Border Wars: Translation and Convergence in Politics and Media

Abstract

Nation-states by definition have borders; it is what defines them as political entities in the first place. Transfers and transactions, whether peaceful or violent, friendly or hostile, automatically “come with the territory”of border formations, and translation must be seen as simply one special case of the “trans-”—the moment of border crossing between languages. “Convergence” occupies the place of the event of the “trans-,”the moment of contact and encounter at the virtual or actual border between nations, states, populations, and cultures. Sometimes these convergences involve peaceful assimilation, a merging of political entities. Also, they involve conquest, colonization, and the domination of one social group by another, the death of one language at the hands of the dominant group, and sometimes the death of a whole people and nation as a result of ethnic cleansing or genocide. Convergence is best seen as a euphemistic term for the collision between cultures or political systems while its reification in borders is constantly being reinforced and reaffirmed,creating the stabilization of a conflict, namely the “transgression”of a border that must be defended at all costs. In this context, I will explore the actual-virtual interface of two kinds of borders: geographicalpolitical boundaries versus the conceptual borders that distinguish different media and the disciplines that address them. I will also reflect on the role of convergence at the sites of borders, and translations or transactions that take place across them.