Introduction

Unlike the last lecture, the term postcolonial is used with all its theoretical implications here. In the field of translation it provides us with a framework to assess the dynamics of political power between languages, and also the position of translations in a given linguistic / cultural context. As Sherry Simon and Paul St-Pierre put it, the term ‘postcolonial' is useful in suggesting two ideas: “The first is the global dimension of research in translation studies; the second is the necessary attention to the framework through which we understand power relations and relations of alterity” (13). With postcolonial theory, we are moving from an epistemological framework that is centred in the west, to a broader scheme that is skeptical of received notions of knowledge and sensitive to plurality. Although it has its share of critics who deride it as the product of Anglo-American academia, postcolonialism has successfully theorized and foregrounded the condition of colonization and also helped to interrogate the act of translation as an apolitical and innocent linguistic activity. For instance the translation of the Sanskrit classics by the Indologists in the 18th century was called into question. Their decision to translate only the ancient Sanskrit classics and ignore contemporary Indian language works indicated their contempt for India of the present as a land of inferior culture and literature. This translation activity was seen as a deliberate attempt to demoralize Indian literatures and help in the creation of the passive colonized subject, thereby furthering the political act of imperialist expansion. Thus the theory has helped to identify the socio-political dimensions of literary and linguistic activity, and has broadened the horizons of translation studies especially in the former colonies of the world.