A Multilingual Nation (Hardcover)

Rita Kothari

ISBN 10: 0199478775 / ISBN 13: 9780199478774

Published by OUP India, New Delhi, 2018

About this Item

Hardcover. This anthology takes head on some of the cardinal principles of translation and illustrates how they do not apply to India. The idea of 'source' - the language and text you translate from - is in a multilingual society slippery and protean, refusing to be confined to any one language. This experience comes to us in this anthology not only from translation theorists, and practitioners, but also from philosophers, historians, and other social scientists. In thatsense, the anthology demonstrates the all-pervasive nature of translation in every sphere in India, and in the process it overturns the assumptions of even the steady nature of language, its definition, andthe peculiar fragility that is revealed in the process of translation. The anthology provocatively asks if multilingualism in India is itself a translation, an act not an outcome. An unusual and unorthodox anthology of essays by leading thinkers and writers, new and young researchers,A Multilingual Nation: Translation and Language Dynamics in Indiawill not let us go back to thinking about translation and language quite the same way. Is there only one Hindi, one Marathi, and is it even possible to comfortably suggest that there is one source language? Shaking the institution of both language and translation, this anthology overturnsthe principles of translation in the West, and provocatively argues that translation is not a 'solution' to the allegedly chaotic situation of many languages, rather its inherent and inalienable part. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780199478774

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Multilingual Nation (Hardcover)
• Publisher: OUP India, New Delhi
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199478775
• ISBN 13: 9780199478774
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This anthology takes head on some of the cardinal principles of translation and illustrates how they do not apply to India. The idea of 'source' - the language and text you translate from - is in a multilingual society slippery and protean, refusing to be confined to any one language. This experience comes to us in this anthology not only from translation theorists, and practitioners, but also from philosophers, historians, and other social scientists. In that sense, the anthology demonstrates the all-pervasive nature of translation in every sphere in India, and in the process it overturns the assumptions of even the steady nature of language, its definition, and the peculiar fragility that is revealed in the process of translation. The anthology provocatively asks if multilingualism in India is itself a translation, an act not an outcome.

About the Author

Rita Kothari is Professor of English, Ashoka University, India. She is a multilingual scholar of translation (theory and practice), language politics, and identity in India. Her ethnographic work is based out of western India, especially Gujarat and Sindhi-speaking parts of Kutch and Rajasthan. She writes especially on local and marginalized communities. One of her acclaimed works is a seminal book on translation studies, Translating India: The Cultural Politics of English.