This book throws light on the relevance and role played by translations and translators at times of serious discontinuity throughout history. Topics explored by scholars from different continents and disciplines include war, the disintegration of transnational polities, health disasters and revolutions - be they political, social, cultural and/or technological. Surprisingly little is known, for example, about the role that translated constitutions had in instigating and in shaping political crises at both a local and global level, and how these events had an effect on translations themselves. Similarly, the role that translations played as instruments for either building or undermining empires, and the extent to which interpreters could ease or hamper negotiations and foster new national identities has not been adequately acknowledged. This book addresses all these issues, among others, through twelve studies focused not just on texts but also on instances of verbal and non-verbal communications in a range of languages from around the world. This interdisciplinary work will engage scholars working in fields such as Translation Studies, History, Modern Languages, English, Law, Politics and Social Studies.

Like its predecessor and companion volume New Journeys in Iberian Studies, this volume gathers fresh and emerging research in a range of sub-fields of Iberian studies from an international range of established academics and early career researchers. The book provides rich evidence of the breadth and depth of new research being carried out in the dynamic field of Iberian studies at present. As the title suggests, a strong thread running through the collection is concerned with investigating the multiple spaces of tension between the centre and periphery that comprise the Iberian cultural system. Topically, the current situation in Catalonia naturally comes to the fore in a number of chapters and from a range of perspectives. However, in the revisiting of a range of cultural products and historical processes undertaken by the contributors, it can be seen that transoceanic postcolonial relations are not neglected and concerns with history, memory and fiction also weave their way through their work.

An interdisciplinary tour de force that examines past and present to consider how new forms of knowledge production, epistemic plurality, and intellectual and political movements are bringing sweeping change today.