Many students and
researchers ask me questions regarding probable areas of research in
translation studies in Indian context ( click on the links to read my other blog entries on the subject). My response would be as follows:
In
spite of being a vibrant multilingual society, translation studies has not developed
as much as it should have in India. There is still a wide-spread tendency among
Indian academics to conceive of translation narrowly as a process and mostly in
normative terms. Therefore, very often
in seminars and conferences, one comes across the conversations about ‘
problems’ and ‘ issues’ faced in translation often in terms of ‘ loss’ of the ‘original essence’ in translation. This
may be largely due to the stubborn persistence on the colonial notions of both
translation and literature.
There
is also tendency to take up actual activity of translation of literary texts
from Indian languages into English. While this would certainly seem a good
idea, our own limitations as non-native uses of English and largely clichéd findings
regarding ‘problems faced’ would not make
such a project very useful in terms of research. My own advice would be to
translate contemporary literary texts, theoretical and intellectual statements into
non-English languages.
However, translation studies (thankfully), since
the nineteen-eighties, has undergone a paradigm shift in the terms of
methodologies and critical approaches i.e in terms of research questions asked
about translation. Translation today can be conceived as a product generated by
the translating language (T.L) culture whose contextual reading and functional
analysis reveals a wealth of information about the historical development of
the receptor culture. Asking whether Gandhiji’s translation of John Ruskin’s UntoThis Last is a ‘good’ translation or not as it has involved ‘loss of
essence of the original’ will not help us to understand the immense historical
and social significance of Gandhiji’s translation. It is also interesting that
this English text was retranslated into English from Gandhi’s Gujarati version
by Gandhiji’s followers.
The idea of what is meant by
a ‘literary’ text (the conventional ‘object’ of literary studies) has also
undergone a shift, largely due to the radical developments in ‘theory’ and
cultural studies. It is no longer conceived merely as a canonical work in print,
but also as a non-canonical work in other media (visual, oral, performative) in
digital or ‘analogue’ media. Hence the translated text can be thought of any
text produced by ‘intralingual’, ‘interlingual’ or ‘intersemiotic’ translation
as famously discussed by Roman Jakobson, i.e. one can study visual adaptations,
retellings in various formats. Hence, we can study graphic novel renderings, paintings,
musical compositions, cinematic adaptations, TV series or even the stage or
dance enactments of texts (like Peter Brooks’ Mahabharata) from other languages
as translations.
Translation is a decision-making
process involving choices and options at multiple levels including the selection
of the source and the target languages, the text and the author to be
translated as well as numerous strategies chosen by the translator. The
contextual analysis of translation involves deductive interpretation and
comprehension of this decision-making process in the context of social,
historical and cultural influences i.e. how have these forces impacted the
agency of the translator, while the functional analysis of translation involves
the analysis of the role of the translation in impacting the prevalent and
succeeding poetics and cultural politics of that language. Apparently, literary
research in translation studies, like literary studies in general would merge
ultimately into historiography of culture.
Hence research on
translation would basically deal with historiography of translation in Indian
languages. The research projects on historiography of translation can be
delimited in terms of the following:
i) Specific periods (e.g translation during pre-colonial
or postcolonial times),
ii) Specific language pairs (e.g.Gujarati- Marathi,
Assamiya- Bengali etc) ,
iii) Specific movements or genres
(e.g. The Theatre of Absurd, Dalit literature, feminism, realism or surrealism),
this may involve translation of critical texts as well as literary texts.
iv) Specific authors (e.g. Tagore, Saratchandra, Shakespeare,
Baudelaire)
v) Specific texts (e. g the Gitanjali or the Wasteland)
in your language and multiple translations of these texts.
These projects can be
combinations of multiple delimiting parameters like, for instance, “The Feminist
Translation of Gora into Gujarati”( which I am not sure exists at all).
Other projects can involve preparing
bibliography of translated texts in your language and discussion of methodology,
findings and theorization.
It may involve developing digital
tools (which would require knowledge of both cultural theory and computing) for
archiving and analysis of translated texts as a part of a digital humanities project.
Links to Related Subjects:
i) Translation Studies in India
ii) Why Translation Studies
iii) On Research in English Studies
iv) My Published Papers on Translation Studies
v) My Doctoral thesis on Translation of Narsinh Mehta
vi) My book on Indian Translation Studies (Trans) Migrating Words: Refractions on Indian Translation Studies
vi) Read my blog on using Semiotics of Culture as a Theoretical Framework for studying Indian literatures and cultures.
Links to Related Subjects:
i) Translation Studies in India
ii) Why Translation Studies
iii) On Research in English Studies
iv) My Published Papers on Translation Studies
v) My Doctoral thesis on Translation of Narsinh Mehta
vi) My book on Indian Translation Studies (Trans) Migrating Words: Refractions on Indian Translation Studies
vi) Read my blog on using Semiotics of Culture as a Theoretical Framework for studying Indian literatures and cultures.
HERE IS A LIST OF
USEFUL BOOKS ON TRANSLATION STUDIES
i) Baker, Mona.
Ed. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation
Studies. London :Routledge, 1998
ii)
Bassnett,
Susan and Harish Trivedi.ed. Post-colonial
Translation: Theory and Practice. London and New York: Routledge, 1999
iii)
Bermann,
Sandra and Catherine Porter ed. A Companion to Translation Studies,
Wiley-Blackwell, 2014
iv)
Dingwaney,
Anuradha and Carol Maier.eds. Between Languages and Cultures: Translation
and Cross-Cultural Texts. Delhi: Oxford University Press. 1996
v)
Hermans,
Theo. Ed. The Manipulation of Literature: Studies in Literary Translation.(1985),
London and New York: Routledge, 2004
vi)
Hewson,
Lance. An Approach to Translation
Criticism: Emma and Madame Bovary in translation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011
vii)
Kothari, Rita. Translating India: Cultural
Politics of Translation. New Delhi, Foundation Books, 2003
viii)
Kuhiwczak,
Piotr and Karin Littau ed. A
Companion to Translation Studies ,Multilingual
Matters Ltd , Toronto, 2007,
ix)
Lefevere,
Andre. Translation, Rewriting and Manipulation of Literary Fame. London
and New York: Routledge, 1992
x)
---. Ed. Translation/History/Culture:
A Source Book. London and New York: Routledge, 1992
xi)
Malmkjær, Kirsten
and Kevin Windle ed. The Oxford Handbook
of Translation Studies Edited by OUP, 2012
xii)
Mukherjee,
Meenakshi. Elusive Terrain: Culture and
Literary Memory. Oxford University Press, 2008
xiii)
---.
Perishable Empire: Essays on Indian Writing in English. Oxford University
Press, 2000
xiv)
Mukherjee,
Sujit. Translation as Recovery and Other
Essays. Ed. Meenakshi Mukherjee, New Delhi, Pencraft International, 2004
xv)
---Translation as Discovery and Other Essays.
New Delhi, Allied, 1984
xvi) Mukherjee, Tutun. ed. Translation From Periphery to Centrestage. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1998.
xvi) Mukherjee, Tutun. ed. Translation From Periphery to Centrestage. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1998.
xvii)
Munday,
Jeremy. Introducing Translation Studies.
Theories and Applications. London and New York, Routledge, 2001
xviii)
Niranjana,
Tejaswini. Siting Translation: History, Post-structuralism and
the Colonial Context, Orient Longman, 1992
xix)
Palumbo, Giuseppe .Key Terms in Translation Studies.
London and New York. Continuum
International Publishing, 2009
xx) Ramakrishna, S. ed. Translation and Multilingualism. PostColonial Contexts, Delhi: Pencraft International, 1997 xxi) Ramakrishan, E.V. Locating Indian Literature: Texts, Traditions, Translations. Orient Blackswan, 2011
xx) Ramakrishna, S. ed. Translation and Multilingualism. PostColonial Contexts, Delhi: Pencraft International, 1997 xxi) Ramakrishan, E.V. Locating Indian Literature: Texts, Traditions, Translations. Orient Blackswan, 2011
xxii) Saldanha,
Gabriela and Sharon O’Brien .ed. Research methodologies in translation
studies , St Jerome Publishing, 2013
xxiii) Talgeri, P and Verma, SB. eds. Literature in Translation from Cultural Transference to Metonymic Displacement. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan, 1988
xxiii) Talgeri, P and Verma, SB. eds. Literature in Translation from Cultural Transference to Metonymic Displacement. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan, 1988
xxiv) Venuti,
Lawrence ed. Translation Studies Reader.
London and New York: Routledge and Kegan
Paul, 2000.
xxv)
Wakabayashi, Judy and Rita Kothari. Eds. Decentering Translation Studies: India and Beyond. John Benjamins
Publication,
Watch my video lecture on Translation Studies and World Literature
5 comments:
Read your blogs. Impressed. You're doing great work, Dr. Sachin Bhai. May you create and recreate more and more.
Thanks Dilipbhai!
As always a good read.
informative and useful.
Hi Sachin
Sorry to go out of topic, but I'm doing a research on Translation Schools in India, unfortunately I don't speak the language and this doesn't allow me to have a full overview of the offer of Translation Studies in country, would you be able to help? How many Translation Schools are there in India? And are these affordable studies?
Excellent blog. Thanks for the reference books.
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