Translating Ideology - A Teaching Challenge

AbstractIgnored until recently and therefore relatively undocumented, the manifestation of ideology in the practice of translating/interpreting has become an increasingly important issue in translation studies. Several definitions of ideology are discussed with a view to identifying the ideologic dimension of language. Ideology is also contrasted with axiology - described as a subjective ideological system of individual values, accountable for individual linguistic/translation choices. The analysis of a translation study and of a corpus of translation of institutional discourse suggests that translator's choices are not indicative of either ideology or axiology. They prove that translators follow a code of practice which describes translation as a commissioned task and the translator as an expert responsible for deciding the way in which a commissioner's goal can be attained