《translation and world literaturer》.pdf

essay The Single, Shared Text? Translation and World Literature Valerie Henitiuk The act of reading globally opens up new possibilities for our relationship with texts and authors from distant places. It is not only world literature that is transformed through the translation process—readers find themselves “translated” to new, creative spaces. hat does it mean to communicate A native Japanese who has lived in Ger- in a globalized world, to send or many for most of her adult life, Tawada publishes W receive narratives originating in dis- prizewinning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in tant times and places? The following passage her two principal languages; she is also a self- from an essay by Yōko Tawada highlights impor- consciously cosmopolitan writer. The myth of tant aspects of what all too frequently remains a the “single, shared text” that can be readily and hidden and imperfectly understood transmission directly transmitted, which she so neatly chal- process: lenges here, is a pervasive one and worthy of examination.1 For any text to circulate globally, it