Translation Sites

Sherry Simon is a professor in the French Department at Concordia University. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Academie des lettres du Québec.

"A novel genre – a translation ‘guidebook’ - part travelogue, part diary, part meditation on sites of memory, this poignant study uses translation as a medium to communicate the affective charge of linguistic encounters and political conflicts past and present. Hotels, markets, churches, museums, checkpoints, gardens, bridges and streets – each location is mobilized as a zone of polyphonic expression and cultural difference. A must-read for those interested in translation, urbanism and cartographies of memory."Emily Apter, Silver Professor of French and Comparative Literature, New York University, USA. Author of The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature"In her very compelling volume, Sherry Simon guides us through a fascinating range of sites where different forms of translation speak in both an unsettling and emotionally inspiring manner. The book listens patiently to voices ranging from writers and artists to Holocaust survivors and political activists. Simon thus strikingly extends the frontiers of translation, investigating questions of diversity and accommodation, identity and community."Michaela Wolf, University of Graz, Austria

• List of FiguresIntroductionI. ARCHITECTURES OF MEMORY1. THE MONUMENT 2. THE OPERA HOUSE 3. THE CHURCH II. TRANSIT 4. THE HOTEL 5. THE MOUNTAINTOP 6. THE TOWER 7. THE BRIDGE 8. THE WAR HOTEL III. CROSSROADS 9. THE MARKET 10. THE STREET 11. THE MUSEUM IV. THRESHOLDS 12. THE TRANSLATOR’S STUDY 13. THE LIBRARY 14. THE GARDEN 15. THE PSYCHOANALYST’S COUCH V. BORDERS, CONTROL, SURVEILLANCE 16. NO MAN’S LAND 17. THE CHECKPOINT 18. THE EDGE OF EMPIRE ConclusionAcknowledgementsImage creditsIndex