Singularity in Translation and the Economy of Cultural Difference

Abstract: Drawing inspiration from Sam Weber’s work, this paper analyzes philosophical discourses about cultural differences and culturalist narratives about the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in China and Taiwan, all of which deny singularity. It shows how a predominant conception of cultural diversity can be traced back to the origins of philosophical nationalism and modern traductology. To demonstrate how cultural differences are constructed on myths of untranslatability, the paper takes as a guiding thread different ways of representing the specificity of the Chinese script, East and West. It also explains the importance of Sam Weber’s reconceptualization of translation to think of singularity beyond cultural essentialism.