Translation and Geography: The Globe and the Western Spatial Imagination

This chapter explores the relationship between translation and geography from a globalization perspective. First, it discusses the translational implications of a spherical understanding of Earth, tracing to what extent spatial, geometrical and cartographical notions of 'globe' interconnected and determined translation practices that fuelled and provoked geographic exploration, colonization and knowledge circulation. Second, it addresses Edward W. Said's concept of 'imaginative geographies' and how this concept prepared the field for what the author calls the 'geography of translation,' that is, the question of where translation happens. Touching on the importance of a spatially and geo-critically conscious discussion of translation, the chapter examines some leading concepts in cultural studies that imply a geographical dimension in translation. Third, it explores what the author calls the 'translation of geographies,' that is, the question of how and to what extent spatial and geographical imaginations have been translated across languages, media and epochs.