Role of the Postcolonial Translator

• Main Author: Isabel Alonso-Breto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Alberta 2021-08-01
• Series: TranscUlturAl
• Online Access: https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/tc/index.php/TC/article/view/29533

This essay consists of a meditation upon the emotions, affects and ethical compromises which surround the translation of texts as complex and delicate as Bharati Mukherjee’s short story “The Management of Grief”. This well-known piece of fiction offers a very painful account of how the families of the victims of the Air India Flight 182 attack in 1985 managed to survive the enormous grief of losing their loved ones in such abrupt, violent and unjust manner. The essay author, who decided to translate this story into Spanish so that it could be enjoyed by a wider readership, shares her thoughts regarding the demands of such painful yet necessary task. The whole area of Postcolonial Studies, where she develops her scholarly career, is unfortunately rife with such testing moments, and she wonders about the convenience or even the pertinence of such scholarly/textual interventions.