Translation and Postcolonial English (2nd edition)

This book focuses on a very specific type of text. In fact, not only does *Translation and Postcolonial English* concentrate on literary translation, but after the first chapters, in which some of the problems that the translation of literary texts might pose are analysed, it focuses on the translation of the literature stemming from the formerly colonised world. The choice is, at least in part, the result of my training in literature and my experience as a literary translator, while at the same time it reflects my willingness to bring to the fore the issues raised by this specific kind of literature. In particular, this book emphasises throughout the fundamental importance that culture and, as a consequence, all the disciplines that deal with it (from Translation and Cultural Studies to the Ethnography of Speaking and Interactional Sociolinguistics), can have whenever we approach language. Clearly, this aspect becomes paramount whenever we focus on translation, in that, as this book suggests, the notion of language cannot be separated from that of the culture that lies behind it and that, to a certain extent, moulds it. Thus, the notion of linguistic translation is closely connected to that of cultural translation and it is only by working on both levels that translators can produce a satisfactory target text. This volume is actually not intended as a textbook, but rather as one that helps readers become aware of the linguistic and cultural idiosyncrasies of a specific literary production which is marked, through and through, by hybridity. It thus provides future translators with some theoretical background in the domain of both literary translation and Postcolonial Studies, a knowledge from which they cannot be exempted as part of their professional training, and thanks to the synoptic chronology of the main events that marked colonial and postcolonial history (which was compiled by Itala Vivan and is inserted here as Appendix A), it helps them contextualise the authors discussed and their works. In order to assist readers in this awareness raising process, after introducing these theoretical notions, *Translation and Postcolonial English* provides various examples and discusses specific issues and translation choices. Always in the attempt to help readers appreciate Postcolonial literature and its potentialities, the book concludes with a second Appendix. Here readers will find lengthier passages extracted from some of the novels previously discussed and a set of activities meant to encourage them to reflect on some of the problematic issues raised by the texts themselves and the challenges their translation might pose.