Kathryn Batchelor

Third Spaces, Mimicry and Attention to Ambivalence

Abstract It has long been acknowledged that the disciplines of translation studies and cultural studies have much in common, yet little critical attention has been paid to the ways in which theorists from both disciplines borrow and adapt terms from each other in order to develop their own domains of enquiry. This paper focuses on the influence of cultural studies theorist Homi K. Bhabha on translation studies, outlining and critiquing current usage of concepts connected with ‘hybridity’ and the ‘in-between’. In particular, it examines Michaela Wolf’s exploration of the third space, contrasting her spatial interpretation of the term with Bhabha’s own emphasis on its temporal aspect, and suggesting a number of reasons why Wolf’s reading might be viewed as problematic. In addition, the paper outlines a variety of new modes of application of Bhabha’s theories to translation studies. These include imitating his mode of reading when studying source texts and translations, and exploring the relevance to the translation process of the notion of a time-lag between event and enunciation.

Translation and Philosophy

The publication of this book addresses a significant gap in research in the disciplines of philosophy and translation studies: in philosophy, texts are often read in translation, yet little attention is paid to the changes that are inevitably introduced through the translation process; in translation studies, as the first contributor observes, far more attention has been paid to the translation of literary texts than to philosophical ones (see Theo Harden’s contribution, p. 14). Yet the pertinence of translation to philosophy, and of philosophy to translation cannot be overstated, and this collection of essays thus represents a most welcome addition to existing scholarship, and, hopefully, a useful initiator of further debate. Stemming from a conference held in 2010, Translation and Philosophy draws together four broad types of inquiry into the intersections between translation and philosophy. Firstly, the papers by Andrew Whitehead and Alena Dvorakova arise out of the contributors’ own experiences of translating philosophical texts. Whitehead makes the simple but important point that to translate philosophy successfully, the translator has to have a sound understanding of the philosophical theory in question, illustrating this point using contrasting translations of Zen poetry, and putting forward his own. While Whitehead’s translation is intriguingly different to the others, the decision not to present the original language version of the poem (or at the very least, a literal or interlinear translation) makes it difficult for readers to assess what is sacrificed in terms of meaning or style when a translation makes the reflection of a poem’s underlying philosophy its top priority. Whitehead’s paper potentially opens up fertile discussion of the intersections between theories relating to the translation of poetry and those relating to philosophy, although the paper itself does not explore this in any detail. The absence in this paper of any references to scholarship from the field of translation studies is to be regretted, and, if there is a weakness to this volume as a whole, it is the generally low levels of familiarity of the contributors with translation studies research, particularly with more recent developments in the field. On occasion, this leads to criticism of translation studies INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES

Sunjata in English: Paratexts, Authorship, and the Postcolonial Exotic

The West African Mande oral epic, Sunjata, has been translated into scores of languages, often multiple times. English translations of the epic target a range of types of audience, including young children, school children, a popular general adult readership, and academic specialists. In this case study, Batchelor compares the three English Sunjata translations which target an academic audience, contrasting the levels of prominence given to the Malian djeli (oral historian, or story-teller) with that given to the translator or book-producer of the English version, and exploring questions around authorship and ownership of ethnographic literary texts. Drawing together Graham Huggan’s notion of the ‘postcolonial exotic’ with Lawrence Venuti’s emphasis on translator visibility, the chapter interrogates the political and ethical implications of the case study findings.