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Article published In:
Translation in times of technocapitalism
Edited by Stefan Baumgarten and Jordi Cornellà-Detrell
[Target 29:2] 2017
► pp. 284–300

Humanum ex machina

Translation in the post-global, posthuman world

| Newcastle University

Translation sits at the epicentre of the biotech era’s exponential growth. The terms of reference of this discipline are increasingly unstable becoming as humans interface with machines, become melded with them, and ultimately become a networked entity alongside other networked entities. In this brave new world, the posthuman offers a critical perspective that allows us to liberate our thinking in new ways and points towards the possibility of a translation theory that actively engages with other disciplines as a response to disciplinary hegemony. This article looks at how technology has changed and is changing translation. It then explores the implications of transhumanism and the possibilities for a posthuman translation theory. Ultimately, the survival of translation studies will be contingent on the survival of translation itself and its ability to question its own subjective, posthuman self.

Keywords: translation, transhumanism, posthumanism, biopolitics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The translation factory
  • 3.The factory is shut down
  • 4.The city and the translation
  • 5.Spaces of flows and translation
  • 6.Global voices and the revolution
  • 7.Translation and the global voice
  • 8.Transhumanism
  • 9.Translation, posthumanism and power
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 June 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.29.2.05oth
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