ABSTRACT
Abstract: Our understanding of translation and its attendant norms such as faithfulness and accuracy are premised upon fixed textuality, a legacy of print capitalism. Even after the firm establishment of the print media in India, however, everyday practices of translation continue to escape the awareness of a fixed text – examples of uninstitutionalized, unselfconcious, unauthorized translations point to continuation of pre-colonial traditions. The denial of the text’s fixity manifests itself in practices ranging from creative re-invention to blatant plagiarism. Drawing examples from translations of popular, best-selling American novels into Gujarati, this paper shows how the imperatives of a mass market defy translation norms and yet translations of bestsellers pay handsome tributes to the ‘originals’. The paper argues for theoretical frameworks that accommodate a large mass of unacceptable, uninstitutionalized and yet effective translations. It also touches upon the legal context of adaptations and translations in order to evolve a historiography of translation that incorporates implicit worldviews and explicit laws governing acts of translation.
