This seminar introduces my concept of embodied translation to describe how women make religious and cultural meaning not only through language, but also through voice, emotion, memory, and ritual. Embodied translation is discursive and performative; it goes beyond interlingual translation and is more specific than “cultural translation.” Embodied translation transforms speech into song (and vice versa) and extends into domains not traditionally considered semiotic, such as embodied habits, religious practice, and emotions, which in turn produce further habits, practices, and emotions. This ongoing process of translation exists in a political field of power marked by the malleability, contestation, and negotiation of signs.

To provide context for this heuristic, we will discuss portions of the following readings:

   Roman Jakobson, “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation,” in On Translation, ed. Reuben Arthur Brower (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), 232–239.
   Talal Asad,Secular Translations: Nation-State, Modern Self, and Calculative Reason(New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), pp. 4–6.
   Tony Perman,Signs of the Spirit: Music and the Experience of Meaning in Ndau Ceremonial Life(Urbana, Chicago, Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2020), 76.

Case studies: Bene Israel kirtan, a Tamil Christian hymn.