Cultural translation, cosmopolitanism and the void

Abstract

Cultural translation is a key conceptual tool for understanding the effects of cross-cultural mixtures and transnational flows. It is also a necessary term for grasping the cosmopolitan forms of agency and collectivity. In this paper I explore the strengths and limits of models of cultural translation that focus on the creativity produced at the point of the encounter with difference. By reflecting on the example of the invention of a new visual language by Indigenous artists in Australia I also consider the need to expand the concept of creativity. This expanded definition of creativity would need to confront the paradoxical force of the void. Hence, I contend that the theoretical debates o..