CALL FOR PAPERS Nº21, June 2027

Call for papers for the ‘Studies’ section of issue 21 (June 2027)

Dossier: Betrayal and tradition. Philosophical-historical dialogues on translation in Latin America

Editors associated with this issue:

Dr. Juan Vicente Cortés, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile.

Dr. Rafael Gaune, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile. Università di Padova, Italia.

In the 19th century, Wilhelm von Humboldt stated that ‘all translation seems to me simply an attempt to achieve the impossible.’ Similarly, Sigmund Freud, interpreting the famous Italian saying traduttore, traditore, concluded that there is a kind of ‘fatality whereby the translator must betray his author.’ To highlight this impossibility, Franz Rosenzweig argued that ‘to translate is to serve two masters.’ During the 20th century, translation and translation studies as a discipline have undertaken systematic efforts to understand, organise, and classify this phenomenon. From Walter Benjamin to Barbara Cassin, via Paul Ricoeur, Maurice Blanchot and George Steiner, translation has been approached both as hospitality (the reception of another language) and as foreignness (the untranslatable).

This reflection, which forms an integral part of the humanities and social sciences, leads us to consider that all translation is, ultimately, an interpretation (ad sententiam, as Leonardo Bruni proposed). This implies not only that the translator's objective should be meaning, but also that this meaning only acquires significance within a historical, linguistic, conceptual and institutional context.

This dossier therefore invites historians and philosophers who have encountered translation problems and translation decisions in their research to contribute to a critical reflection on a phenomenon that is undoubtedly constitutive of the way of thinking in Latin America: through the translation, interpretation or transliteration of concepts, words and ideas between different languages. In fact, the very concept of ‘Latin America’ can be considered a translation problem.

The aim is not to write a history of translation, but rather to explore the possibility of dialogue—or, if you will, of the bridge (sometimes broken), the crossing (with its accidents), the encounter and the disagreement—between history and philosophy. The aim is to study Latin American cases that give an account of translated texts and authors; translation practices; translation decisions; researchers and intellectuals who have been translated into other languages or who have worked as translators. To clarify this ‘dialogue about dialogue,’ we propose approaching it from the perspective of translation with its two sides: tradition and betrayal. We are interested in testing the dialogue with history (for philosophers) or with philosophy (for historians) through significant cases in which translation reveals the tradition of betrayal or the betrayal of tradition.

Main lines:

• Translation and interpretation of concepts in philosophy or history

Analysis of how philosophical or historical concepts (such as “Latin America”) have been transferred, reinterpreted or translated between languages, considering their historical, cultural and translation contexts.

• Cases of reception of foreign works by Latin American translators

Study of the Latin American reception of texts, examining how translation decisions affect the interpretation, dissemination and appropriation of thought in other linguistic contexts.

• Translation practices and translator decisions in philosophy and history

Research on strategies for translating, transliterating and interpreting texts, including analysis of translators as mediators between tradition and betrayal, and their impact on the construction of meaning.

• Dialogue between history and philosophy through translation

Exploration of how translation allows disciplinary traditions to be brought into tension, revealing disagreements, intersections and bridges between history and philosophy in the Latin American context.

• Translation as a political and cultural act

Reflection on the cultural, ideological or political implications of translation in Latin America, including the way in which translators and intellectuals negotiate authority, fidelity and creativity in contexts of linguistic plurality.

Reflection on the cultural, ideological, or political implications of translation in Latin America, including how translators and intellectuals negotiate authority, fidelity, and creativity in contexts of linguistic plurality.

Keywords: Translation, interpreting, reception, betrayal, Latin America, translation practices.

The deadline for submission of papers is 1 October 2026.

Texts may be submitted in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

Contributions must adhere to the journal's editorial guidelines: http://revistas.um.edu.uy/index.php/revistahumanidades/about/submissions

Papers should be submitted to the journal's OJS platform.

 

Humanidades: revista de la Universidad de Montevideo is a peer-reviewed, open access, indexed, scientific journal. It publishes articles on Philosophy, History, Literature and Art and accepts scientific contributions in Spanish, English, French and Portuguese from specialists from various national and international centres. It is published as a continuous publication every six months (January-June and July-December). Under this modality, the texts are published immediately after their approval and layout. Its aim is to constitute an open forum in which the disciplines dialogue with each other and contribute new knowledge. The journal is indexed in: ERIHPLUS, Dialnet, DOAJ, EBSCO-Academic Search Ultimate, Latindex, Scielo, Scopus, among others.