At the intersection of the writing of translations and memory

Abstract

This chapter aims to analyse the links between the process of translation of works that capture the experience of past conflict and memory. Starting off with the assertation that ‘all writing is memory,’ and focusing on the analysis of the translation process in the context of workshops organized under an AHRC-funded satellite project, part of the University of Manchester’s ‘Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community’ project, it sees the writing of translations as a textual mode for the mediation of memories of past events. Hence, this chapter addresses the contribution that translation can make to the preservation, or indeed construction, of a country’s cultural memory. It also aims to analyse how literary translators rely on their own autobiographical memories (semantic, episodic) in the process of translation of said texts. Drawing on Astrid Erll’s concept of ‘travelling memories,’ this chapter argues that a literary text that undergoes the process of translation is a ‘travelling memory,’ and the translation workshop is a medium of memory transmission, with the potential to generate postmemories.