You Shall Speak My Language : In Defense of Linguistic Specificity and Rigorous Comparativism

In this article, the author proposes approaching the concept of untranslatability in a dialectical framework, recognizing both its theoretical and methodological benefits and constraints, particularly in the cultural and political contexts. After introducing the idea of rhetorical irony in translation in Kilito’s text, the author provides a critique of academic practice that inadvertently reproduces cultural hierarchies. The author then argues for the need to revisit the pitfalls of the idea of untranslatability in its critique of universal frameworks, which are essential to political struggles, particularly in non-Western context. Conversely, in the last part, the author demonstrates that the need to preserve cultural and linguistic specificity is a fundamental principle of comparative practice in order to avoid being frozen in a historical presentism without the immediate intellectual and historical context. This article makes the case for rigorous comparativism with linguistic expertise, deep cultural knowledge, and a keen sense of historical context. Adopting Kilito’s subject position as non-Western critic, and reverting his postulation, the author proposes: you want to say something about my literature, you shall (and can) speak my language.