De-Re- contextualising simultaneous interpreting: interpreters in the ivory tover

Abstract

Simultaneous Interpreting (Sn Research has been dominated by cognitive and neurolinguistic paradigms with little attention devoted to the simultaneous interpreter as a professional working in social, ideological and interactional contexts and to the interdependency between these contexts and actual SI performance. Different from the mainstream approach, Ebru Diriker's "De-lRe-Contextualising Simultaneous Interpreting: Interpreters in the Ivory Tower?" sets out to 'contextualise' SI behaviour. The first part focuses on the broader socio-cultural context around SI by exploring the (re )presentation of the profession( al) in the meta-discourse which suggests that in the general discourse interpreters are pre-dominantly (re )presented as professionals capable of identifying with the speaker and transferring the meanings intended by them completely, fluently and without becoming personally involved in shaping the 'meaning'. As against this background, the second part explores the performance of interpreters and the nature of the interpreted utterance within the context of an actual conference. The findings challenge many of the widely held assumptions regarding S1 and suggest that simultaneous interpreters do not render the meaning assumed to exist in the original but negotiate a meaning in context, their 'delivery' does not only represent the speaker but a multiplicity of speaker-positions and identifying with the speaker's 1 st person does not come naturally but creates a source of tension, vulnerability and strength for the interpreter. The findings also point to the mythical and purposeful nature of the meta-discourse, underscore the need to revise some of the basic assumptions in S1 literature and call for a more concerted approach to analysing actual S1 behaviour as a 'situated action'.