An island of translation

The island of Cyprus has been shaped by a hopelessly complex multicultural history, division, and by a geographical position that has long ambiguated the geopolitical borders of ‘Europe’, ‘Asia’, and ‘the Middle East’. Any discussion of translation, literature, history, and culture in this zone of indeterminate encounter between heterogeneous cultures and populations is intriguing. The literature of Cyprus has been shaped across a spectrum of languages and trans-cultural relations which may range from confrontation, indifference or mutual exclusion, to creative engagement depending on the social and cultural processes and historical moments.