Rodopi, 2009
Perhaps more than in any other period in modern history, our globalized present is characterized by a constant interaction of, and exposure to, different peoples, regions, ways of life, traditions, languages, and cultures. Cross-boundary communication today comes in various shapes: as mutual exchange, open dialogue, enforced process, misunderstanding, or even violent conflict. In this situation, translation has become an inevitable requirement in order to ease the flow of disinterested and unbiased cultural communication. The contributors to this collection approach the subject of the translation of cultures from various angles.
Translation refers, of course, to the rendering of
texts from one language into another and the shift between languages
under precolonial (retelling/transcreation), colonial (domestication),
and postcolonial (multilingual trafficking) conditions. It is also
concerned with the (in-)adequacy of the Western translation concept of
equivalence, the problem of the (un)translatability of cultures, and
new postcolonial approaches (representation through translation).
Translation here is used as a broader term covering the interaction of
cultures, the transfer of cultural experience, the concern with
cultural borders, the articulation of liminal experience, and
intercultural understanding.