Taboo transactions: an initial diachronic approach to translation and sex work

Translation is an ever-evolving form of transmission that carries with it ideas, hopes, politics, poetics, and desires. Building upon Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s assertion that “translation is the most intimate form of reading,” the present paper explorestranslation as a form of labor that can be d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTranslation matters Vol. 4; no. 2; pp. 106 - 119
Main Author Duffy, Emily
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Porto Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Letras 01.01.2022
Subjects
Hinduism
History of translation
Metaphor
Otherness
Poetics
Religion
Sex industry
Translators
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Summary:Translation is an ever-evolving form of transmission that carries with it ideas, hopes, politics, poetics, and desires. Building upon Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s assertion that “translation is the most intimate form of reading,” the present paper explorestranslation as a form of labor that can be described as intimate through metaphor and history. This paper offers a diachronic perspective on translation and erotic labor through the lens of metaphor, theory and translation history, andproposes that the marginal nature of both sex work and translation reflects a cultural aversion to alterity or otherness. Situated within these overlaps, this paper will trace 1) erotic dimensions of translation depicted through theory and metaphor; 2) a discussion on the figure of the yoginī from Hindu Tantric religion as well as the colonial construct of “sleeping dictionaries” as translator/ consort figures; and 3) examples from the contemporary intersections of translation, global commerce, and sex work.
ISSN:2184-4585
2184-4585
DOI:10.21747/21844585/tm4_2a8