By Sneha Karati
"The global system of translation: a critical analysis" explains that the cultural turn of translation which shifted focus to research on translation process, revealed the power relations underlying any translation activity, and thus pointed out the fact that translation can never be neutral.
Since translation came to be viewed as a "socially regulated activity" (Hermans 1997), experts turned to sociology to describe the social implications of translations in its various forms.
Under the study of social implications of translation, three prominent figures emerged, namely, the French sociologist Pierre Boudieu for his Interpretive approach and Heilbron and Sapiro for their Economic approach.
The Interpretive approach of text by Pierre Bourdieu deals with two opposite tendencies i.e. objectivist (classic hermeneutics) and subjectivist (relativist).
The objectivist approach focuses on literary and philosophical study of translation, more to do with understanding of text and comparison of translation with source text, language and culture and examine the creative deviation from the original text.
Subjectivist approach focuses more on translated texts; and has more to do with the (target) culture.
Heilbron and Sapiro on the other had rejected this approach and favor a more socially powerful approach i.e. economic.
In economic approach the translated books are categorized as goods or merchandise distributed and consumed in national and international markets. It is a market of symbolic goods, in other words cultural goods.
Types of power relations
1) Political
2) Economical
3) Cultural
Political: the political relations between countries and the political orientation of the government affect the flow of goods between countries.
Economical: economic factors such as liberalization of book markets, profit and loss and other institutions are to be taken into consideration.
Cultural: under cultural exchange, literary exchange enjoys a relative autonomy. The transnational relations of literary exchange are based on unequal distribution of linguistic and literary capital. Prestige, antiquity, number of texts written and universal recognition amounts to the literary capital.
Position of a translator
Although the methodologies developed through cultural turn do not provide sufficient scope to broaden research on role of translators and various agencies involved in translation process as an agent, stated below are certain roles and functions fulfilled by translators and agents in this filed:
International exchange: for social, political, economic, cultural and other meet and association between and among countries translators act as mediators for discourse and exchange
Within nation: for public works and government offices, court and official papers and documents, newspapers, magazines, journals and other
publications
Defense and security: for border security forces, crime branches, intelligence bureau, RAW, spy
National and international book market: publishing houses and book fairs; for translation of books or promotion of national literature and availability of academic and non-profit organizations, NGOs and events
Business: for smooth business transaction trade negotiations and contacts and agreements (MOU) MNCs and other private corporate hire special
translators
Media: for translation of advertisement and movies, providing subtitles for music videos or captions to video clips, the entertainment industry relies heavily on translation
Tourism: be it tour and guide books or instructions like road signs or maps or public places and entertainment parks and museums and other tourist sites
Medical industry: for proper communication between hospital staff and patients medical translators are an important asset
The flow of translation is highly uneven and flows more from centre to periphery. Central languages (English, German, and French) have more genres of books translated from them to other languages. A translator's work is not only about translating popular and best sellers or internationally acclaimed or canonical texts or works of famous authors; it also consists of localization of languages. "Localization involves the complete adaptation of a product for use in a different language and culture. A translator possesses a high degree of knowledge a local user of a product. The main goal of localization translator is to adapt the product as if had been originally manufactured in the country where it will be sold and supported." (translatorsbase.com/article/1198.aspx)
No matter what field of profession the translator chooses to work in, the basic role that the translator does is to inform the mass about what the words stand for. Education is also one of the major field translator works for. It is thanks to their strenuous and dedicated efforts that millions of people irrespective of language and mother tongue are able to read different subjects but without any change in content.
It's everyone's right to be educated and informed and language shouldn't be a barrier in someone's right to knowledge; rather it should and does act as a bridge to unite people from different linguistic background on a common platform to know and share the information. And it is only possible because of the translation. In this way translators act as teachers which is not just a noble profession but highest position one can be in as a creator, instructor and guide.
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