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Bedbugs and Grasshoppers: Translation, Myth and the Becoming of the Nation‐State
Author(s) -
Wong YokeSum
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/johs.12043
Subject(s) - state (computer science) , nationalism , narrative , context (archaeology) , clarity , linguistics , colonialism , mythology , constitution , sociology , history , politics , law , political science , computer science , philosophy , classics , algorithm , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology
How is literally, a nation translated? This paper looks at translation practices as historical process and practice rather than submitting them to causal explanations with respect to the constitution of the nation‐state. It takes as its starting point, two contemporary M alay words negeri (province, state) and negara (country, nation‐state) and how they once had opposing definitions. Working with over three hundred years of dictionaries and lexicons, mainly E nglish‐ M alay dictionaries, the words negeri and negara were translated and defined very differently from current dictionaries – nor are they clarified today. What then happened to these words and how were they understood and translated over time, and in what possible context within the language of post‐colonial nation‐state formation? What do the processes of translation offer or convey that disrupts the singularity of nations and nationalism? Writings on translation do not necessarily shed any further clarity but they offer a space in which we can think about translating practices and what they enact in the narrative of the nation.