International Journal of English Literature and Culture
 

International Journal of English Literature and Culture

Vol. 3(5), pp. 137-144, May, 2015

 ISSN: 2360-7831

DOI: 10.14662/IJELC2015.042

Research Paper

Translations from the margins and the role of the market

Smita Devi

Department of English, G.M. College (Autonomous), Sambalpur, Odisha, India. E-mail:smitadevi810@gmail.com

Accepted 25 May 2015

Indian literature in English was the direct result of political act: colonization. The readers of this literature are predominantly from an urban middle class background, products of an educational system inherited from the colonizers. This background facilitated the internalizing of the Western ways of looking at their own world. So when something conformed to this discourse that they had naturalized, the readers easily accepted it. That was why, sometimes, one found texts which had the tribals as subjects/ objects depicted in a familiar way, were accorded uncritical acclaim. This paper has examined two Odia (a regional language of India) novels in English translations which are based on the lives of tribals, to show how the depiction of the “tribals” as a category has gone a long way in the regulation and reification of hierarchical orders. The market forces have determined the selection of these texts for translation because they offered an essentialist version, which was acceptable to the dominant culture.

Keywords: Margins, Market, Translation, Tribals, Hegemony, Postcolonial

 

Cite This Article As: Devi S (2015). Translations from the margins and the role of the market. Inter. J. Eng. Lit. Cult. 3(5): 137-144

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