Translating the Ineffable: Deconstruction and the Political
My thesis investigates what it means to translate the ineffable. Why is it that there are some aspects of our lives for which we have no words? In extending critical understanding of the ineffable, I will draw specifically on the works of Jacques Derrida, Gayatri Spivak, Jared Sexton, and Saidiya Hartman. My main concerns in this thesis are of a political nature. I am interested in the role that translation plays in the wake of Trump-era antagonisms, from border wars to state-sanctioned police violence, and the accompanying politics of protest. Ultimately, I attempt to show the importance of Derridean deconstruction in thinking through the complex questions of violence and representation posed by Sexton and Hartman in their respective philosophic interventions.