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Article published In: Translation and the Formation of Collectivities: Special issue of Translation in Society 2:1 (2023)
Edited by Dilek Dizdar and Tomasz Rozmysłowicz
[Translation in Society 2:1] 2023
► pp. 53–70

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The formation of translation collectivities in Italian queer feminist activist scenarios

The case of Onna Pas

ORCiD logo with link | University of Birmingham
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Birmingham.

Published online: 6 March 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/tris.22009.bal
This contribution analyses the role played by translation in the emergence of the Italian transfeminist collective Onna Pas. The collective was born in 2019 after a series of workshops centred on the reading and translation of Wittig’s and Zeig’s work (Wittig, Monique, and Sande Zeig. 1975. Brouillon pour un dictionnaire des amantes. Paris: Grasset.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). This contribution examines the formation of Onna Pas using the concept of affective performativity. Drawing on sociological theories of affect (Gregg, Melissa, and Gregory Seigworth, eds. 2010. The Affect Theory Reader. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Ahmed, Sara. 2004. The Cultural Politics of Emotions. New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) applied to translation (. 2020. Translation and Affect: Essays on Sticky Affects and Translational Affective Labour. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), according to which affect is a force arising in the “in-betweenness” of encounters (Gregg, Melissa, and Gregory Seigworth, eds. 2010. The Affect Theory Reader. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2), I understand translation as both an affective practice that brings about “intense” joyful and playful encounters, and as a performative one capable of producing other translations, performances, objects, collectivities and alliances. I particularly explore the unpredictable outcome of translational encounters, contrary to studies of translation and activism (Baker, Mona. 2013. “Translation as an Alternative Space for Political Action.” Social Movement Studies 12 (1): 23–47. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), which tend to stress the notion of conscious positionalities.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Italian, Spanish and French transfeminism
  • 3.Onna Pas
  • 4.Affect, performativity and translation
  • 5.Translation and the birth of collectivities in Italian queer feminist activism
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
References (57)
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