Violence and translation

Media about extraordinary individuals (saints, sages, heroes, etc.) often entails the work of translation. The lives of such personages translate the values of their community; disciples translate and transmit their story; sometimes devotees even translate the body from one place to another. Moreover, those studying such media are frequently faced with the need to translate ideas from one linguistic and conceptual world to another. But do these acts of translation entail violence? Do devotees and/or scholars disfigure the extraordinary individual when they carry (compel?) them across cultures, traditions, moral frameworks, and contemporary understandings of identity (race, sex, gender, religion, secularity, etc.)? As scholars, what are our ethical responsibilities in the face of such (alleged) violence? In keeping with the collaborative ethos of the Hagiology Seminar, this roundtable will involve participation in three virtual conversations leading up to an in-person session at the 2024 AAR Annual Meeting. The roundtable will be headed by Reyhan Durmaz (University of Pennsylvania).