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Chapter 11. When the armies went back home

Local interpreters and the politics of protection
  • Hilary Footitt
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Towards an Atlas of the History of Interpreting
This chapter is in the book Towards an Atlas of the History of Interpreting

Abstract

Research on interpreting in war has investigated the role played by local civilians recruited by the Army as linguistic mediators. This chapter explores the aftermath of war for these local interpreters in the case of the conflict in Afghanistan, using the seven-year long debates on their fate in the UK, France and Denmark. In the arguments around the politics of protection, interpreting is located in three discursive spaces: at the supranational level, within the specificities of NATO multilateral operations on the ground, and in the space of individual nation-state agendas. In the aftermath of the war in Afghanistan, the Chapter argues, the greater public visibility of local interpreters did not materially change the ways in which interpreting in war was perceived.

Abstract

Research on interpreting in war has investigated the role played by local civilians recruited by the Army as linguistic mediators. This chapter explores the aftermath of war for these local interpreters in the case of the conflict in Afghanistan, using the seven-year long debates on their fate in the UK, France and Denmark. In the arguments around the politics of protection, interpreting is located in three discursive spaces: at the supranational level, within the specificities of NATO multilateral operations on the ground, and in the space of individual nation-state agendas. In the aftermath of the war in Afghanistan, the Chapter argues, the greater public visibility of local interpreters did not materially change the ways in which interpreting in war was perceived.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Voices from around the world 1
  4. Chapter 2. Indigenous interpreters on trial in the Spanish Empire 25
  5. Chapter 3. Interpreters of Mapudungun and the Chilean State during the 1880–1930 period 53
  6. Chapter 4. An overview of the role of interpreters during the Portuguese expansion through Africa (1415–1600) 81
  7. Chapter 5. Mediating a complex cultural matrix 120
  8. Chapter 6. Interpreting with “human sympathy” 145
  9. Chapter 7. The colonized in conflict 171
  10. Chapter 8. Interpreters of mission 193
  11. Chapter 9. Domesticating dragomans 212
  12. Chapter 10. The interpreter as “anti-hero” 238
  13. Chapter 11. When the armies went back home 268
  14. Chapter 12. Conclusion 288
  15. Biographical notes 296
  16. Place index 300
  17. Name index 302
  18. Language index 305
  19. Subject index 306
  20. Image index 309
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.159.11foo

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Voices from around the world 1
  4. Chapter 2. Indigenous interpreters on trial in the Spanish Empire 25
  5. Chapter 3. Interpreters of Mapudungun and the Chilean State during the 1880–1930 period 53
  6. Chapter 4. An overview of the role of interpreters during the Portuguese expansion through Africa (1415–1600) 81
  7. Chapter 5. Mediating a complex cultural matrix 120
  8. Chapter 6. Interpreting with “human sympathy” 145
  9. Chapter 7. The colonized in conflict 171
  10. Chapter 8. Interpreters of mission 193
  11. Chapter 9. Domesticating dragomans 212
  12. Chapter 10. The interpreter as “anti-hero” 238
  13. Chapter 11. When the armies went back home 268
  14. Chapter 12. Conclusion 288
  15. Biographical notes 296
  16. Place index 300
  17. Name index 302
  18. Language index 305
  19. Subject index 306
  20. Image index 309
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