Chapter: Translation and the formation of cultural identities, by Lawrence Venuti
IN: Cultural Functions of Translation
Edited by Christina Schäffner and Helen Kelly-Holmes
MULTILINGUAL MATTERS LTD, 1995
 Translation creates a cultural identity by domesticating a foreign text.
 Choice of text means excluding others
 Development of a translation strategy focuses on certain domestic values and excludes others
 Who publishes, reads, reviews, and teaches the text?
 Translation creates a representation of a foreign culture.
 Selection of texts produces a peculiarly domestic canon
 Texts are removed from the traditions that give them significance
 Texts are rewritten to conform to styles and themes that fit domestic tastes
 Can create stereotypes for foreign countries that suit domestic values and agendas
 Instrumental in shaping attitudesrespect or hatred
 Created identity has an ideological position
 Even the page design, cover art, and advertising copy influence the shape of the created
cultural identity
 ARISTOTLE’S POETICS, JOHN JONES (1962)
 Noted the influence of romanticism, changing the original emphasis from action to the hero.
He believes Aristotle did not see human agency as self-determining; rather, he saw the power
of the situation.
 This shift occurred through various lexical choices:
1. Greek: “good men”
Standard translation (Bywater): “a good man”
2. Greek: “bad men”
Standard translation: “a bad man”
3. Greek: “the change of fortune”
Standard translation: “the change in the hero’s fortune”
 These discrepancies are not errors, but reflect calculated choices
 Greek word mellein: to be about to do; to be on the point of doing; to intend doing.
Translations introduced intentionality and introspection: “intending to kill;” “intending to
betray;” “meditating some deadly injury”
 Jones discovered this because translations are never seamless or perfectly consistent, but
often contradictory. He noted the discrepancies.
 Of course, Jones was also translating; his existential stance is evident. His version is also
anachronistic, but was widely accepted because existentialism was on the rise so his
translation fit the zeitgeist.
 JAPANESE FICTION
 Edward Fowler (1992) said American publishers issued many translations of Japanese novels
and stories during the 1950s and 1960s. VERY selective choices were made, focusing on
three main writers: Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, Kawabata Yasumari, and Mishima Yukio.
 To the average Western reader, Kawabata’s Snow Country is “typically Japanese:” elusive,
misty, inconclusive
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American publishers created a canon that was unrepresentative, based on a stereotype
English translations were then translated to other European languages, thus spreading the
stereotype as a canon
Academic translators and their editors chose texts based on a nostalgic image of a lost past—
distinctly American, not shared by Japanese readers. Translators were older men whose
formative experiences were shaped by WWII
Canon didn’t change through the 1970s and 1980s
By the end of the 1980s, another generation questioned the canon and created and published
anthologies of newer writers.
Japanese is 6th in the language hierarchy translated to English, which means canon
reformation is slow.
 JEROME’S TRANSLATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
 Septuagint—Greek version of the Old Testament, reigned for 6 centuries. Displaced the
Hebrew text as the source of Latin translations used by Christians in late Roman Empire
 Augustine believed that trouble would arise if Jerome translated directly from Hebrew
because of translation differences. Would threaten individuals’ identities as Christians.
 Jerome was a highly educate man and saw the translation errors, leading him to question the
Septuagint.
 His cultural diversity led to the creation of a text that appealed to Christians who were
schooled in the Latin literary culture.
 Shrewdly represented his Latin version as a supplement, not replacement, thereby receiving
institutional support.
 ETHICS OF TRANSLATION
 Bad translation is ethnocentric; good translation forces the domestic language and culture to
register the foreignness
 Cannot be restricted to a notion of fidelity.