Different Readings: The 'Special' Readings of the Literary Translation. Interpretation and Cultural Mediation
Different Readings: The 'Special' Readings of the Literary Translation. Interpretation and Cultural Mediation

Summary/Abstract: All readers of a literary text form their own interpretation of it, and so does the literary translator, a special kind of reader. His professional interpretation requires the skills and knowledge of the literati, the empathy of the creative and performing artist, and an understanding of other fields of life. In short: an overall knowledge of universal human culture as well as of both SL and TL cultures, for the literary translator must look upon the entire world, much as literature does. Simultaneously, the literary translator’s interpretation represents a kind of educational role directed towards the aim, the ‘skopos’ of translation, which denotes the relationship between translator and reader. Following the translator’s special reading, understanding and interpretation, the target language text and the translator’s professional interpretation of the knowledge and cultural content and context present in the source language text will be defined, as well as limited, by the scope of understanding of the target audience, that is, its general cultural standard and background. In what follows I will examine the ‘cooperative role’ and some of the different aspects of a creative interpretation of the translator as reader.

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