Introduction

This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part draws on media reports written by war correspondents that include witness accounts, interviews with contracted interpreters and reflections on issues of language and mediation, demonstrating how narratives from both sides of the conflict lead to ruptures in personal narrative identities. It presents a close reading of the practices and principles of certain organizations to determine whether their humanitarian agenda and their acknowledged commercial interests can be read as coherent or incoherent, and whether they are based on sound or contradictory values. The part explains the matter of the potential fissures that can be found between the egalitarian ideals of groups and their actual practices. It concludes that “for the pre-figurative potential of subtitling to be realized, both filmmakers and subtitlers need to renegotiate their position vis-a-vis each other and the political project”