Book Description

Communication is the basis for human societies, while contact between communities is the basis for translation. Whether by conflict or cooperation, translation has played a major role in the evolution of societies and it has evolved with them. This volume offers different perspectives on, and approaches to, similar topics and situations within different countries and cultures through the work of young scholars. Translation has a powerful effect on the relationships between peoples, and between people and power. Translation affects initial contacts between cultures, some of them made with the purpose of spreading religion, some of them with the purpose of learning about the other. Translation is affected by contexts of power and differences between peoples, raising questions such as “What is translated?”, “Who does it?”, and “Why?”. Translation is an undeniable part of the global society, in which the retrieval and distribution of information becomes an institutional matter, despite the rise of English as a lingua franca. Translation is, in all cases, composed by the voice of the translators, a voice that is not always clearly distinguished but is always present. This volume examines the role of translators in different historical contexts, focusing particularly on how their work affected their surroundings, and on how the context surrounding them affected their work. The papers collected in this volume were originally presented at the 2013 conference “New Research in Translation and Intercultural Studies” and are arranged in chronological order, extending from 16th-century Mexico to 21st-century Japan.