Asymmetries in retour interpreting: an ethical approach to bidirectionality in interpreter education

Abstract

[EN]Retour interpreters, aware as they may be of cultural and power asymmetries in the practice of interpreting, take a double (bi)cultural turn when they attempt to juggle all the cognitive efforts involved while working from their mother tongue into a second language and, even more so, when performing bilateral interpreting. Teaching retour is not made easier by the well-chronicled taboo of bi-directionality in interpreting (see, for example, Harris 1990, 16). The myth that one should not interpret to-and-fro is still lurking, negatively affecting those schools where interpreting into B has never been taught, while in other universities it is considered a must in the curriculum and students pride themselves in their retour.