Ruins as Translation Sites

Expanding on the growing body of work that approaches translation beyond language from an interdisciplinary perspective, this innovative book explores ruins as sites of translation. In Ruins as Translation Sites: Sensing Portions of Past Futures, Vidal examines ruins as portions of past futures—changeable, always in motion, telling stories without words. The book begins by looking at ruins as spatially embodied fragments of the past and future, using examples such as Detroit’s industrial ruins, before moving into a discussion of ruins as temporal spaces that convey stories beyond the linguistic, as seen in such cases as the ruins of Belchite. Building on these ideas, Vidal argues for approaching ruins as translation sites, as established by Sherry Simon, with varied examples demonstrating ruination and translating as processes that communicate with our infinite senses. The volume concludes by looking at translating through cracks in contemporary art and literature through the works of Anne Carson and Doris Salcedo as material translations of ruins in the contemporary world. It makes the case that ruins, like translation, take shape spatially and temporally through sensed processes that are never finished and thus, communicate and translate our world. This volume will appeal to scholars in translation studies and related disciplines, including anthropology, philosophy, and contemporary art.