The scandals of translation: towards an ethics of difference

Abstract

The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference Lawrence Venuti. London: Routledge, 1998. 210pp.Lawrence Venuti's well-written and very interesting book rests on two key thoughts: translation, besides rendering an author's ideas and words into a different language, serves the culture and needs of the translator's society through word choice, emphasis, and selection of texts, among other things, and translations in current practice are perceived as transparent-i.e., a non-distorted window into the original work, a copy rather than a new rendering-when they are not so, when they change and omit ideas, when they elide or adjust elements that are to their target audiences. Translations, Venuti argues, should be perceived and taught as translations, not as copies of the original works. Venuti argues these ideas very strongly and supports them well, not only with theoretical discussions, but with analysis of situations, current and historical, in the translation industry.The author discusses these two concepts as if they are new and shocking in the translation industry and academic circles. Yet as I read The Scandals of Translation, I wondered whether these ideas are as original or as radical to translation studies as Venuti implies. They seemed obvious to me as a specialist in medieval literature, a field that necessarily studies and compares multiple versions of the same stories and which also necessarily must make use of many works often in multiple translations.Venuti begins in his first chapter with an overview of current translation studies and his own theories about translation. He views language as a manifestation of power between competing dialects and as a culturally produced tool that does not necessarily reflect the personal intent of the author. He also argues for what he calls minoritizing translation, a practice that would retain foreign elements in translated texts and that would choose non-mainstream and more diverse foreign texts for translation. Chapter two deals with translation and authorship and discusses the devaluation of the translation field in the academic community. Chapter three examines copyright and copyright law and the position of authors and translators under copyright practices; here Venuti argues that translators ought to be viewed as authors and be entitled to more compensation than a flat fee for translating work. Chapter four considers how translation, through choice of texts and how these texts are translated, influences the translating culture's view of foreign peoples. Chapter five addresses the problems of teaching works in translations and is especially concerned with teaching translations as if they were original texts. Chapter six tackles the problems of philosophical texts in translation, which are subject to many of the same problems and pitfalls as the literary texts covered in the previous chapter. …