Traduction et paratraduction en tant que stratégies de résistance à la réification à l’ère de l’Intelligence Artificielle (IA)

Philosopher Byung-Chul Han argues that we are living in a transition from the “era of things to the era of non-things”. According to his perspective, things do not determine the world we live in: information does. Consequently, the profession of translation has become increasingly mechanized to meet the high demand for “information”, turning readers into compulsive consumers of words. Thus, there is a significant risk of confusing the symbolic representation of words with essential reality, neglecting the importance of context and paratext in the construction of meaning. This phenomenon can lead to a loss of meaning in the act of translation, diminishing its role as a bridge between cultures and languages. Borrowing from the axiom of Portuguese intellectual Rui Pereira in a society of “non-thought”, it is crucial to reflect on how “translating in times of non-translation” operates. In this regard, the objective of this essay is to analyze how paratranslation, from the Vigo School, can be understood as a space of resistance against a process of reification of the other’s existence in the act of translating. In the “AI era”, where translation has become an increasingly mechanized act, the examination of the paratexts surrounding this process serves as a way to return to the fundamental condition of translation: the human condition.