Harish Trivedi on cultural translation, part 1 of 2

TL;DR

Cultural translation is a new and potentially dangerous development in the field of translation that threatens to erase traditional translation practices.

Transcript

in the late 1990s I actually presented a paper the first outing of that paper was at the University of Iowa in the USA this is the late 1990s and the title of that paper was translating culture versus cultural translation having written that paper I thought I had got on to something which I considered very important and therefore I broke all academ... Read More

Key Insights

• 💝 Translation studies has gained recognition as a separate discipline since the late 1970s or 1980s.
• 👶 Cultural translation is a relatively new concept that emerged from postcolonial discourse and has gained prominence in anthropology.
• 🥺 The term cultural translation has been largely ignored by translation studies until recently, leading to a lack of understanding and analysis.
• 🏑 There is a concern that cultural translation may erode traditional translation practices and the field of translation as a whole.
• 💦 The work of Homi Baba, a prominent postcolonial theorist, has influenced the concept of cultural translation and its application to literature.
• 🙈 Cultural translation is seen as a form of hybridity and survival in the context of migration and globalized cultures.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is the difference between translating culture and cultural translation?

Translating culture refers to the act of translating elements of a particular culture, such as idioms or customs. Cultural translation, on the other hand, refers to a new concept that seeks to integrate culture into the entire translation process, potentially erasing traditional translation practices altogether.

Q: Why does the speaker continue to present the paper even though it has been published?

The speaker believes that the paper's importance and the dangers of cultural translation warrant continued discussion and dissemination. They aim to draw attention to the issue and encourage others to take action.

Q: How has translation studies evolved as a discipline?

Translation studies used to be considered part of linguistics or comparative literature. However, in the late 1970s and 1980s, it emerged as a separate or semi-autonomous discipline. This has allowed for a more consolidated approach to studying and analyzing translation.

Q: What is the relationship between translation studies and cultural studies?

There was hope that translation studies and cultural studies would collaborate and merge their respective areas of study. However, cultural studies became more popular and translation studies largely ignored the development of cultural translation as a concept.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The speaker presented a paper on translating culture versus cultural translation in the late 1990s, sparking their interest in the topic.

• They have given numerous versions of the paper and published it in various outlets, but it remains largely unread.

• The speaker argues that cultural translation is a dangerous development that needs to be stopped to preserve traditional translation practices.