This book provides a social interpretation of written South African translation history from the seventeenth century to the present, considering how trends involving various languages have reflected ideologies and unequal power relations and focusing attention on translation’s often hidden social operation. Translation is investigated in relation to colonial mercantilism, scientific knowledge of extraction, Christian missionary conversion, Islamic education, various nationalisms, apartheid oppression and the anti-apartheid struggle, neoliberalism, exclusion and post-apartheid social transformation by employing Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. This book will be an essential resource for scholars, graduate students, and general readers who are interested in or work on the history and practice of translation and its cultural agents in the South African context.
Author(s): Maricel Botha
Series: Translation History
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 240
City: Cham
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Translation Sociology
1.2 Power and Ideology
1.3 Translation History
1.4 Social Systems Theory
References
2 Social Systems Theory—Fundamentals and Application
2.1 Why Social Systems Theory?
2.2 Social Systems Theory According to Luhmann
Autopoiesis
Communication
Action
Structural Coupling
First- and Second-Order Observation
Power
2.3 Translation as a Social System
2.4 Translation as a Sub-System and Boundary Phenomenon
2.5 Current Application of SST
References
3 Commencement—Knowledge Exportation
3.1 Historical Background and Societal Character
Segmented Society
Functionally Differentiated Society
3.2 Resistance to Written Translation
3.3 Naturalist Translation
3.4 Conclusion
References
4 Advent—Complex Conversion
4.1 Historical Background and Societal Character
4.2 Missionary Translation
Xhosa Translation
Tswana Translation
Southern Sotho Translation
Zulu Translation
4.3 Philological Translation
4.4 Islamic Translation
4.5 Conclusion
References
5 Establishment—Nationalist Incentive
5.1 Historical Background and Societal Character
5.2 Translation and Afrikaner Nationalism
5.3 Translation and Indian Nationalism
5.4 Translation and African Nationalism
5.5 Conclusion
References
6 Peak—Oppression and Resistance
6.1 Historical Background and Societal Character
6.2 Translation as a Function System
The Establishment of Translation Bodies
The Establishment of Translator Training
Embracing International Translation Trends
6.3 Oppressive Translation
Translation and Bantu Education
Translation and the Homelands
6.4 Resistant Translation
Translation and the Sestiger Movement
Translation and English Resistant Literature
6.5 Conclusion
References
7 Recession—Transformation?
7.1 Historical Background and Societal Character
7.2 Translation and the Political System
7.3 Translation and the Literary System
English
Afrikaans
The Bantu Languages
7.4 Translation in the Educational System
7.5 Conclusion
References
8 Conclusion
8.1 Trends
System-Related Trends
Trends in the Social Functions of Translation
Trends in Translational Direction and Inter-Cultural Relations
8.2 An Evaluation of Social Systems Theory
Index
