Understanding Translation of Indian Literature into English: A Historical Perspective (original) (raw)

Translation, History and Literatures in India

History of translation is also the history of readership and political cartography of the world. Is there any way we can understand the dialogue between translators and their historical context? The study of history in general oversimplifies acts of translation as merely agents of historical discourse. However, the paper argues that it is in fact the other way round; these translations form whole gamut of historical narratives. We cannot have any comprehensive history without translations. For instance, early English translations of the Indian texts in English by Asiatic Society helped the project of colonialism in a big way. Hence, it was not an epistemological inquiry but an imperial strategy. As AK Singh rightly points out that translation “helps in democratization of knowledge.” (Singh: 2014) Early translators like modern translators, were also preys to the political obligations, ideological commitments and some kind of opportunism. The paper is thus divided into two parts: (I) A Brief Survey of History of Translation of Literatures in India and (II) A Proposed Model for Translation Historiography.

POPULAR LITERATURE, TRANSLATION AND INTERROGATING POST-COLONIAL INDIA

IASET, 2013

This work is a perspectival analysis of translated popular literature in post-colonial India. Popular literature serves useful functions in that it seeks to fulfill an intellectual and cultural vacuum in the minds of a vast mass of our populace who seem to have barely benefited by the educational structure existing in the country. However, the past fifty years reveals unmistakable signs of a sense of inertia and casualness afflicting such author’s choice of works and the manner of presentation to the reading public. The object of this paper is to bring into analytical focus, the role, expanse and prospects of local Kannada writers like Bhairappa, Girish Karnad, etc. vis a vis the innumerable anonymous authors whose works infiltrate the streets. The authors discuss the poetic and politics of popular literature and the type of readership that patronizes it. The middle ground between these two categories of writers is occupied by the ‘elite’ literature of the Shobha De type, whose works have been canonized and yet which seems merely opportunistic.

Indian Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies ISSN: 2321-8274

2020

The paper reflects on the translation of Lewis Carroll‟s „Alice in Wonderland‟ into Odia, an Indian vernacular language. It is produced as one of the numerous books under the Biswa Sahitya Granthamala project of a renowned Indian publisher, Granthamandir in the midtwentieth century. The paper aims at analyzing the translation strategy used for translating the text for the non-English speaking readers of a provincial Indian State, Odisha. We intend to examine the relationship between the purpose of translation, receptivity of the target readers and the chosen strategy. It is observed that the translation is neither simplification nor Odianization of the ST. We shall explore both verbal and visual strategies used for translation of Carroll into Odia.

BEYOND THE POSTCOLONIAL: THE CASE OF THE INDIAN NOVEL BETWEEN TRANSLATION AND WORLD LITERATURE

2018

Since their inception, postcolonial literary studies have been subjected to repeated contestation by their own practitioners, not least in their last correlated form as world literature. 1 To a certain extent, postcolonial theory can really be considered "a victim of its own success" (Bernard, Elmarsafy, and Murray 2016, 7), as its recurring crises seem to go hand in hand with its academic institutionalization and the increasingly pervasive viability of its critical insights. But if, on the one hand, this propensity to self-analysis might be ascribed to a sort of constitutive desire to uphold openness and self-interrogation as foundational working methods, on the other a number of recurrent problematical issues have in time turned into as many constitutive thorns in the side of theory. Besides well-rehearsed argumentations against a (repeatedly lamented) tendency to sacrifice cultural and historical specificities in favour of abstract theory, another charge is analogously directed at the predominantly Anglophone focus in the field of disciplinary application which, as a result, may be considered prone to producing homogenizing effects. 2

06 - Indian Literature, Multiculturalism and Translation - Guru Charan Behera

Translation plays a significant role, explicit or implicit, deliberate or spontaneous in the interlingual, intercultural communication between the people of India, as well in the construction of multilingual, multicultural Indian Literature. It negotiates the power relations between various cultural formations and different linguistic mediums as a means of communication and as a language of translation, contributing to the egalitarian process by countering the hierarchical relationships between languages and cultures, reclaiming disappearing texts and cultures, and releasing knowledge from the control of a few. The paper addresses these complex interconnected issues of Indian Literature, multiculturalism and translation.

The Role of Language Editors in Literary Translations from Indian Languages in to English

Sankaracharya University Press, 2018

This paper scrutinizes the translation process and problematizes language editing and its role in literary translations from Indian languages into English (focusing on Kannada). It also discusses the significance of doing research on language editing in Translation Studies. Translation is not just a final product, it is a process and/or a procedure. Language editing is an aspect of this process. Brian Mossop calls language editing, so to say language editor, as a gatekeeper, and a language therapist. Because, editor is aware of the problems of translatability whose duty is to rescue a translation from being labeled as mistranslation. She makes it cross national and international boundaries to be accessible by a wide range of readership. It is therefore significant to study aspects of language editing to unravel the role played by editors in the translation process and to place it at the same rank of translating. This paper also analyses author-translator, and translator-editor equations to address the issues regarding who can be a language editor, is it the native speaker of the language or a proficient non-native speaker of the language.

The Moon and The Mirror: Changing Images of Literary Translation in Odisha

This paper seeks to explore the changing images of literary translation in Odisha with reference to the broader context, India. Odisha has a rich literary tradition dating back to the thirteenth century. In fact, Odia— the language spoken by the natives of Odisha—was initially standardised through a process of translation of classical Sanskrit texts like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Srimad Bhagabata. These translations played a key role in shaping the Odishan culture. At the beginning, translators had the freedom to create parallel texts, move away from the original, if need be, introduce new forms and techniques and to incorporate new material. These translations were regarded as important works of art in their own right and were immensely popular. But, gradually, under European influences, translation came to be regarded as inferior on account of its dependence on the source text, and it was expected to be faithful to the source text. This paper examines the processes which brought about these changes, and discusses ways in which a new image of the translation took shape.