geopolitical inequalities. The book allows the unexpected to unfold by passing control from the writers to the reader, who will see connections and ruptures unfold between space, time and class while never losing sight of the materiality of living. Together and individually, the portraits tell a powerful story about the structure of contemporary society and the hierarchical distributions of power that permeate our lives.



Trade Review
This book can be read as a collection of historical and contemporary portraits of interpreting subjects. It invites us to understand systems of power and oppression through interpreters’ narratives, practices and experiences of inequality. The book offers not only a political account of language, but also a distinctive mode of writing the social and practicing critique. * Alfonso Del Percio, University College London, UK *

This original book takes us on a journey through time by depicting the lives of colourful characters and revealing their shared humanity as interpreters. The authors deftly portray the lives of Arokiam, Evans, Darko, Fatima, Bernardino and Antoine and propel the reader into a captivating, often cruel world strewn with injustices.

* Justine Ndongo-Keller, Interpreter/Trainer, Former Chief of the Language Services Section of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda *

After Figures of Interpretation, a spilled cup of coffee will never be the same again: it is an everyday reminder that interpretation is always an act of balancing or struggling between unequal powers. The book's great variety of portraits discern the thin line between reinforcing and counteracting the political forces pouring into this violent mess called capitalism.

* Almut Rembges, Founder of the performance label Practical Theory & Company *

Table of Contents

Random Table of Contents

(names of the figures of interpretation in alphabetical order)

B.A.S.S. Meier-Lorente-Muth-Duchêne: NAVIGATING FIGURES OF INTERPRETATION

Aïcha and Maria Rosa Garrido Sardà: AÏCHA

Kathleen Painter: AIJAN AND KATHLEEN

Mi-Cha Flubacher: AN CHA

Alexandre Duchêne: ANTOINE

Arnaldo Bernabe Jr.: ARNALDO

Shanthini Pillai: AROKIAM AND THE UNNAMED CATECHIST

Bernardino Tavares: BERNARDINO

Natalie Tarr: BINTOU AND ALAIN

Aneta Pavlenko: CONRAD

Maya Muratov: DANIEL

Stefanie Meier: DARKO

Carla M. Pacis: ENRIQUE

Carmen Delgado Luchner: EVANS

Inmaculada Garcia-Sanchez: FATIMA

Stefan Vollmer: GOOGLE TRANSLATE

Dina Bolocan: ILONA

Carlos Pestana: JULDÉ

Sabine Lehner: MANU

Monica Heller: MME T., JANET, GINNY, LYNE, MASHA, ANNA, PAULETTE & MONICA

Sebastian Muth: NARENDRA

Nima Jebelli and Sibo Kanobana: NIMA

Priscilla Angela T. Cruz: NON

Mi-Cha Flubacher: PETER

Kamilla Kraft: PIA

Rachel Mairs: QUINTUS

Ebenezer Tedjouong: ROLAND

Beatriz Lorente: SAEED

Verena Krausneker and Sandra Schügerl: SANDRA

Tulay Caglitutuncigil: TULAY

Biao Xiang: YANG

Jorge Alvis: YENNY

Figures of Interpretation

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    £17.93

    Includes FREE delivery

    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Mon 22 Jun 2026.

    A Paperback / softback by B.A.S.S. Meier-Lorente-Muth-Duchêne

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      View other formats and editions of Figures of Interpretation by B.A.S.S. Meier-Lorente-Muth-Duchêne

      Publisher: Multilingual Matters
      Publication Date: 05/02/2021
      ISBN13: 9781788929387, 978-1788929387
      ISBN10: 1788929381

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      This ground-breaking book assembles 31 portraits of people who interpret languages, cultures and situations, and offers graphic interpretations of their collective experience. Their individual stories are part of the larger history of interpreters, interpretation and interpretive readings, and they demonstrate how language intersects with race, class, gender and geopolitical inequalities. The book allows the unexpected to unfold by passing control from the writers to the reader, who will see connections and ruptures unfold between space, time and class while never losing sight of the materiality of living. Together and individually, the portraits tell a powerful story about the structure of contemporary society and the hierarchical distributions of power that permeate our lives.



      Trade Review
      This book can be read as a collection of historical and contemporary portraits of interpreting subjects. It invites us to understand systems of power and oppression through interpreters’ narratives, practices and experiences of inequality. The book offers not only a political account of language, but also a distinctive mode of writing the social and practicing critique. * Alfonso Del Percio, University College London, UK *

      This original book takes us on a journey through time by depicting the lives of colourful characters and revealing their shared humanity as interpreters. The authors deftly portray the lives of Arokiam, Evans, Darko, Fatima, Bernardino and Antoine and propel the reader into a captivating, often cruel world strewn with injustices.

      * Justine Ndongo-Keller, Interpreter/Trainer, Former Chief of the Language Services Section of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda *

      After Figures of Interpretation, a spilled cup of coffee will never be the same again: it is an everyday reminder that interpretation is always an act of balancing or struggling between unequal powers. The book's great variety of portraits discern the thin line between reinforcing and counteracting the political forces pouring into this violent mess called capitalism.

      * Almut Rembges, Founder of the performance label Practical Theory & Company *

      Table of Contents

      Random Table of Contents

      (names of the figures of interpretation in alphabetical order)

      B.A.S.S. Meier-Lorente-Muth-Duchêne: NAVIGATING FIGURES OF INTERPRETATION

      Aïcha and Maria Rosa Garrido Sardà: AÏCHA

      Kathleen Painter: AIJAN AND KATHLEEN

      Mi-Cha Flubacher: AN CHA

      Alexandre Duchêne: ANTOINE

      Arnaldo Bernabe Jr.: ARNALDO

      Shanthini Pillai: AROKIAM AND THE UNNAMED CATECHIST

      Bernardino Tavares: BERNARDINO

      Natalie Tarr: BINTOU AND ALAIN

      Aneta Pavlenko: CONRAD

      Maya Muratov: DANIEL

      Stefanie Meier: DARKO

      Carla M. Pacis: ENRIQUE

      Carmen Delgado Luchner: EVANS

      Inmaculada Garcia-Sanchez: FATIMA

      Stefan Vollmer: GOOGLE TRANSLATE

      Dina Bolocan: ILONA

      Carlos Pestana: JULDÉ

      Sabine Lehner: MANU

      Monica Heller: MME T., JANET, GINNY, LYNE, MASHA, ANNA, PAULETTE & MONICA

      Sebastian Muth: NARENDRA

      Nima Jebelli and Sibo Kanobana: NIMA

      Priscilla Angela T. Cruz: NON

      Mi-Cha Flubacher: PETER

      Kamilla Kraft: PIA

      Rachel Mairs: QUINTUS

      Ebenezer Tedjouong: ROLAND

      Beatriz Lorente: SAEED

      Verena Krausneker and Sandra Schügerl: SANDRA

      Tulay Caglitutuncigil: TULAY

      Biao Xiang: YANG

      Jorge Alvis: YENNY

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