Prioritizing Interpretation in Translation: A Postmodern Challenge to Canonized Meanings

Abstract

This conceptual and theoretical article investigates the pivotal role of interpretation within the translation process. Drawing on postmodern translation theory and the insights of Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Edward Said, this study analyzes textual dynamics through examples from Tahar Ben Jelloun’s The Sand Child, The Sacred Night, and The Thousand and One Nights. It argues that when the source text serves as the primary locus of knowledge, the translator-reader becomes acutely aware of their active role in meaning formation. In the absence of the author, the translator-reader assumes full responsibility for textual signification, no longer engaging with the source text through pre-established cultural preconceptions; rather, they construct dynamic meanings based on their specific, evolving interaction with textual signs. Accordingly, this paper prioritizes interpretation over fidelity to authorial intent or fixed textual meaning, positioning interpretation as a political act of resistance against dominant discourses and the commodification of “otherness” in Western publishing and translation practices. By framing translation through this postmodern lens, this study counters reductionist perspectives that oversimplify cultural complexities. In doing so, this approach challenges the canonization of meanings by dominant discourses and resists the imposition of ready-made viewpoints on dominated cultures.