Short Form: Gayatri Spiyak

Gayatri Spiyak’s work on post colonialism and feminism in literature has made a profound impact on the interpretation of Third World literature. You may, in fact, remember her name from my post on Post-Colonialism and the Reader. Spiyak grew up and studied in Calcutta, before obtaining her PhD in Comparative Literature from Cornell. She founded the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University, where she is a professor. In addition, she was the first woman of color to occupy the highest faculty position in the entire history of the university.While Spiyak’s primary focus is not translation, the subject cannot be avoided in her field. And while Spiyak’s work centers on feminism, it is important to note that there is no reason her approach to translation can be applied across the board. The primary text I am using for this summary comes from her article, “The Politics of Translation”.

The Lingo

Agent – the person who acts, the one who is writing and whose writing is reflecting her persona and situation

RAT – reader as translator. The translator should be the most intimate reader.

Post-structuralism – (the philosophy that human culture can be understood through structures outside of both reality and abstract thought – through language, which is somewhat tucked in-between the concrete and the abstract. (Warning:this is a very, very, very brief description!)

What She Says

“To surrender in translation is more erotic than ethical. In that situation the good-willing attitude "she is just like me" is not very helpful. In so far as Michele Barrett is not like Gayatri Spivak, their friendship is more effective as a translation. In order to earn that right of friendship or surrender of identity, of knowing that the rhetoric of the text indicates the limits of language for you as long as you are with the text, you have to be in a different relationship with the language, not even only with the specific text.”pg. 183

Image from the University of Columbia.

Thus

Probably the most difficult part of outlining the key points in her article is that there are so many fantastic lines I would like to include. However, here are some key ideas:

• They should not seek to make the relationship between the reader and the original text so accessible that the soul of the original text is lost. Translation is an intimate process. A reader cannot be detached or quick with a translation. They must seek to savour and understand even the single word, in order to understand the cultural context and semantic meaning.
• Each translation should retain its distinct identity. All translators should be aware of the source culture and language, so that a translation from a middle-class woman in Japan shouldn't read like a translation from a lower class man in India. And when reading these, the reader shouldn't feel like she is reading a book by a white American man from Nevada.
• The world of the work should be recreated as it fits the agency of the work – the original sense of justice, culture, context, and meaning should be maintained. The translator should be able to combine language and knowledge to enable the agent in the work to act as they should act in that story. 

How it Matters

Spiyak’s article also explores the idea of solidarity through translating and reading translations. That it’s important to understand that Third World women (and men) can write good novels as well as bad, that we shouldn’t treat every book as an exotic dish (we wouldn't do so in our own language). She also suggests that in order to show true solidarity, one should learn the languages of the Third World, not only the languages of a few powerful countries. And if you've read my blog, you know I will always promote learning languages.

So what can we take away at large, as readers, not just translators? Consciousness of what we’re reading is a main point, that as readers, we should be sensitive towards the differences in culture, to broaden our own minds. To listen to what the work is saying, instead of focusing on our own preconceptions.

And as translators, that we should understand agency when translating works of fiction, especially from the Third World. And, perhaps, we should consider preserve as much of the source style as we can. However, one question lives on – how to balance this preservation with readability.

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* Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Outside in the Teaching Machine. New York: Routledge, 1993. Print.

Interested in more theory? Check out my post on Jorge Luis Borges.