This present book discusses issues related to languages, cultures, and discourses by addressing a variety of topics ranging from culture and translation, cognitive and linguistic dimensions of discourse, and the role of language in political discourses and bilingualism. By focusing on multiple interconnected research subjects, the book allows us to see the intersections of language, culture, and discourse in their full diversity and to illuminate their less frequented nooks and crannies in a timely fashion.
This book explores the discourse in and of translation within and across cultures and languages. From the macro aspects of translation as an inter- cultural project to actual analysis of textual ingredients that contribute to translation and interpreting as discourse, the ten chapters represent different explorations of ‘global’ theories of discourse and translation. Offering interrogations of theories and practices within different sociocultural environments and traditions (Eastern and Western), Discourse in Translation considers a plethora of domains, including historiography, ethics, technical and legal discourse, subtitling, and the politics of media translation as representation. This is key reading for all those working on translation and discourse within translation studies and linguistics.
Discourse analytic approaches are central to translator training and translation analysis, but have been somewhat overlooked in recent translation studies. This volume sets out to rectify this marginalization. It considers the evolution of the use of discourse analysis in translation studies, presents current research from ten leading figures in the field and provides pointers for the future. Topics range from close textual analysis of cohesion, thematic structure and the interpersonal function to the effects of global English and the discourses of cyberspace. The inherent link between discourse and the construction of power is evident in many contributions that analyse institutional power and the linguistic resources which mark translator/interpreter positioning. An array of scenarios and languages are covered, including Arabic, Chinese, English, German, Korean and Spanish. Originally published as a special issue of Target 27:3 (2015).
A History of Modern Translation Knowledge is the first attempt to map the coming into being of modern thinking about translation. It breaks with the well-established tradition of viewing history through the reductive lens of schools, theories, turns or interdisciplinary exchanges. It also challenges the artificial distinction between past and present and it sustains that the latter’s historical roots go back far beyond the 1970s. Translation Studies is but part of a broader set of discourses on translation we propose to label “translation knowledge”. This book concentrates on seven processes that make up the history of modern translation knowledge: generating, mapping, internationalising, historicising, analysing, disseminating and applying knowledge. All processes are covered by 58 domain experts and allocated over 55 chapters, with cross-references. This book is indispensable reading for advanced Master- and PhD-students in Translation Studies who need background information on the history of their field, with relevance for Europe, the Americas and large parts of Asia. It will also interest students and scholars working in cultural and social history.
Ideology has become increasingly central to work in translation studies. To date, however, most studies have focused on literary and religious texts, thus limiting wider understanding of how ideological clashes and encounters pervade any context where power inequalities are present. This special edition of The Translator deliberately focuses on ideology in the translation of a rich variety of lesser-studied genres, namely academic writing, cultural journals, legal and scientific texts, political interviews, advertisements, language policy and European Parliament discourse, in all of which translation as a social practice can be seen to shape, maintain and at times also resist and challenge the asymmetrical nature of exchanges between parties engaged in or subjected to hegemonic practices. The volume opens with two ground-breaking papers that investigate the nature and representation of truth and knowledge in the translation of the sciences, followed by two contributions which approach the issue of shifts in the translation of ideology from the standpoint of critical linguistics and critical discourse analysis, using data from political speeches and interviews and from English and Korean versions of Newsweek. Other contributions discuss the role that translation scholars can play in raising public awareness of the manipulative devices used in advertising; the way in which potentially competing institutional and individual ideologies are negotiated in the context of interpreting in the European Union; the role translation plays in shaping the politics of a multilingual nation state, with reference to Belgium; and the extent to which the concepts of norms and polysystems may be productive in investigating the link between translation and ideology, with reference to Chinese data.
A Companion to Translation Studies is the first work of its kind. It provides an authoritative guide to key approaches in translation studies. All of the essays are specially commissioned for this collection, and written by leading international experts in the field. The book is divided into nine specialist areas: culture, philosophy, linguistics, history, literary, gender, theatre and opera, screen, and politics. Contributors include Susan Bassnett, Gunilla Anderman and Christina Schäffner. Each chapter gives an in-depth account of theoretical concepts, issues and debates which define a field within translation studies, mapping out past trends and suggesting how research might develop in the future. In their general introduction the editors illustrate how translation studies has developed as a broad interdisciplinary field. Accompanied by an extensive bibliography, this book provides an ideal entry point for students and scholars exploring the multifaceted and fast-developing discipline of translation studies.
This wide-ranging collection brings together essays on a recent approach to translation known as transcreation. Together with new modes of translation, such as fansubbing, fandubbing, and crowdsourcing, transcreation has challenged the traditional structure of the translation market, the agency and ethics of the discipline, and encouraged new research in translation studies. A debate has emerged around the two concepts of translation and transcreation, mostly in terms of differences between the two practices and issues such as creativity, abusive translation and appropriation. Mainly applied to commercial translation, transcreation is now gaining momentum among translation scholars in broader areas of application, going beyond the early focus of promotional and advertising products where it was initially practised. In the specific context of this volume, transcreation is discussed in relation to a variety of textual and visual genres that range from poetry, prose, theatre, film and television to tourism and highly specialised legal texts.
Discourse and the Translator both incorporates and moves beyond previous studies of translation. Its logical and informative approach to the problems of translation ensures that it will be essential for all those who work with languages 'in contact'. Incorporating research in sociolinguistics, discourse studies, pragmatics and semiotics, the authors analyse the process and product of translation in their social contexts. Through this analysis, the book emphasises the importance of the translator as a mediator between cultures.
This volume addresses the role played by translation in international political communication and news reporting and brings to light the usually invisible link between politics, media, and translation. The contributors explore the interrelationship between media in the widest sense and translation, with a focus on political texts, institutional contexts, and translation policies. These topics are explored from a Translation Studies perspective, thus bringing a new disciplinary view to the investigation of political discourse and the language of the media. The first part of the volume focuses on textual analysis, investigating transformations that occur in translation processes, and the second part examines institutional contexts and policies, and their effects on translation production and reception.
In Translation and the Problem of Sway Douglas Robinson offers the concept of "sway" to bring together discussion of two translational phenomena that have traditionally been considered in isolation, i.e. norms and errors: norms as ideological pressures to conform to the source text, and deviations from the source text as driven by ideological pressures to conform to some extratextual authority. The two theoretical constructs around which the discussion of translational sway is organized are Peirce's "interpretant" as rethought by Lawrence Venuti and "narrativity" as rethought by Mona Baker. Robinson offers a series of “friendly amendments” to both, looking closely at specific translation histories (Alex. Matson to and from Finnish, two English translations of Dostoevsky) as well as theoretical models from Aristotle to Peirce to expand the range and power of these concepts. In addition to translation and interpreting scholars this book will be of interest to scholars of communication and social interaction.
