Rethinking translation in the 21st century

In the latest decades the concept of translation has dramatically changed: we have gone from absolute equivalence to a widening of the definition of this field which sometimes reaches unforeseen limits. Translation certainly reflects the kind of society which produces it and, thus, it is hardly surprising that a culture like the western one – contradictory, hybrid and enriched thanks to migration but at the same time burdened with problems arising from cross-cultural clashes – offers a definition of translation as a never-neutral and ethically-complex process. The different current theories provide much help when pondering over these issues and reflect the choices which we, translators, constantly make, our negotiations and the margins of (in)fidelity between which we move, always around a core meaning which is no longer universal. El concepte de traducció ha canviat moltíssim durant les darreres dècades: hem passat de l’equivalència absoluta a l’ampliació de la definició d’aquest camp fins a límits de vegades insospitats. I és que, efectivament, la traducció és sempre reflex del tipus de societat que la genera, així que no és d’estranyar que una cultura com l’occidental, contradictòria, híbrida, enriquida per les migracions però també carregada de problemes pels xocs interculturals, oferisca una definició de traducció que és ara un procés mai neutre i èticament complex. Les distintes teories contemporànies ajuden molt a reflexionar sobre tot açò, i reflecteixen les eleccions que com a traductors fem constantment, les nostres negociacions i els marges d’(in)fidelitat en què ens moguem respecte a un nucli de significat que ha deixat de ser universal.
In the latest decades the concept of translation has dramatically changed: we have gone from absolute equivalence to a widening of the definition of this field which sometimes reaches unforeseen limits. Translation certainly reflects the kind of society which produces it and, thus, it is hardly surprising that a culture like the western one – contradictory, hybrid and enriched thanks to migration but at the same time burdened with problems arising from cross-cultural clashes – offers a definition of translation as a never-neutral and ethically-complex process. The different current theories provide much help when pondering over these issues and reflect the choices which we, translators, constantly make, our negotiations and the margins of (in)fidelity between which we move, always around a core meaning which is no longer universal.