Post-Colonial Theories

Theories of Translation Studies

Post-colonial theories

• Ideological consequences of translation of the “third world”

literature into English and the distortion this entails.
Contributors

• Spivak
• Tejaswini Niranjana
• Susan Bassnett & Harish Trivedi
• Brazilian Cannibalism
Spivak

• A feminist, post-colonialist and post-structuralist approach.

• She criticizes western feminists who expect feminist writings from
outside Europe to be translated into the language of power-
English.
• She calls it “translationese”. Which eliminates the identity of
politically less powerful individuals and culture.
• She asserts that these feminists must show real solidarity with
women in post0colonial context by learning the language in which
those women speak and write.
• Politics of translation gives prominence to English and the other
‘hegemonic’ languages of ex-colonies.
• Translators over assimilate to make it accessible to the western
readers.
• They focus on translation, the transnational and colonization.
• Translation has played an active role in the colonization process and in
disseminating an ideologically motivated image of colonized people.
• The central intersection of translation studies and post colonial theory
is that of POWER & RELATIONS.
Tejaswini Niranjana (Indian)

• Literary translations (are) one of the discourses ….which inform

the hegemonic apparatuses that belong to the ideological
structure of colonial rule.
• Translation into English has generally been used by the colonial
power to construct a rewritten image of the “East” that has then
come to stand for the truth.
• “Translation as a practice shapes and takes shape within the
asymmetrical relations of power that operate under colonialism.”
Her Recommendations

• The postcolonial translators must call into question every aspect

of colonialism and liberal nationalism.
• Use ‘interventionist’ approach – a practice of translation that is
speculative, provisional and interventionist- it resists the
‘containment’ of colonial discourse.
• Asymmetrical power relationships in a post colonial context.
Susan Bassnett & Harish Trivedi

• The unequal struggle of various local languages against ‘the one

master language of our postcolonial world, English.
• Translation: the battleground and exemplification of the
postcolonial context. There is a close linkage of translational to
transnational (the post colonials living between nations as
emigrants).
Brazilian Cannibalism

• A metaphor of anthropology or cannibalism

• The famous story of the ritual of cannibalization of a Portuguese bishop by native
Brazilians.
• The strong Brazilian translation studies community to stand for the experience of
colonization.
• Translation: the colonizers and their language are devoured, but in anew purified
and energized form that is appropriate to the needs of the native peoples.
• Post colonial world is one of change and struggle.
• Creation and re-creation , absorbing the ST and revitalizing it through nourished
TTs that employ an energized and different form of the colonizer’s language that
belongs to the post colony.
Irish Post colonial Translation Studies
Theories

• Same as that of Indian’s.