A Portrait of the Writer as a Translator

In a context where post-colonial translation has emerged as a strong interface between post-colonial studies and translation studies, the present paper examines the case of Salman Rushdie as a post-colonial translator. Drawing on concepts and ideas put forth by the two above-mentioned paradigms, the paper will argue that the strategies used by Rushdie in his attempts to write about the importance of redressing the balance of power and of resisting Orientalising practices are similar to those used by translators of post-colonial literature. The writing of post-colonial literature becomes an act of (re)translation, while translating post-colonial literature should aim at resisting domestication and at creating a target text that remains ‘foreign’ enough for the reader. While there is no doubt that through its post-colonial and global concerns Rushdie’s entire work fits this frame, the analysis will focus only on two works, Midnight’s Children and Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights , since they seem to bracket Rushdie’s efforts in this respect

Art · Art history · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Domestication · Domestication and foreignization · Literature · Portrait · Post-Colonialism · Postcolonial literature · Power (physics · Sociology · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · History · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Translation Studies and Practices

• Postcolonial Theory

  Leela Gandhi•Postcolonial Theory•1998

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• The Translation Studies Reader

  Lawrence Venuti, Advisory Advisory•Translation Studies Reader•2000

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• On Linguistic Aspects of Translation

  Roman Jakobson•On Translation•1959

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• Salman Rushdie and Translation

  Ana Cristina Mendes•Textual Practice•2015

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