When People Turn into Lions: The Problem of Translation

Abstract

The article deals with translational concept of Bruno Latour, focusing on some epistemological issues that arise from the consideration of translation as object of interest. These issues can be reduced to the question whether the final form of translation involves only the knowing subject, or the studied reality as well. Based on the solution to this question, we can distinguish between linguistic and nonlinguistic approaches. Latour's attempt at systematic conceptualization of translation can be seen as a deflection from the linguistic tradition in favor of non-linguistic forms involved in the program of the ontological turn. In this sense, the text describes primarily the issues of reductionism, asymmetry, generalized symmetry, agency and the role of researcher in the research process. In Latour's view, this process is not the matter of facts, but matter of concerns, in which ontological politics consists of the process of negotiation over what makes up the real world.