Introduction

This is the introduction to a special issue of the journal "Translation", dedicated to "Politics" and edited by Sandro Mezzadra and Naoki Sakai. Over the last decades the encounter with cultural and postcolonial studies has deeply influenced the development of translation studies. The study of the conditions of translation, and more radically of what Antonio Gramsci would call “translatability,” has led to an emphasis on the issue of power and deep asymmetries between languages, and social and “cultural” groups. The “politics of translation” has emerged as a fundamental topic, even for the more technical debates within translation studies, while the concept of translation itself has been politicized and used as a theoretical tool in discussions of nationality, citizenship, multiculturalism, and globalization. By staging an encounter between scholars who work on the politics of translation and those involved in the politicization of the concept of translation, this special issue of Translation attempts to take stock of the theoretical developments and achievements in the field. The editors' introduction sets the stage for such an encounter.