Researching Revolutionary Translation. An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Is it possible to reapply to research in the broad European area the basic idea of global connected history, rethinking received ideas of centre and periphery in political and cultural matters? Can a transnational approach contribute to a reevaluation of the cosmopolitan cultural and political heritage of the age of the Revolution, suffocated as it has been in historical memory by nationalist legacies? And can it con- tribute to renewing our understanding of a political and supranational idea of Europe? A focus on translations and translation practices across borders may represent an important step toward a new understanding of the political culture of the French Revolution. The attention can shift from studying vertical power mechanisms to agency to considering how horizontal exchanges between activists of different countries came to be formed. In other words, to the actual practices of adoption, adaptation or rejection of elements of the revolutionary idiom, as activists and militants attempted to create culturally specific tools for action on the ground.