Folklor/Edebiyat (May 2023)
Disciplines and Post-Disciplinary Histories: Theory, Translation, and Transculturality / Disiplinler ve Post-Disipliner Tarihçeler: Kuram, Çeviri ve Kültürlerötesilik
Abstract
In this article, I consider the role of "traveling theory" in the construction of disciplinary histories. In the simplest terms, "traveling theory," "the detachment of a theory from its original moment of expression in real life and its application to a later time and place" (Said, 1983: 226). The article is critical of this assumption, focusing on the role of interdisciplinary circulation of theories in the construction of disciplinary histories. I first discuss the importance of omitted issues related to translated texts and their impact on the development of the concept of transculturality in the context of post-disciplinary histories. I also emphasize the importance of new perspectives that can provide useful analyses for disciplinary historians, such as the multiple routes, delays or reception of theories in another culture or discipline. In contrast to Said, my use of the plural "itinerant theories" leads us to rethink the relationship between language and knowledge and to understand how knowledge is created and transformed through translation. The trajectories of translation, itinerant theorists and concepts across languages and disciplines and in transcultural contexts cannot be bypassed. The delays, rejections or appropriations that occur as texts enter dynamic translation processes are determined as much by interdisciplinary conditions as by the internal dynamics of disciplines. In this way, the "journey" of a theory not only creates spaces of communication between different actors, geographies and times, but also the theory is created by these actors. Disciplinary knowledge develops through the movement of words, ideas, concepts, theories and theorists. Folklorists circulate ideas, theories and concepts, especially when working in the field as cultural translators, textualizing knowledge in their publications or presenting their work at conferences. "Itinerant theories" are an important tool for understanding how different perspectives can cross borders and be adapted to fluid disciplinary contexts, and for writing post-disciplinary histories.
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