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Abstract

This study examines how translation has been used to sustain colonial and neocolonial hegemony by producing reductive representations of the East. Drawing on Adichie’s notion of the “single story” and postcolonial translation theory, it argues that domestication may function as a hegemonic strategy when foreign texts are adjusted to the expectations, values, and stereotypes of the dominant target culture. Such practice constructs the West as the universal model of progress while positioning Eastern cultures as inferior, exotic, or dependent. The study uses a qualitative hermeneutic design to interpret selected concepts and examples related to colonial discourse, neocolonial representation, domestication, and hybridity. The analysis shows that translation is not a neutral linguistic transfer but a cultural and ideological practice shaped by unequal power relations. However, translation can also resist domination when it preserves difference, foregrounds marginalized voices, and opens a dialogic space between cultures. Bhabha’s concept of hybridity is central to this counter-discourse because it challenges binary oppositions between colonizer and colonized, West and East, self and other. The study concludes that hybrid translation practices can disrupt colonial narratives and promote more reciprocal, plural, and ethically responsible intercultural understanding, especially in contemporary translation studies and postcolonial literary criticism today and beyond.

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