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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. 319–338

Subaltern mediators in the digital landscape

The case of video poetry

| Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

This article explores translational literary Web 2.0 practices and user-generated cultural creations on the Internet, focusing on video poetry that re-creates canonical poets’ bodies of work. It will be argued that the use of for-profit platforms like YouTube and Vimeo by indie creators and translators of video poetry favours the emergence of new translational attitudes, practices and objects that have positive but also contentious effects. One the one hand, these online mediators explore new poetic expressions and tend to make the most of the potential for dissemination of poetic heritage, providing visibility to non-hegemonic literatures. On the other hand, however, these translational digitally-born practices and creations by voluntary and subaltern mediators might reinforce the hegemonic position of large American Internet corporations at the risk of commodifying cultural capital, consolidating English as a lingua franca and perhaps, in the long run, even fostering a potentially monocultural and internationally homogeneous aesthetics.

Keywords: video poetry, translator, literary canon, power, YouTube, Vimeo
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.New practices beyond the power of publishers
  • 3.Video poetry
  • 4.New mediators on 2.0 platforms
  • 5.The empowerment of the translator
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 June 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.29.2.07iri
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