Translators Power Release Under Suppression of Power
Power is everywhere, with which everyone is endowed. Power is manifested in different ways in different people. The power of translators in the Great Cultural Revolution was characterized by being suppressed and being released. Compared with the suppressi
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Translators Power Release Under Suppression of Power Weike He
Abstract Power is everywhere, with which everyone is endowed. Power is manifested in different ways in different people. The power of translators in the Great Cultural Revolution was characterized by being suppressed and being released. Compared with the suppression, the release of translators’ power was much more important because it bred the prosperity of translation after the Great Cultural Revolution. Keywords The great cultural revolution
Translation Translator Power
18.1 Introduction The Great Cultural Revolution of China (1967–1976) (the Revolution for short) is a very special yet very important period in China’s history. It greatly hindered the development of many fields. The translation activities of this period became stagnant. However, it was not completely blank. This period cannot be ignored for its historical values in the translation history [1]. It is essential to explore the correlationship between translation activities and the society, especially the culture. Translators as the subjects of translation activities are inevitably the focus. Translation theorist Douglas Robinson proposes that translators be the center of translation study.
W. He (&) Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China e-mail: [email protected]
W. Du (ed.), Informatics and Management Science III, Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering 206, DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4471-4790-9_18, Springer-Verlag London 2013
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Translation is a kind of utterance and coexists with power. The process of translation is one of power struggle. As Susan Bassnett states ‘‘… the study and practice of translation is inevitably an exploration of power relationships within textual practice that reflects power structures within the wider cultural context.’’ [2]. This paper is to explore the power of translators during the Great Cultural Revolution within political and cultural contexts based on the theory of power.
18.2 Theory of Power Translation carries out at the very beginning an extremely important social functions because translation is closely related to society and culture, particularly to political power and ideology. Translation is not simply the transformation of texts, but the mouthpiece of power and a means of cultural communication. Text choosing and the strategies of translation manifest the relationship of powers and ideology of a particular time. It can be said that translation is a process of power executing. Translators’ power can be seen from translation activities. It is necessary to know the theory of power before analyzing the power of translators during the Revolution. According to Wikipedia, ‘‘Power is a measurement of an entity’s ability to control its environment, including the behavior of other entities’’[3]. British philosopher Thomas Hobbes defines power as a man’s ‘‘present means, to obtain some future apparent good’’. Power is a means to control the surroundings of an individual, including others’ actions. Power might
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