Steiner and Bellos Reading

    David Bellos, in "Fictions of the Foreign", writes of the importance of foreignness of the foreign. It is a valid statement to consider some translations to be essentially domesticating the original text into English or another language. Total domestication definitely does not improve the original as it results in the loss of the aspects that form the foreignness of the original, but no domestication at all also is not ideal as the audience for the translation are isolated because of the cultural differences. Therefore, "selective foreignism" is the better way to deal with this conundrum. By balancing between domestication and foreignism, the translation is able to achieve the two goals of being true to the original text and making sure that the readers are able to follow the content. 

    George Steiner also mentions this topic of foreignness in "The Hermeneutic Motion". One line that stuck with me when reading was "the translator invades, extracts, and brings home." This sentence matches David Bellos's thoughts on how translations are domestications of the original text. The invading, extracting, and bringing equate to the process of translation, consisting of reading, translating, and distributing to another audience of a different language. The translator has a large role in controlling what kind of content is exposed to the reader. The opinions around a translation are formed based on what is given to the reader.

-June