How Studying Translation in Minority Contexts Contributes to Research in Translation Studies Methodology: A Case Study of Basque Translation
This paper aims to show how the study of translation in minoritized contexts can contribute to research methodology in Translation Studies. Analysing some examples from the history of Basque translation, this article demonstrates that translation in this type of marginal system is often nothing more than another way of rewriting, which does not differ much from other literary procedures such as adaptation or transformation. A research methodology that can explain all these translation phenomena should thus overcome the overly restrictive definition maintained by the traditional discourse of translation and adopt an interdisciplinary perspective that broadens the definition of translation. In this respect, postcolonial theories as well as other approaches derived from the “power turn” in Translation Studies can provide excellent tools for the study of translation in minoritized literary systems in general, and in the Basque context in particular.