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I have done recently some work on Homi Bhabha’s concept of cultural translation which has led me to a critical vision of the author’s proposals (Wagner 2008). What I am doing in this paper is a continuation of this critical review and, at the same time, a genealogical approach to the topic. ‘Cultural translation’ is a catchword we may find in many different contexts: in publicity material for scientific journals and courses of study of business schools as well as in such renowned theory like that of Homi K. Bhabha (1994), while other critics like Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (2007) speak of “translation as culture”. The sometimes inflationary use of the t-word inside and outside of academia can raise suspicion, especially if we consider that it is always proposed as a positive phenomenon, even a value or a political remedy to the ills of globalization. Theoreticians like the German literary studies scholar Doris BachmannMedick (2006, 2009), who has done a lot of work on the topic, consider even the possibility of a worldwide “translational turn” which she believes to possess a critical potential when it comes to dealing with the impacts of globalization. But before we follow this jumping to conclusions, it is wise to do some genealogical work on the metaphorical uses of the term ‘translation’ in the past, hoping to gain a critical point of view on the term’s present uses and abuses. Most recent publications that deal with the promises of a supposedly new translating culture quote Benjamin’s famous essay on translation (The Task of the Translator, first published in German in 1923; Benjamin 1991), sometimes without reflecting the fact that

Cultural Translation: A Value or a Tool? Let’s Start with Gramsci!