Translating “that which I do not already understand.” A dialogue with Provincializing Europe

Abstract

The essay proposes an approach to Provincializing Europe, drawing on the practice of translation, a central concept in the mentioned volume, so as to emphasise the way in which this practice and concept may offer a productive departing point for an empathic reading of the “ambiguities” that characterise the text, namely the way in which it oscillates and dialogues both with Enlightenment universals and the particularities of local worlds, that are thereby transfigured, enriched, by means of this juxtaposition. In a second moment, some brief contrapuntal notes are rehearsed, drawing on the correspondence between Amitav Ghosh and Chakrabarty on Provincializing Europe, as well as some reflections by Kracauer in History. The Last Things before the Last.