Translation always involves a cultural dimension: Prof. Bassnett

City University, Bangladesh and and IDEAS: An International Journal of Literature, Arts, Science, and Culture jointly organised an international conference titled, “Bridging Cultures: Advanced Discourses in Translations, Culture, and Comparative Literature” at the City University Auditorium for two days, from 9-10 November.

Professor Susan Bassnett, Emerita of Comparative Literature at University of Warwick, has been declared from the conference as the “Shakespeare of Translation Studies”.

In her keynote speech on “The Importance of Studying Translation”, presented virtually on the second day of the conference on Sunday, Bassnett looked at the expansion of Translation Studies in the last few decades.

She noted that translation always involves a cultural dimension. Though translation is essential in today’s world, it is not an innocent act and many agents are involved in the reception of a translation, including translators, editors, publishers and reviewers.

Mentioning about agencies involved in the cross-cultural migration of texts, she also stressed that translation always involves change since no translation can ever be the same as the source text. All translations involve rewriting in the target language. “The moment we start to look more closely at that (translation) process, we can see that something more than the linguistic is involved.”

Professor Bassnett concluded her over 50-minute speech saying, “My basic message is no translation can ever be the same as its source text. But rather than seeing this as something that’s lost we need to see it as part of a process, part of an organic process. Once the translation enters the receiving culture, it sets off a new path.”

Dwelling on how shifting focus from the translations of previous generation, the newer translations and versions of classical texts like Homer’s Iliad are putting emphasis on “... what the text is all about, the horrors of war, because in the 21st century one of the things that most appals all of us, whether everytime we switch on our televisions or hear anything, are the monstrous horrors of war.”

Retired professor of English at Jahangirnagar University, Khaliquzzaman Elias was another keynote speaker at the conference.

Now a full-time essayist and translator, Elias believes that the art of translation is essentially creative; therefore, should be considered an independent genre in which all other genres of literature are accommodated.

“Translation is a creative activity. It’s not just about mechanically translating one text into another text. You have to have some kind of creative genius to translate well.”

He also stressed that translation should be considered as an independent genre like other genres of literature like prose, poems and so on.

Noted scholar and a retired professor at Dhaka University, Fakrul Alam spoke about “On translating Gitanjali and Bridging Cultures through Translations.”

He pointed out that Rabindranath Tagore’s works, particularly Gitanjali, is an excellent example of how cultures can be bridged, and distances between people and languages overcome through translations.

Fakrul said, crossing linguistic and cultural boundaries, Rabindranath managed through his Gitanjali and some of his other writings to connect the minds and provide balms to people afflicted by worldliness and alienated from the life of the spirit.

In his speech on “Comparative Literature, Political Economy, and Decolonization” Bangladeshi American critic, academic, poet, and translator Professor Azfar Hussain spoke at length about comparative literature as a separate field to learn about human experiences.

He argued that comparisons are epistemologically empowering; they can even constitute an undifferentiated structural totality, whether tenable or not. Thus, comparisons are not merely what they are; they are also what they do.

Azfar, however, warned that both in what they do and how they do it, comparisons are neither neutral nor innocent. Comparisons are political.

How can the field of comparative literature respond to the implications of comparison itself, especially in this era of the algorithmization of society and digital colonialism, the latest stage of monopoly-finance capitalism, where Mao Zedong and Microsoft are curiously conflated, and money, markets, and metaphors are continuously compared with high-voltage immediacy in what has come to be known as “autotheory”?

He argued that the cultural economy of unequal exchange is root cause of this and comparative literature, which has yet to exorcise the ghost of Eurocentrism, despite the bridge-building efforts of so-called multiculturalism and postcolonial studies, would do well to incorporate the analytics and apparatuses, the tools and tropes, of Marxian political economy at this juncture of time, and thereby broadening the interpretive horizon of comparative literature itself.

Apart from them, Professor Mohit Ul Alam, Professor Ahmed Reza, Professor Shamsad Mortuza, Professor Abdullah Al Mamun, Professor M Maniruzzaman, Professor Mashrur Shahid Hossain, Professor Abdus Selim, Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Professor Anirudha Kahaly, Professor Laizu Nasrin, and other leading academics such as Professor Masood Imran Mannu, Nitai Saha, Professor Shamim Reza, Professor Roxana Chowdhury, Professor Sumon Sajjad, Professor Mohoshin Reza, Assistant Professor Shahnaj Parvin, K. Sankar, Nusrat Amin, and Gurpreet Kaur also shared their insights on translation, culture and comparative literature in plenary sessions.

Each brought unique perspectives and scholarly expertise, making the plenary sessions dynamic and illuminating.

Academics, researchers, and translators from around the globe attended the conference, fostering an atmosphere of intellectual exchange and innovation.

Over 80 presenters participated, sharing research findings and discussing new trends in translation and comparative studies during plenary and parallel sessions.

They highlighted the evolving role of translation in Bangladesh and other postcolonial contexts, the cross-cultural influence of literary traditions, and the interdisciplinary potential of comparative methodologies.

There were three keynote sessions, seven plenary sessions, one hybrid session and three parallel sessions in the conference.

The conference commenced with an inaugural session where Vice Chancellor of City University, Brig. Gen. Professor Md. Lutfor Rahman, Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Kazi Shahdat Kabir, and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences’ Dean Professor Abu Zayed Mohammad were present. Editor-in-chief of IDEAS: An International Journal of Literature, Arts, Science, and Culture, Professor Mustafizur Rahman also attended the inauguration of the conference.

In his closing speech, convenor of the conference, Associate Professor Rahman M. Mahbub, also the editor of IDEAS: An International Journal of Literature, Arts, Science, and Culture and head of the Dept. of English at City University, Bangladesh, hoped that the gathering would leave a lasting impact on the pedagogy of Translation Studies and Comparative Literature in Bangladesh and around the world.

 “This event marks a promising step towards further fostering collaboration, academic excellence, and cultural exchange,” he added.