Presentation

The title of this issue of TTR “Censorship and Translation within and beyond the Western World” is intended to promote discussion on the meaning of “free speech,” “democracy,” and, last but not least, “the Western World,” or the Occident. Indeed, the latter term has multiple meanings depending on the (national) group of people that is using it. Moreover, its meaning varies in our rapidly changing world depending on the field or discipline in which it is used, yet its origin from the Latin occidēns, “the region in which the sun sets,” is clear. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) gives us some initial insights into the meanings of “Occident” and “Western,” from a markedly Anglo-Saxon Eurocentric perspective. The OED closely associates “European,” especially western European, with “Western,” and non-Western with Communism in Europe and in the Americas, or with totalitarian, i.e., non-democratic political systems. For its part, Le Grand Robert de la langue française adds North America to its definition of “ouest,” “[l]’Europe occidentale et l’Amérique du Nord” and all of Europe to its definition of “Occident,” “[e]nsemble des pays d’Europe et d’Amérique du Nord (opposé à Orient : pays arabes et Asie)” (Rey, 2001). It is clear that the meaning of these words is subject to interpretation. In fact, what is meant by “the Western world” is somewhat subjective in nature, depending on whether cultural, economic, religious or political criteria are brought to bear. Suffice it to recall the geo-political contexts examined in the issue of TTR, “Censorship and Translation in the Western World”: the New World, the Habsburg Empire, 18^th-century France, Soviet-dominated Poland, fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Franco’s Spain, World War II France. While the geographical contexts were primarily European with the obvious exception of the New World, the political contexts examined in more than half of the papers—“communism” and “fascism”—alongside the time periods studied—the 19^th-century Habsburg Empire and 18^th-century France—do not conform to the “Western” European grouping. Today, US and Canadian news reporters are likely to locate the West most explicitly in the cultures and peoples of Western Europe, the United States and Canada, while other countries such as Australia and New Zealand may also be included. These countries share similar cultural traditions and values, enjoy relatively strong market democracies, and pride themselves on their citizens’ right to freedom of expression and religion. When the emphasis is placed on economic factors, the concept of “Western” is invariably enlarged to include nations with strong market economies, such as Japan, whose form of democracy is influenced by the country’s old Samurai tradition (Okazaki, 2008). When we say West, its opposite, the East, comes to mind. Yet, this East versus West binary opposition is often reductionist, since many of the world’s nations are clearly marked by encounters between Western and Eastern traditions and values—and increasingly so. One country where the East meets the West is Israel, though the country tends to identify more strongly and be identified with “the West.” All of the essays grouped in this issue move beyond the East versus West binarism in one way or another and, in so doing, explore encounters between East and West in addition to missed encounters. Westerners living in the countries identified in the preceding paragraphs generally concur that, for them, freedom of speech is a given, while residents of non-Western countries may not be in a position to take free speech for granted. Consequently, the latter learn to comply with or manoeuvre within the constraints imposed on their discursive products. Intellectual curiosity about what free speech really means and—as a corollary—curiosity about attempts …