Translation and Ideology

This article investigates essential questions regarding ideology and language from a translation studies perspective. Adopting a broad-based approach, it examines what is meant by ‘ideology’ and how it is treated in translation studies, where it has primarily been linked to manipulation and power relations. However, this article focuses on the ideology of the individual translator. Following Simpson and Van Dijk, it considers ideology to be constructed from the knowledge, beliefs and value systems of the individual (in our case, the translator) and the society in which he or she operates. The main interest is in how ideology in its many facets is conveyed and presented textually in translation and how analysis drawn from within monolingual traditions (such as critical discourse analysis and the tools of systemic-functional analysis) may not always be the most appropriate to detect and classify the shifts that take place. Examples are analyzed of translations of speeches and other political writings and interviews with revolutionary leaders in Latin America (Castro, Marcos, Chávez).