Postcolonialism, Translation, and Colonial Mimicry

Nadella, Raj

doi:10.2307/j.ctt32c05p.8

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Spivak, one of the three most influential postcolonial thinkers (along with Said and Bhabha), did much translation as well as writing about translation (see Spivak 2022). 6 Many others have continued to work in this area, with significant contributions from Simon and St-Pierre 2001, Bandia 2003, Bandia 2008, Nadella 2012, Bassnett 2013, and Robinson 2014. Merrill (2012 contains a helpful review of the field and an introduction to postcolonial translation, which Mojola describes as being primarily concerned with the links between translation and empire or translation and power, as well as the role of translation in processes of cultural domination and subordination, colonization and decolonization, indoctrination and control, and the problem of hybridization and creolization of cultures and languages.…”

Section: Translation Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Listening to the Other: Kuang’s Babel, Postcolonialism, and Bible Translation

Liao

2024

Journal of Translation

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Despite its influence in the broader academy, postcolonial thought has had minimal impact on the study of Bible translation. This article examines postcolonialism, drawing out common themes from the contested descriptions of the discipline, and briefly reviews some of the ways postcolonial thought has contributed to Missiology, Biblical Studies, and Translation Studies. It then explores the general lack of interaction between postcolonial criticism and studies of Bible translation and suggests ways that attending to postcolonial critiques could benefit the field. The article concludes with a case study using the history of Thai translations of the Bible to illustrate some of the benefits that could be brought to studies of Bible translation by an increased sensitivity to postcolonial thought.

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Section: Translation Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Listening to the Other: Kuang’s Babel, Postcolonialism, and Bible Translation

Liao

2024

Journal of Translation

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“…That being said, it is not sufficient for Eurocentric Bible translation practitioners to continue using translation practices of the colonial or modernist periods and taking comfort that after all, local agents will subvert misguided neocolonialist practices. To do so ignores the potential not only for international agents to dominate subaltern populations (Spivak 1988), but also, as Raj Nadella points out, for national and local agents to mimic negative practices of domination over and within subaltern communities (2012, 51, 57). Nadella’s suggestions for Bible translation include using peripheral dialects and mining the resources of local oral traditions (2012, 58).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To do so ignores the potential not only for international agents to dominate subaltern populations (Spivak 1988), but also, as Raj Nadella points out, for national and local agents to mimic negative practices of domination over and within subaltern communities (2012, 51, 57). Nadella’s suggestions for Bible translation include using peripheral dialects and mining the resources of local oral traditions (2012, 58). I will follow this trajectory by imagining a multidirectional comparative “dialogue” 5 where whatever BPC will become for the Bikɔɔm people is informed by the ideological pathways of oral traditions; the outcomes of such a dialogue can in turn inform potential ideological pathways in written Bible translation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ideology and Bible Translation: Can Biblical Performance Criticism Help?

Esala

2015

The Bible Translator

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Biblical performance criticism (BPC) is a provincial practice with particular North American and European historical indices. When entering into a new context, this methodological genealogy needs to be recognized, because within those indices overt and covert interests are served. In order for BPC to be contextualized to serve local interests, it must recognize practices on the ground and how those practices have already been shaped or reshaped to serve local interests. I will highlight three practices in the Bik m context of Ghana to see how their ideological pathways have been (re)shaped to serve local interests: written Bible translation, oral tradition, and preaching. I will discuss two examples where written Bible translation has partially imitated the pathways of oral tradition and sermonic practice to better serve local interests. Then I will discuss the material dimensions of written Bibles and oral tradition as instructive for the way BPC materially contextualizes. Finally, I will suggest that if contextual Bible study as developed in South Africa could be adapted for the Bik m context, it could be helpful to Bible interpreters, translators, and performers as they seek to embed their Bible practices in locally controlled ways that foster local liberation.

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Muslim Translators and Translations of the Qur'an into English

Wild

2015

J Qur'anic Studies

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Until the 1940s, English translations of the Qur'an were (with the notable exception of translations by Indian Muslims early in the twentieth century) mostly undertaken by non-Muslims and viewed with some misgiving by most Muslim scholars. As late as 1929 the Egyptian al-Azhar, internationally regarded as the most prestigious Muslim organisation in the world, publically burnt a translation of the Qur'an, even though it had been translated by a Muslim. It was only well after the Second World War that the Egyptian authorities officially allowed the publication of a translation of the Qur'an. More recently, English translations by Muslims have proliferated and now flourish worldwide: as far as the number of Qur'an-translations is concerned, no other language is better represented. However, diverging English translations of the Qur'an have become more and more of a religious and political battleground. This article discusses the development of English from a ‘coloniser's language’ to an English ‘friendly to Islam’ – especially in India and Pakistan. It also sketches the impact of Christian missionary translations of the Qur'an into English and discusses the problems faced by scholars with regard to English as a powerful second language, specifically in terms of the King Fahd Complex for Printing the Holy Qur'an in Saudi Arabia, which has gradually taken prominence over Al-Azhar on the international stage since the 1980s.

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Postcolonialism, Translation, and Colonial Mimicry

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Listening to the Other: Kuang’s Babel, Postcolonialism, and Bible Translation

Listening to the Other: Kuang’s Babel, Postcolonialism, and Bible Translation

Ideology and Bible Translation: Can Biblical Performance Criticism Help?

Muslim Translators and Translations of the Qur'an into English

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