Translation seems to be having a moment—or a series of moments, that could turn into new reading and publishing habits. At least I hope so! Of course there are specific magazines devoted to new writing in translation, such as Words Without Borders, World Literature Today, and Asymptote. But it’s also wonderful to see general literary…
A leading translation theorist, Lawrence Venuti, talks about “domestication” versus “foreignization” when translating fiction. “Domestication” means making the foreign familiar, and Venuti rails against it. In fact, many aspects of the text—references, syntax, expressions—need to be made familiar so that the reader will not be confused or alienated, but that’s a topic for another post.…