Reflections

 

Lecture Reflection: The Friday lecture was insightful and built well on the background that last week’s reading provided us with. Esther Allen talked about how the author would make small changes to her text every couple of years which would in turn create changes in the translation. It got me thinking about how these small additions and excisions could manipulate translation and incorporate more modern perspectives or perhaps amplify meanings. This train of thought was built upon further when Allen mentioned that a source text may not always be ideal as reproduction of the text via translation or into other formats as they must allow a degree of creative licensing to convey the text and simultaneously allow it to stray from the original. This is something I would love to delve into further as we look at more literature in class. Allen also did well to frame our readings buy giving us the backstory on Di Benedetto which helped us understand him better as well as his work. Since, it’s the first time I’ve taken a translation class, it was interesting for me to think about how careful translation between languages can have such powerful effects as it adapts to various cultures, and that the original authors can choose who and how they would like to have their texts translated. 

 

Reading reflection: In Jeremy Tiang’s, “The World is Not Enough”, he starts by giving us a broad introduction to thinking about the concept of world literature and the commodification of cultures. This helps us set the tone for understanding the roles of a translator as a medium for conveying cultures and “bridging the gap” between them. Through my reading of this piece, amongst the others, it helped me to refine my perspective on a translator as a communicator. For instance, in order to convey the cultural accuracy of the text, one may have to emphasize it through subtle ways in order for the intended culture to understand at the same level as the original intended culture. It builds on what Esther Allen was saying on how straying from the literal meaning of the words may indeed help keep it closer to its original intention. “The Fiction of Foreignness”, emphasizes the same as it presses upon keeping the core intentions of the text the same when translating it into other languages and modes of literature. 

 

Diya