On (Mis)Translation and the Vein of Resistance

The word amuk is Indonesian and Malay for rage or to rage. In the late 17th century, colonial powers violently mistranslated the word, the origins of ‘amok’ and ‘running amuck’ in English, as well as mistranslations in Dutch, Danish and Portuguese.

Khairani Barokka will examine how these linguistic histories of violence are part of the ongoing ways liberatory rage is suppressed, criminalised and pathologised through language, as part of extractive colonialism. Through her poetry book “amuk,” the book itself being her translation of the titular word, she explicates what these etymologies say about linguistic resistance’s possibilities for resurgence, as well as how we can define mistranslation, and what concepts of violence and nonviolence mean with regards to translation, and for whom.
The event will be introduced by International Booker Prize-winning translator Daisy Rockwell.