Preserving Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in and through Translation: From Theory to Practice

On one hand this article offers theoretical reflections on the phenomenon of translation in a postcolonial framework, referring mainly to the Anglophone context, and to India in particular. On the other, it forges concrete links between theory and practice. Major issues raised by Postcolonial Translation Studies are discussed, like the concepts of translation as a channel of colonization, as an instrument for maintaining cultural inequalities, even after the collapse of the British Empire, and as a possible, and desirable, means of de-colonization (Robinson 1997). It is argued that, in order to convey linguistic and cultural diversity when translating literary texts from Indian English into Italian, the radical method championed by postcolonial scholars (Niranjana 1992; Spivak 1992) – which can be clearly linked to Venuti’s ‘foreignization’ (1995)  is not the only solution and that ‘hybridization’ (Wolf 2000; Tymoczko 2000) represents a viable choice. Different translation strategies that can be employed to produce a ‘hybrid’ text are illustrated through case studies on Indian English literary works translated into Italian by the author of this study (Narayan 1997; Narayan 1998; Chandra 1999; Dhondy 2003). The paper not only proposes that this method is instrumental in safeguarding language, culture and identity in the process of translation; it also posits that, through translation, linguistic and cultural differences can be conveyed to the European world. The findings will also be viewed from a pedagogical perspective, in the belief that a university classroom, in our contemporary globalized world, can be considered as the ideal “[...] site where translating subjects are provoked and enabled to move across and between cultures” (Dingwaney & Maier 1995: xii).