Translating Worl(d)S

The book series, edited by Nicoletta Pesaro and sponsored by the Department of Asian and North African Studies, aims to give voice to a time-honoured branch of theoretical and practical research across the disciplines and research domains within the Department. The series aims to establish a platform for scholarly discussion and a space for international dialogue on the translation of Asian and North African languages. In doing so, the project aims to observe and verify the translingual and transcultural dynamics triggered by translation from and into said ‘languages-cultures’, as well as to identify and explore the deep cultural mechanisms and structures involved in interethnic behaviours and relationships. Translation is also a major research tool in the humanities. As a matter of fact, a hermeneutic potential in terms of cultural mediation is inherent in translation activities and in the reflection on translation: it is precisely this potential that allows scholars, in both their research and dissemination work, to bring to the surface the interethnic and intercultural dynamics regulating the relationships between civilisations, both diachronically and synchronically. The project is a continuation and a development of the research carried out in recent years by the former Department of East Asian Studies – now Department of Asian and North African Studies – of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice through a series of initiatives organised by the research group on the translation of Asian languages “Laboratorio sulla Traduzione delle Lingue orientali” (Laboratori sulle lingue orientali). Such activities involved periodical meetings on translation, whose objective was to introduce and discuss specific issues in translation from and into Asian languages, as well as several international events (workshops, conferences, and symposia).