TY - JOUR AU - Aveling, Monash and La Trobe Universities, Australia, Harry PY - 2010/06/15 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Multiple Centres: Thinking About Translation Relations Between the First and Third Worlds JF - Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature JA - AJELL VL - 4 IS - 1 SE - Articles DO - 10.31436/asiatic.v4i1.514 UR - https://journals.iium.edu.my/asiatic/index.php/ajell/article/view/514 SP - 1-18 AB - <p>In his landmark essay, “Translation and Cultural Hegemony,” Richard Jacquemond has asserted that “the global translation flux is predominantly North-North, while South-South translation is almost non-existent and North-South translation is unequal: cultural hegemony confirms, to a great extent, economic hegemony” (“Translation and Cultural Hegemony” 139). Jacquemond’s conclusions in his essay have been simplified by Douglas Robinson in his <em>Translation and Empire</em> (31-32) as follows:</p><p>A dominated culture will invariably translate far more of the hegemonic culture than the latter will of the former.</p><p>When the hegemonic culture does translate works produced by the dominated culture, those works will be perceived and presented as difficult, mysterious, inscrutable, esoteric and in need of a small cadre of intellectuals to interpret them, while a dominated culture will translate a hegemonic culture’s works accessibly for the masses.</p><p>A hegemonic culture will only translate those works by authors in a dominated culture that fit the former’s preconceived notions of the latter.</p><p>Authors in a dominated culture who dream of reaching a large audience will tend to write for translation into a hegemonic language, and this will require some degree of compliance with stereotypes.</p><p>The paper will use the figures provided in the UNESCO <em>Index Translationum</em> for translation in and from South and Southeast Asia to test these various hypotheses.</p> ER -