Ramon Guillermo, University of the Philippines Diliman
ABSTRACT
Taking off from the Philippine experience, this paper will take a preliminary look at how translational practices work in an archipelagic setting from an historical point of view. How does translation take place between islands? Does the specific geographical character of archipelagos impede or facilitate translational practices? What material practices generate the need for translation in these contexts? Are trading ports the contact zones which generate the most pressing need for translation (or “interpreting”)? This presentation hopes to raise these and similar questions in the hope of surfacing a longer submerged history of translation in the Philippines within a Southeast Asian context which takes into account its archipelagic nature.
BIO
Ramon Guillermo is professor of Philippine Studies at the Department of Filipino and Philippines Literature, University of the Philippines Diliman. He earned his MA in Philippine Studies (History and Literature) from UP Diliman and his PhD in Southeast Asian Studies (Austronesian) from the University of Hamburg, Germany. His current work is mainly in the areas of translation studies and digital humanities. His novel, Ang Makina ni Mang Turing (Mang Turing’s Machine) (UP Press 2013) won the Gawad Gintong Aklat (Golden Book Prize)