Ideology

Since Lefevere was of the view that translation is very much part of the cultural context, it was but natural that it would be influenced by ideology. Lefevere goes back to Terry Eagleton's definition of ideology as “a set of discourses which wrestle over interests which are in some way relevant to the maintenance or interrogation of power structures central to a whole form of social and historical life” (qtd in Gentzler: 136). Ideology need not be interpreted solely in terms of political beliefs, but as the prevailing set of belief systems in a society at a given point of time. Ideology can be overt or covert, but its pressure is felt by writers and translators, irrespective of the society they belong to. We have already seen how translations can vary according to the translator’s ideology, through the analysis of translations of Anandamath and Abhinjanasakuntalam. Translations can be viewed as a potential threat because they can introduce another perspective on life and society, which is different from that of the receptor culture. For instance, an Indian language translation of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover can be a problem. Lawrence wrote that novel to explode the sexual hypocrisy of British society, for which he used the theme of extramarital love and a candid language that contained many taboo words. Indian society with its conservative approach might not take kindly to a translation of this work. Lawrence was motivated by his personal ideology in the writing of the book; a translator who shares that ideology can be moved to translate it with the specific purpose of exposing sexual hypocrisy. This is why Victor Hugo opined: “When you offer a translation to a nation, that nation will almost always look on the translation as an act of violence against itself” (qtd in Lefevere: 14). It is the tendency of most societies to maintain status quo, and in doing so it will resist any attempt that might upset that. This is why the state always tries to restrain people who have alternative ideologies. According to Lefevere, patrons can also take the place of the state in imposing ideology on the individual translator in the case of translations.