@article{ART003348784},
author={YUN Seong Woo and LEE Hyang},
title={Interpreter agency through the philosophical lens of Ricœur and Arendt},
journal={The Journal of Translation Studies},
issn={1229-795X},
year={2026},
volume={27},
number={2},
pages={145-165},
doi={10.15749/jts.2026.27.2.005}
TY - JOUR
AU - YUN Seong Woo
AU - LEE Hyang
TI - Interpreter agency through the philosophical lens of Ricœur and Arendt
JO - The Journal of Translation Studies
PY - 2026
VL - 27
IS - 2
PB - The Korean Association for Translation Studies
SP - 145
EP - 165
SN - 1229-795X
AB - Since the ethical turn of the 1990s, interpreting studies has increasingly engaged with questions of interpreter ethics. Scholars such as Wadensjö, Angelelli, and Inghilleri have challenged the long-held principle of neutrality, arguing that interpreters are never passive conduits but active participants in communicative events. Drawing on their work, this study examines the co-constructive role of interpreters across various communication settings and argues that interpreters function as active agents who make consequential ethical decisions—intervening, when necessary, to make the voices of vulnerable parties heard.
To ground this notion of agency in a broader philosophical framework, this study turns to Ricœur and Arendt. For Ricœur, human decisions acquire meaning only when they are realized in action. Applied to interpreting, this means that the interpreter is not a passive relay but an acting subject who produces the final utterance in interlingual communications. Since language always points beyond itself toward the reality it designates, what the interpreter must convey is not the surface meaning of words but the “world of the text,” a task that necessarily entails active intervention. For Arendt, speech and action are the means by which human beings reveal themselves in the public realm. Human plurality can be sustained only through the equal exchange of diverse voices; in this sense, interpreting is ethically indispensable to its realization.
KW - Interpreter ethics;agency;neutrality;Ricœur;Arendt
DO - 10.15749/jts.2026.27.2.005
ER -
YUN Seong Woo and LEE Hyang. (2026). Interpreter agency through the philosophical lens of Ricœur and Arendt. The Journal of Translation Studies, 27(2), 145-165.
YUN Seong Woo and LEE Hyang. 2026, "Interpreter agency through the philosophical lens of Ricœur and Arendt", The Journal of Translation Studies, vol.27, no.2 pp.145-165. Available from: doi:10.15749/jts.2026.27.2.005
YUN Seong Woo, LEE Hyang "Interpreter agency through the philosophical lens of Ricœur and Arendt" The Journal of Translation Studies 27.2 pp.145-165 (2026) : 145.
YUN Seong Woo, LEE Hyang. Interpreter agency through the philosophical lens of Ricœur and Arendt. 2026; 27(2), 145-165. Available from: doi:10.15749/jts.2026.27.2.005
YUN Seong Woo and LEE Hyang. "Interpreter agency through the philosophical lens of Ricœur and Arendt" The Journal of Translation Studies 27, no.2 (2026) : 145-165.doi: 10.15749/jts.2026.27.2.005
YUN Seong Woo; LEE Hyang. Interpreter agency through the philosophical lens of Ricœur and Arendt. The Journal of Translation Studies, 27(2), 145-165. doi: 10.15749/jts.2026.27.2.005
YUN Seong Woo; LEE Hyang. Interpreter agency through the philosophical lens of Ricœur and Arendt. The Journal of Translation Studies. 2026; 27(2) 145-165. doi: 10.15749/jts.2026.27.2.005
YUN Seong Woo, LEE Hyang. Interpreter agency through the philosophical lens of Ricœur and Arendt. 2026; 27(2), 145-165. Available from: doi:10.15749/jts.2026.27.2.005
YUN Seong Woo and LEE Hyang. "Interpreter agency through the philosophical lens of Ricœur and Arendt" The Journal of Translation Studies 27, no.2 (2026) : 145-165.doi: 10.15749/jts.2026.27.2.005
