Απο/Εν-δυναμώνοντας τον Κοινοτικό Διερμηνέα: Περί ρόδων, αρετών και υποκειμένων

Abstract

The concept of agency and the position of the speaking subject in interpreting are key for an understanding of the interpreter’s role and the importance of codes of ethics, especially in community interpreting settings. The attempt to address these issues in an effort to establish a higher level of professionalism has been ongoing for many decades, but there is still a lot of controversy both in academic circles and in the practice itself. Scholars are still split between those who propagate a code of ethics which ensures accuracy, confidentiality, and impartiality and those who believe that the practitioner, under a different name (inter/cultural inter/mediator), is a mediator between cultures and thus, as the only agent of knowledge for all cultures involved in the exchange, should play a more interventionist role. And in the midst of this argument, all parties of the interaction (practitioners, users and providers of public services) may be deprived of their agency as speaking subjects. This paper will highlight some of the main arguments in this very sensitive issue and attempt an understanding of the significance of codes of ethics in dis/empowering the speaking subject, by taking a detour through the significance of Shakespearean names and Aristotelean virtues.

Keywords

• community interpreting
• inter/cultural inter/mediation
• subject
• naming
• aristotelean virtues
• castoriadis