WHO OWNS THE MEANING? AUTHORIAL INTENT VS. TRANSLATOR INTERPRETATION
Keywords:
Translator agency, authorial voice, ownership of meaning, interpretation in translation, ethical translation, reader reception, cultural translation, co-authorship, fidelity vs. freedom.Abstract
The piece questions the dark question of ownership of meaning within the field of translation. Does the text translator simply transmit an author’s intended meaning, or is the very act of translation itself an interpretive, culturally reconstructive, productively autonomous phenomenon? In line with primary ideas of translation, the essay embarks co-construction of meaning across linguistic boundaries. The research, grounded on textual, philosophical, as well as audiovisual sources, highlights the fact that meaning is never an essentialist construction but a negotiated construction, as much of the voice of the author as it is a product of the prism of the translator.
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