Translation and Language Power Relations in Heterolingual Anthologies of Literature

Abstract

This paper proposes a few models that describe the translational relationship among competing languages in a plurilingual society, using the heterolingual literary anthology as the material context for discussion. It argues that the heterolingual literary anthology is a discursive site through which we can observe language power relations in a plurilingual society as well as changes in such relations over time. Within the material context of such an anthology, translation serves as a mechanism in the negotiation of symbolic capital among various languages, and becomes an ideological site where languages struggle for visibility and prestige. In the making of a heterolingual anthology, translation is a central discursive mechanism. It constructs, moderates and negotiates language power relations by affording or depriving certain languages and their literatures of discursive properties, among which ‘voice’ and ‘visibility’ are prominent. The translational perspective thus throws light on the ideological constitution of an anthology by revealing the asymmetricities at work.