Language of the Skin

Ethnographic translation of an immigration story

Abstract

This article aims at establishing forms of contact between ethnography and translation, as well as at proposing an ethnographic translation of the story of an immigrant’s daughter, by her own words. Ethnography is understood as the observation of the other in order to estrange oneself, and is used as a translation method, in which alterity and the concept known as ‘becoming’ are objects of study for the translator. The idea of translation as passage is refuted, so that it is possible to understand translation as language contact. We use François Laplantine’s theory on how the look is built through cultural lens, as well as his proposal of putting himself as an observer (translator) under microscopic lens so as to estrange himself and his identity, with the purpose of reaching alterity through the contact with the other’s identity. In addition, this paper is also based on the works of Henri Meschonnic, by trying to understand the act of translating as an experience based on a po-ethics, where we acknowledge the inseparability between language, literature and historicity. From this perspective, one cannot understand translation but as contact. Finally, we propose to put into practice this theorical analysis about ethnographic translation by translating an account on immigration written by the daughter on an immigrant in the United States, trying not to erase the alterity. 

Key­words:  Ethnographic translation, alterity, immigration, account.