‘Translation’ argues that nothing comes closer to the central activity and political dynamic of postcolonialism than the concept of translation. To translate a text from one language to another is to transform its material identity. With colonialism, the transformation of an indigenous culture into the subordinated culture of a colonial regime, or the superimposition of the colonial apparatus into which all aspects of the original culture have to be reconstructed, operate as processes of translational dematerialization. Under colonialism, the colonial copy becomes more powerful than the...

‘Translation’ argues that nothing comes closer to the central activity and political dynamic of postcolonialism than the concept of translation. To translate a text from one language to another is to transform its material identity. With colonialism, the transformation of an indigenous culture into the subordinated culture of a colonial regime, or the superimposition of the colonial apparatus into which all aspects of the original culture have to be reconstructed, operate as processes of translational dematerialization. Under colonialism, the colonial copy becomes more powerful than the indigenous original that is devalued.