Collusion or authenticity: Problems in translated dialogues in modern women's travel writing

Abstract

Travel writing is currently the focus of one aspect of Translation Studies that views the process of rewriting of other cultures as a form of translation. This paper considers how some British women travellers in the post-colonial period represent the Other in their texts as voices in dialogues that are purportedly genuine conversations. It discusses both the techniques used to include these conversations in the text, and the rhetorical and ideological effect these have on the reader. We will argue that, because of the special nature of travel writing in the “target culture”, where it plays the role of a privileged text offering an insider view of the “source culture”, the travel writer who attempts to document the speech of members of the source culture is operating as a kind of translator.