Revisiting the Shifting Paradigms through the Translations of Mahasweta Devi’s Short Stories
Keywords:
Politicisation, subjective intervention, hegemonic complexities, cultural resistance, counter-narrativeAbstract
Mahasweta Devi’s writings have been immensely translated in Indian languages like Assamese, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Telegu and tribal languages like Ho and Santhali along with foreign languages like English, Italian, Japanese and French. The range of her translations is reflective of her wide popularity both within and outside the nation. Compared to other languages translating into English from her original stories in Bangla has always remained fraught with the complexities of colonial history. In the Indian context translation into English always corroborates the hegemonic power equations more than translation into any other language especially in the postcolonial context. For Devi’s texts translation into English is wrought with hegemonic complexities that are not equally traceable in the translations of her stories in other vernaculars. The objective of this article is to critically look into the various dynamics of the author/translator interface that forms the crux of the ‘politics’ interplaying at different levels of the translation process of her stories.
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