Globalization and Translation
GLOBALIZATION AND TRANSLATION
GLOBALIZATION AND TRANSLATION
Two fundamental features of Globalization are crucial for the overcoming of spatial barriers and for the crossing of knowledge and information, thus resulting in the mobility of people and objects; and a proper contact between different linguistic communities. Globality is manifested not only in the creation of supra-territorial spaces for finance and banking, commodity production (transnational corporations production chains) and global market, but also in the significance of travel and international movement of people (mass tourism, business travel, migration and exile) and the consolidation of a global communications system: that distributes images and texts to any place in the world. These developments emphasize- in spite of the fact that English is a predominant language on the globe – an important growth in the significance of translation, which becomes a key mediator of global communication. Yet language and translation have been neglected in the current literature on globalization. Globalization is generally associated with the shrinking of our world and the possibility of instant communication across the globe. Widespread metaphors - like a superhighway which flows with information- creates an image of the world as a network of interconnected places in which space ceases to be significant. This globalization theory focuses on mobility and deterritorialization, trying to obscure the complexities involved in overcoming cultural and linguistic barriers and made the role of translation in global communication invisible. However, translation is a key process in the development of global connectedness. Therefore it is central for understanding the material conditions that make possible this connectedness and translation has important consequences for the way that globalization is understood today. First, globalization has been defined as ‘the widening , deepening and
GLOBALIZATION AND TRANSLATION
Two fundamental features of Globalization are crucial for the overcoming of spatial barriers and for the crossing of knowledge and information, thus resulting in the mobility of people and objects; and a proper contact between different linguistic communities. Globality is manifested not only in the creation of supra-territorial spaces for finance and banking, commodity production (transnational corporations production chains) and global market, but also in the significance of travel and international movement of people (mass tourism, business travel, migration and exile) and the consolidation of a global communications system: that distributes images and texts to any place in the world. These developments emphasize- in spite of the fact that English is a predominant language on the globe – an important growth in the significance of translation, which becomes a key mediator of global communication. Yet language and translation have been neglected in the current literature on globalization. Globalization is generally associated with the shrinking of our world and the possibility of instant communication across the globe. Widespread metaphors - like a superhighway which flows with information- creates an image of the world as a network of interconnected places in which space ceases to be significant. This globalization theory focuses on mobility and deterritorialization, trying to obscure the complexities involved in overcoming cultural and linguistic barriers and made the role of translation in global communication invisible. However, translation is a key process in the development of global connectedness. Therefore it is central for understanding the material conditions that make possible this connectedness and translation has important consequences for the way that globalization is understood today. First, globalization has been defined as ‘the widening , deepening and