Interpreting and Interpreters throughout history

Issue 21 of The Interpreters’ Newsletter is dedicated to the history of interpreting, a field of Interpreting Studies gaining increasing attention in recent years, testifying a renewed interest in how interpreting developed, in the role it played in the past and the contribution interpreters gave to the evolution of intercultural encounters and exchanges. The positive and sometimes negative role interpreters played in historic circumstances may induce a more comprehensive reflection on the role interpreters may play nowadays. The volume is composed by seven papers dealing with interpreters and their acitivities in different times and regions. Baigorri-Jalon’s contribution opens the paper collection and centers on Georges Rabinovitch’s, UN chief interpreter since 1947 using different sources for his research: conventional history records, digital or physical, personal interviews and photographic image-analysis; conference interpreting in Estonia at the time of the Soviet occupation is examined by Sibul. Kieslich’s contribution is a microhistory case study investigating the assignment and working conditions of professional interpreters at the Eleventh International Penal and Penitentiary Congress held in Berlin in August 1935. The paper by Garry Mullender deals with interpreters and interpreting during the Portuguese voyages of discovery and in Portuguese India. The roles of interpreters in the relations among Indians and English-speaking European-Americans in nineteenth century, with special reference to interpreting during negotiations with the Sioux is the object of Brambilla’s contribution. Anne Leahy’s contribution centers on signed language interpreting in a legal setting. The author analyses the proceedings of the so called “Ruston’s case” which took place in the London Central Criminal Court in 1786. Sign language interpreting is also the object of Jane Kellett’s paper. The author develops the relationship between sign language and education highlighting the beginning of the use of sign language in the education of deaf pupils.