Sociopolitical and ideological conditions and constraints of translation - Research Proposal Example

Although the issue of how ideology, society, and politics may influence interpreting is omnipresent in the field of translation, the research has only recently started to focus on it. A different look at the relationship between translation and ideology may result in remodeling of the whole practice with emphasis on social aspects rather then on a habitual psycholinguistic processing skill. Bassnett (1996) emphasizes the need for reassessment of a translator's role in the process of linguistic transfer.

lvarez & Vidal (1996) concentrate on the importance of the ideology and socio-political issues underlying the translation process. Despite the recent trends, in reality, applications of personal beliefs in translation process can be found in the earliest literature available to humanity (Fawcett, 1998). And still the linguistic-oriented approaches have failed to address the issues of ideology and socio-political factors due to the fact that these approaches are limited to the empirical data collected and scientific models for research.

Consequently, scholars fail to consider social values and ideologies involved in the translation process (Venuti, 1998). Thus, the failure of old descriptive linguistic based approaches resulted in development of a new trend of research called Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with a primary objective to examine ideological forces that are rooted in different types of communicative exchanges, e. g. translation (Calzada-Prez, 2003). Scholars involved in development of the CDA model argue that all languages are ideologically and culturally influenced.

The idea is also supported by Schffner (2003) who argues that the choice of the source text and the use to which subsequent target text is placed are determined by aims and objectives of a translator. Carbonell (1996) further points out that due to heterogeneity of both the source and the target cultures, the conflicts between author's and translator's aims will always exist. The reasons for the misunderstanding according to Toury (2000) are rooted in the fact that the human cognition itself is a product of socio-cultural factors, as a translator is historically and socially constituted object.

Since the process of translation involves interpretation of texts by setting the original writing against the actual knowledge of phrases and statements, the process itself becomes ideological and culturally shaped. Knowledge of a translator allows interpreting and at the same time limits the translation as stated by Robinson (qtd. in Calzada-Prez, 2003): knowledge is controlled by norms, thus it becomes ideological. Concequenlty, if one wants to be an independent translator, a person has to accept a submissive role formed by ideological norms.

Thus, socio-political and cultural constraints of a translation impose vital problems due to the unawareness of the majority of translators of the governing ideological and cultural factors. Toury (1999) emphasizes the difficulties of determining the role of socio-cultural factors that affect translators' cognitive behavior on an unconscious level. An insight into the environmental effects on cognition would make a significant contribution to understanding of the concept of translation. In a attempting to solve the problem, Toury applies the concept