The Interface of Tradition and Modernity: Ideological Manipulation of Translators

Abstract

Recent progress, being currently made in sociology of translation, has focused on people behind the text i.e. the translator.
During the process of translation, translators as intercultural mediators between two different socio-cultural systems of thought are
inevitably influenced by target texts, which are the ideological product of the "other" thought. These ideological interactions between
source and target what? become more pronounced in the clash between tradition and modernity. Using the Tradition-Modernity
questionnaire, which is designed and validated for the purpose of this study, we examined 150 English translation students who
voluntarily completed the questionnaire. Their scores on the questionnaire were then correlated with their scores on literary and political
translation to find out whether there is any meaningful relation between the level of modernity, which is closely related to translator's
proper presupposing and their success in practical translation. It is worth mentioning that literary and political texts are selected on the
grounds that the translator's ideological decisions are better manifested. Furthermore, students with appropriate level of local cultural
competency are more successful than target-oriented students.