Reading More Intimately: An Interrogation of Translation Studies Through Self-Translation

Abstract

While the poststructural turn has made the study of translation more self-reflexive, it has not made translation studies scholars rethink the fundamental assumptions of translation process. As a result, many practices in the nature of translation have not only got marginalised but have been rendered invisible within translation studies. One such practice is self-translation. This paper tries to read the process of self-translation closely and thereby raise critical questions on the assumptions about translation. The paper will conclude by positing self-translation as an important domain for scholarly engagement by drawing attention to the potential of such a move to make translation studies more nuanced.

Keywords: Self-translation, translation studies, translation, postcolonialism, Karnad, Tagore