Translation in a Time of Loss

This article seeks to rehabilitate the notion of loss in translation studies. Invocations of loss are routinely advanced to devalue the practice of translation or stress its limits. For this reason, translation studies scholars are often reluctant to use or engage with the term for fear of being assimilated to reductionist or prescriptivist approaches to translation practice. Approaching loss from the dual perspectives of mobility and mortality, the article aims to deepen and enrich our understanding of the idea of loss and to demonstrate why it continues to be of importance in our reflections on the theory and practice of translation. The notion of “secular faith” as developed by the Swedish theorist Martin Hägglund will be explored to understand why finite time has been and is central to how translations are both produced and received. Translation studies cannot afford to lose sight of loss.