Mecila Working Papers n° 73 – 2024 | Receiving Words: Towards a Poetics of Hospitality

Melanie Strasser: Receiving Words: Towards a Poetics of Hospitality. São Paulo: Mecila 2024 (Working Paper Series, No. 73).

The paper explores the idea that hospitality and translation share similarities, as both involve welcoming and incorporating “the Other” into a host’s domain, often with inherent power dynamics.

• Hospitality is inherently ambivalent, balancing welcome and imposition. Guests must adapt to the host’s rules and language, revealing an underlying tension between openness and control.

•  Drawing on Amerindian perspectives, the paper proposes an ethics of “translational hospitality,” viewing translation as a mutual and transformative exchange, rather than a one-sided, hierarchical process.

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