Justice as Translation

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511657535.016

15 - Justice as Translation

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2010

Edited by

Matthew Anderson and

Austin Sarat: Affiliation:
Amherst College, Massachusetts
Matthew Anderson: Affiliation:
University of New England, Maine
Cathrine O. Frank: Affiliation:
University of New England, Maine

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Summary

Translation has been an object of humanistic inquiry going at least as far back as the third century bce, when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek. Walter Benjamin's famous essay “The Task of the Translator,” originally published in 1923, praises the interlinear translation of the Bible as the ideal form of translation because it unites freedom and literalness. Freedom and literalness as the twin poles of translation are tied to the definition of translation as the transfer of meaning between two languages, a concept that long dominated the field of translation studies. This notion of translation presupposes a model of language as a transparent vessel of meaning, and a neutral space wherein all languages are similar. Benjamin's praise of interlineal translation, which graphically displays the gap between the two languages calls transparency and even translatability into question. Postcolonial studies challenges the assumption about a neutral space for translation, arguing instead that universalizing neutrality masks the imposition of power of a dominant culture over a weaker one, ignoring the gaps and heterogeneity not only between cultures and languages but also within a single culture. As Talal Asad argued in 1986, “there are asymmetrical tendencies and pressures in the languages of dominated and dominant societies.” The problem of rendering a statement in one language into another becomes more difficult if the relations of power between the two languages are uneven. In this context, the something that is invariably lost in translation is more than just a nuance of meaning.

Type: Chapter
Information: Law and the Humanities
An Introduction
, pp. 398 - 415

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511657535.016 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2009

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