| This study proposes that literary translation is defined too narrowly, and that a more comprehensive approach to the manifestations and influence of translation is achieved by recasting its definition in terms of a necessary transformation. Prevailing assumptions about authorship, textual values, and communicative purpose of translation tend to restrict evaluation to a "service" model, that is, a normative balance between service to the reader and service to the source text. In theory and practice, this approach grossly undervalues some essential aspects of the craft of translation: the role of translator as cultural mediator, the potential enrichment of the source text through a foreign reading, and the translation's capacity to enrich the receiving literature.; Three alternative approaches are elaborated: a descriptive model that embraces the features just enumerated; rethinking translation through metaphors that emphasize succession and non-derivative value; and analogies of translation in non-literary fields in which less restrictive constraints apply. Among these analogues are Lyotard's theory of pagan transmission of narratives, and performance theory of dramatic works. Film adaptations, as translation-performances, show cinematic language (film noir is the example used) developing through translation.; This analysis argues for a model that describes a particular theory or production in its implied convergence with or divergence from the language, thought, and culture of the source. A horizontal axis of metaphor and metonymy designate the points at which one version shows rupture or perpetuation in re-presenting the source. A vertical axis indicates hierarchical relations between source and receiving language (e.g., patronizing, envious, competitive) or between writer and translator. Examples illustrate the model's capacity to identify implicit suppositions of aesthetic values, cultural relations, and resulting expectations held for translations.; Biological and anthropomorphic metaphors readily represent translation as a transformation enabling perpetuation and linear succession. Taboos encountered in extreme instances of such metaphors (e.g., incest, miscegenation, hybridization) suggest roots of resistance (e.g., myths of linguistic purity) to recognizing translation influence within a national literature. The essentialist categories original and translation should be discarded in favor of mutually defined source text, version, and receiving literature.; The conclusion indicates the place of this endeavor to expand the definition and recognition of translation, and points out the role of contemporary literary and cultural theory in the emergent field of translation studies. |
