ABSTRACT
We need to start looking at translational phenomena from an intensely self-reflexive and ethical-ideological viewpoint. We are caught in a (post-)neoliberal world order in which capitalist values become an ever more deeply engrained and unquestioned standard, an order of discourse the structures of domination and hegemony of which define global power relations, just as they permeate scholarly discourses. Promising research exists that questions the cultural hegemony of Anglophone value systems and their underlying positivist epistemologies. Important inroads have been made to uncover the intellectual roots of the epistemic threat which Anglophone discourse poses towards alternative forms of knowledge. These efforts question the epistemological and colonial roots of Anglophone supremacism, yet they do not venture into a more combative anti-neoliberal, in fact anti-imperialist, mode of reasoning. The missing piece in the jigsaw may be found in some strands of critical theory that question the socio-economic consequences of the Enlightenment in conjunction with a post-anarchist epistemology. In view of current geopolitical realities, this paper attempts to inject the notion of ‘hegemonic non-translation’ into the discourse of translation theory by stressing the significance of enhanced ‘self-reflexivity’ and a ‘critical economics’ for future research.
