Writing about embodiment as an act of translation

Baker, Catherine

Abstract

Writing about embodiment is an act of compression: reducing the sensory complexity of someone else’s physical experience, or even one’s own, into written language that somebody else will understand through sight or sound. It is an act of abstraction, excerpting part of a narrative or a life and putting it to another purpose, where indeed one may – and possibly one always should – worry that it is overstepping into appropriation. It is also an act of translation, where recognizing the writer as an intermediary in the translator’s sense might help us be explicit about what it is we do when we write about bodies, and why writing about militarized embodiment might be so unnerving.

Citation

Baker, C. (2016). Writing about embodiment as an act of translation. Critical military studies, 2(1-2), 120-124. https://doi.org/10.1080/23337486.2016.1139314

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 5, 2015
• Publication Date: May 3, 2016
• Deposit Date: Feb 9, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 29, 2016
• Journal: Critical military studies
• Print ISSN: 2333-7486
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 1-2
• Pages: 120-124
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23337486.2016.1139314
• Keywords: Embodiment, Translation
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/385077
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23337486.2016.1139314
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=rcms20
• Contract Date: Feb 9, 2016