Translation and the (de)construction of memory in a network of great historical documents

This paper approaches translation from a memory studies perspective, placing emphasis on the role of translation in diachronic networks of texts and in memorial construction. The case study presented focuses on a network of famous historical documents dealing with rights from Magna Carta (1215) through to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Each document embodied the memory of earlier documents, and this was enabled or facilitated by intralingual and interlingual translation of texts, among other processes. I examine in detail the mechanisms of the (de)construction of memory, discussing how memory is (de)constructed through the social, material, textual and linguistic context in which the reiteration of the document is located. The approach adopted presents translation studies scholars with a particular way of considering translation as a part of long-lasting textual networks. © 2013 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.