Translators, Interpreters, and Cultural Negotiators: Mediating and Communicating Power from the Middle Ages to the Modern Era (2014 edition.)

This book reconsiders the intellectual, social and professional identity of translators and interpreters when their role involves an intercultural negotiation with institutional powers, be them medieval rulers, modern States, an army of invasion or a dominant culture.

Surprisingly little is known of how historical mediations took place, how the mediators worked, and the ways in which transcultural mediations become implicit or explicit forms of power.

The chapters seek to address how translators and interpreters can emerge in a position of power by presenting visions, methods, and case studies dealing with a wide thematic range of issues, such as historical concerns, cultural identity, and the role of translation in mediation and cultural transfer.

With far-reaching analysis of history, politics, religion and literature, this book will appeal to researchers and students of translation, the history of communication, and institutional power.