Introduction

The roles that the translator can play are limited, considering that her area of work is not as large as that of a creative writer’s. However, there is one role that the translator. as well as the writer can undertake, which is that of the resistant fighter. Translation is often overshadowed by creative and ‘original’ writing, and so this aspect of the process is often neglected. Resistance means the opposition to or interrogation of, received notions of literary, cultural, and social norms. Resistance in translation can be at various levels. There are a few questions that any translator would ask herself before embarking on a translation project: Why do I translate? What do I translate? For whom?  How? The answers to these questions are crucial in determining the sort of translation that would follow. The decision to translate rather than write, if it is taken by a creative writer, is a significant one. For instance, the famous Russian writer Boris Pasternak (author of Doctor  Zhivago) chose not to write anything during Stalin’s rule in Soviet Russia. This was very much a political decision, an act of protest against the tyrannical rule that did not allow freedom of expression to the writer. He devoted himself to translations instead, mostly of Shakespeare’s sonnets. The sonnets with their theme of love and friendship overcoming death and brute power were also coded messages of hope sent by Pasternak to discerning readers suffering under the repressive Communist regime.

The foreignizing strategy of translation can also become one of resistance, depending on the context in which it is done. The decision to translate marginalized literature can also become an act of subversion. This is most apparent in the case of literatures that are marginalized, like women’s writing or Dalit literature in India.