Encoding/Decoding as Translation

Authors

  • Kyle Conway University of Ottawa

Keywords:

communication theory, cultural translation, Stuart Hall, Charles Peirce, translation studies

Abstract

This article asks what would happen if media scholars developed a theory of translation that responded to the specific concerns of their field. It responds by revisiting a foundational text—Stuart Hall’s “Encoding/Decoding”—to see what insights it provides into translation. It proposes three axioms: (1) To use a sign is to transform it; (2) to transform a sign is to translate it; and (3) communication is translation. These axioms cast translation in a new light: It is a transformative substitution, where translators are not necessarily people who seek to reexpress something in a new language, but everyone who speaks. This article concludes by identifying an ethics incipient in “Encoding/Decoding,” a politics of invention articulated against a utopian horizon, but grounded in everyday interactions.

Author Biography

Kyle Conway, University of Ottawa

Kyle Conway is an assistant professor of communication at the University of Ottawa. Email: kconwa2@uottawa.ca

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Published

2017-02-14

Issue

Vol. 11 (2017)

Section

Features

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