Translating the Untranslatable: Dalit Literature, Cultural Residue, and the Politics of Language
When Language Refuses Assimilation “Translation is the performative nature of cultural communication,” argues Homi Bhabha, while simultaneously invoking Walter Benjamin’s notion of “untranslatability” to describe the residual cultural excess that refuses assimilation within migrant and marginal experiences. This theoretical framework becomes profoundly significant when placed within the socio-political and linguistic terrain of Dalit literature in An exploration of Dalit literature, translation studies, and caste politics through the theories of Homi Bhabha and Walter Benjamin. This essay examines the untranslatability of Dalit experience, Marathi Dalit poetry, linguistic resistance, and the politics of cultural translation in contemporary India.
Source: Translating the Untranslatable: Dalit Literature, Cultural Residue, and the Politics of Language
