Translation space in nineteenth-century Belgium: rethinking translation and transfer directions

Abstract

Translation space in 19 th -century Belgium:Rethinking translation and transfer directions 'Landscape', 'space' and 'directionality' are metaphors that have become widely accepted in the humanities, including translation studies. This contribution focusses on translation and transfer directionality, a metaphor that covers a broad and complex range of techniques, actions, places and policies, beyond the supposed one-way process of bridging languages. It provides building blocks for a comprehensive study of translation and transfer directions and presents the results of a pilot study devoted to 19 th -century Belgium, a young, multilingual entity that has elaborated a sophisticated and influential network of translation and transfer directions in the legal and administrative domains. The detailed account of these directions reveals that translation issues have penetrated to the core of social, political and cultural life, addressing questions of representative democracy, language standardization, language equality, cultural identity and citizenship.