Translation and language power relations in heterolingual anthologies of literature

This paper proposes a few models that describe the translational relationship among competing languages in a plurilingual society, using the heterolingual literary anthology as the material context for discussion. It argues that the heterolingual literary anthology is a powerful instrument with which we can gauge the power relations among various languages in a plurilingual society. In the making of such an anthology, translation is a central mechanism through which languages engage one another in symmetric or asymmetric exchanges. Specifically, translation constructs, moderates and negotiates language power relations by affording or depriving languages and their literatures of certain discursive properties, among which 'visibility' and 'voice' are prominent. A language is accorded visibility when it appears in an anthology, either as the source or the target language or both; it assumes a voice of its own when it translates other languages, as opposed to being translated by another language. The translational perspective thus throws light on the ideological constitution of an anthology by revealing the asymmetricities at work, enabling us to hypothesize on the state of language power relations in a plurilingual society, both synchronically and diachronically.