The Ethical Role of Literary Translators in a Globalised World: Foreignisation and Dialogue Theories in the Promotion of Unique New Zealand Voices

Abstract

The age of globalisation we live in is characterised by a homogenising trend that encompasses multiple aspects of human culture around the world. Literature has not been left unscathed. Particularly apparent in the English language tradition, a homogenising voice and style in literature, with an unfavourable predisposition towards any factors that compromise fluency in the literary discourse, threatens to marginalise and even silence the unique and diverse voices and styles of minority groups in the literary world (Venuti 1995, 1998). Because of its geographical isolation and unique history of encounters and clashes between Māori and Europeans, New Zealand has generated a very distinct set of minority literary voices, hybrid offspring of these two worlds. Witi Ihimaera established Māori authors as part of modern New Zealand literature with the publication of his first collection of short stories, Pounamu, Pounamu (1972), and his novel Tangi (1973). Then Patricia Grace’s Waiariki, the first collection of stories by a Māori woman writer, appeared in 1975, and her novel Mutuwhenua: the Moon Sleeps was published in 1978. Over the last 40 years, the tradition of writers with a Māori point of view has continued to grow. Furthermore, it has been enriched by the contribution of other unique voices from the Pacific Islands, such as those of Samoan authors Albert Wendt and Sia Figiel. The objective of this thesis is to reflect on and make a contribution to the preservation, promotion, and dissemination of some of these unique literary voices. This will be attempted by translating a selection of short stories by indigenous postcolonial New Zealand authors into Spanish. A theoretical discussion will consider the ethical role translators should play in approaching translation as a tool for ensuring the survival and the extended circulation of texts. An ethical approach to translation will therefore be proposed, one which draws mainly on the concept of foreignisation (Venuti, 1995, 1998) and on dialogue theories (Buber, 1937, 1965, 2002; Lévinas, 1979, 1998, 1999; Ricoeur, 1991, 1992, 2005, 2006). The ethical role of literary translators based on Venuti’s theories and dialogue philosophy is confirmed and reinforced by theories related to postcolonial literature, particularly in terms of features of resistance through language exercised by authors in these texts. The result is a translation principle that promotes a more heterogeneous and diverse discourse in the literary world, because it encourages translators to find their own unique voice to translate the authors while preserving the authors’ specificities and foreignness.