From the introduction: "This introduction comprises two sections. The first addresses significant issues related to language, exile, and translation in a postcolonial context, that of India, as they apply to translations from a colonized language (Hindi in this collection of stories) into the colonizer’s language, English. The second section introduces Nirmal Verma and offers some readings of various emblems and motifs in this collection of "exile stories", again with reference to the postcolonial condition. I also discuss my own approach and motivations as a translator of Hindi stories into English. In the first section, I consider the connection between postcoloniality and language and argue that in the Indian postcolonial context, the English language is more than the medium of interpellation; it is itself the interpellating authority. Turning to the nature of dislocation in the same context, I argue that the postcolonial subject is in perpetual exile. Next, I consider at length various kinds of linguistic inequality and resistance in translation. I differentiate between political and linguistic resistance, and show that there may be two kinds of linguistic resistance: surface resistance and deep resistance. I raise the issue of the translator’s identity, using the case study of a western translator with impeccable credentials (the "worst-case" scenario as far as my argument is concerned, i.e., the hardest case against which to make my argument) translating Rabindranath Thakur’s work into English; and I argue that it is critical to consider the identity and location of the translator when discussing translation in the postcolonial context.
There are no reviews yet.