Every act of information distribution potentially includes the spread of ‘images’ (in a general sense). Every concrete act of text production has been preceded by selection and decision procedures, including framing and formulation choices. Since the emergence of nation states and the related construction of national and cultural identities especially during the 19^th and 20^th centuries, these choices have also been influenced by national and cultural image building. When these choices, perspectives or frames are being transferred to a new target text, as in the act of translation, an additional selection and decision process about these choices is unavoidable. New considerations (on the basis of a different knowledge or perception base between source and target audience) will be taken into account when transferring information about national and cultural images. This may lead to conscious and/or unconscious changes of perspective, the use of stereotypes, omissions or additions, and manipulations, up to and including varying features of censorship. These changes make the study of national and cultural image building a highly interesting field for Translation Studies. As Cristina Marinetti puts it in her HTS entry on ‘Cultural approaches’: “translation is one of the ways in which works of literature are ‘re-written’, and these re-writings are the primary way in which cultures construct ‘images’ and ‘representations’ of authors, texts and entire periods of history.”

References

Beller, Manfred & Leerssen, Joep

(eds) 2007 Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters – a critical survey. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.

Bermann, Sandra & Wood, Michael

(eds) 2005 Nation, Language, and the Ethics of Translation. Princeton/Oxford: Princeton University Press.  TSB

Cronin, Michael

1996 Translating Ireland: Translation, Languages, Cultures. Cork: Cork University Press.  TSB

Doorslaer, Luc van

2010 “The double extension of translation in the journalistic field.” Across Languages and Cultures 11 (2): 175–188.  TSB

Frank, Helen T

2007 Cultural Encounters in Translated Children's Literature: Images of Australia in French Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome.  TSB

Kuran-Burçoğlu, Nedret

2000 “At the crossroads of Translation Studies and imagology.” In Translation in Context [BTL 39]. Andrew Chesterman, Natividad Gallardo San Salvador & Yves Gambier (eds), 143–151. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.  TSB

Leerssen, J.T

1996 Remembrance and Imagination: Patterns in the Historical and Literary Presentation of Ireland in the Nineteenth Century. Cork: Cork University Press.

McDonough Dolmaya, Julie

2010 “(Re)imagining Canada: Projecting Canada to Canadians through localized websites.” Translation Studies 3 (3): 302–317.  TSB

Seifert, Martina

“The image trap: The translation of English-Canadian children's literature into German.” In Children's Literature Global and Local. Social and Aesthetic Perspectives. Emer O’Sullivan, Kimberley Reynolds & Rolf Romøren (eds) 227 239 Oslo Novus Press

Smecca, Paola Daniela

2009 “Tourist guidebooks and the image of Sicily in translation.” Perspectives 17 (2): 109–119.  TSB

Sundaram, Susmita

2011 “Translating India, constructing self: Konstantin Bal'mont's India as image and ideal in Fin-de-siècle Russia.” In Contexts, Subtexts and Pretexts. Literary Translation in Eastern Europe and Russia [BTL 89], Brian James Baer (ed.), 97–115. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.  TSB

Tymoczko, Maria

1999 Translation in a Postcolonial Context: Early Irish Literature in English Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome.  TSB

Further reading

Hung, Eva

(ed.) 2005 Translation and Cultural Change: Studies in History, Norms and Image-projection [BTL 61]. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.  BoP

Wintle, Michael

(ed.) 2006 Image into Identity. Constructing and Assigning Identity in a Culture of Modernity [Studia Imagologica 11]. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.