The formation of translation collectivities in Italian queer feminist activist scenarios

This contribution analyses the role played by translation in the emergence of the Italian transfeminist collective Onna Pas. The collective was born in 2019 after a series of workshops centred on the reading and translation of Wittig’s and Zeig’s work ( 1975 ). This contribution examines the formation of Onna Pas using the concept of affective performativity. Drawing on sociological theories of affect ( Gregg and Seighworth 2010 ; Ahmed 2004 ) applied to translation ( Koskinen 2020 ), according to which affect is a force arising in the “in-betweenness” of encounters ( Gregg and Seigworth 2010 , 2), I understand translation as both an affective practice that brings about “intense” joyful and playful encounters, and as a performative one capable of producing other translations, performances, objects, collectivities and alliances. I particularly explore the unpredictable outcome of translational encounters, contrary to studies of translation and activism ( Baker 2013 ), which tend to stress the notion of conscious positionalities.