Concept of authorship

Venuti is of the view that this concept of fluency can be linked to the notion of authorship that is prevalent in Anglo-American culture. According to this view, the author’s writing expresses his/her thoughts and is original. Implicit in this concept is that a text is the author’s transparent communication of her ideas and is unmediated by other socio-cultural factors. If writing is primary, then all translations would be secondary and derivative. It follows from this that translations have to be ‘true’ to the original, and maintain the illusion of being the ‘original’. This is why most of the translators and translation theorists in the Anglo-American world have been concerned about fidelity in translation. So, one of the most important qualities that a translator should have is the capability to identify herself with the author. Again, there is the persistent feeling that the translator is subservient to the author, and needs to play second fiddle to her. Willard Trask who was an author and translator, illustrates the difference between ‘original writing’ and translation. He says that while writing a novel, what you are doing is “expressing yourself” (qtd in Venuti 7). But translation is different, it is like “performing a technical stunt”. The translator is somewhat like an actor on stage, and “takes something of somebody else’s and puts it over as if it were their own” (7). Venuti describes this tendency of the translator as “weird self-annihilation” (8). Even as this reduces the translator to the status of a menial, it successfully relegates translation to the periphery.

The Indian tradition did not share this rigid concept of authorship. Our early literary texts starting from the Vedas, do not have any individual author’s name attached to them. Literature was primarily oral, and each retelling was consequently embellished with the reteller’s contribution. It has to be remembered that the debates surrounding the identity of Vyasa who composed Mahabharata are yet to be settled. It is still open to speculation if Vyasa is the collective name given to a team of people who finally committed the verses to writing, or the name of an individual. Hence translations or retellings of these works were considered original works. For instance, the various Ramayanas in Indian languages are known after their respective translators—Kambaramayana,Tulsi’s Ramcharitmanas,Ezhuthachchan’s Adhyatmaramayanam etc. There was obviously no notion of original authorship or other copyright issues.