ABSTRACT
This book addresses some of the crucial processes at work in building the interpreting figure in situations of coercion and conflict. It considers photographs beyond their traditionally illustrative usage, without, however, neglecting that usage, and emphasizes their importance as a historical source for understanding interpreting activity in conflict situations. The book also aims to show how the written text accompanying the photographs positions the interpreter inside a particular cultural and social system. The book focus on the French military interpreters who ensured that the military coalition ran smoothly emphasizing the social and operational realities behind the event staged on the various photographs. The book shows how the interpreter figure is socially identified and culturally coded by pasting it into a scene. The book reveals that the photographs usually show not the interpreter directly, but a dramatization involving the figure of that interpreter, as one key actor in the picture's narrativity.
