And when it is words that wound, […] how are we to understand the relation between the word and the wound? If it is not a causal relation, and not the materialization of an intention, is it perhaps a kind of discursive transitivity that needs to be specified in its historicity and its violence? What is the relation between this transitivity and the power to injure? […] The subject who utters the socially injurious words is mobilized by that long string of injurious interpellations: the subject achieves a temporary status in the citing of that utterance, in performing itself as the origin of that utterance.
Judith Butler, Excitable speech, 1997 # 35
When words wound
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- I can’t help but think of that curious delay [in translation], the gap between the spoken word and its effect. I mean the delay that we notice whenever we attend a conference or debate in several languages: the way the laughs come out of sync once the translator manages to convey the comic effect, …
# 21
Delay and understand
I can’t help but think of that curious delay [in translation], the gap between the spoken word and its effect. I mean the delay that we notice whenever we attend a conference or debate in several languages: the way the laughs come out of sync once the translator manages to convey the comic effect, and how difficult it is for the speakers to be moving or eloquent in the delayed time of translation. The European “we” is dependent on this resonance chamber, this delay. So what is the language of Europe?
Camille de Toledo, Utopie linguistiqueInvitations to contemplate these words and play with your thoughts
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