This dissertation, "Translation and the Construction of National Identity" by Sze-wai, Shing, 盛思維, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. DOI: 10.5353/th_b3874762 Subjects: Translating and interpreting National characteristics Translating and interpreting - China - History
In recent years, scholarship on translation has moved well beyond the technicalities of converting one language into another and beyond conventional translation theory. With new technologies blurring distinctions between "the original" and its reproductions, and with globalization redefining national and cultural boundaries, "translation" is now emerging as a reformulated subject of lively, interdisciplinary debate. Nation, Language, and the Ethics of Translation enters the heart of this debate. It covers an exceptional range of topics, from simultaneous translation to legal theory, from the language of exile to the language of new nations, from the press to the cinema; and cultures and languages from contemporary Bengal to ancient Japan, from translations of Homer to the work of Don DeLillo. All twenty-two essays, by leading voices including Gayatri Spivak and the late Edward Said, are provocative and persuasive. The book's four sections--"Translation as Medium and across Media," "The Ethics of Translation," "Translation and Difference," and "Beyond the Nation"--together provide a comprehensive view of current thinking on nationality and translation, one that will be widely consulted for years to come. The contributors are Jonathan E. Abel, Emily Apter, Sandra Bermann, Vilashini Cooppan, Stanley Corngold, David Damrosch, Robert Eaglestone, Stathis Gourgouris, Pierre Legrand, Jacques Lezra, Françoise Lionnet, Sylvia Molloy, Yopie Prins, Edward Said, Azade Seyhan, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Henry Staten, Lawrence Venuti, Lynn Visson, Gauri Viswanathan, Samuel Weber, and Michael Wood.
How do we construct national identities in discourse? Which topics, which discursive strategies and which linguistic devices are employed to construct national sameness and uniqueness on the one hand, and differences to other national collectives on the other hand? The Discursive Construction of National Identity analyses discourses of national identity in Europe with particular attention to Austria.In the tradition of critical discourse analysis, the authors analyse current and on-going transformations in the self-and other definition of national identities using an innovative interdisciplinary approach which combines discourse-historical theory and methodology and political science perspectives. Thus, the rhetorical promotion of national identification and the discursive construction and reproduction of national difference on public, semi-public and semi-private levels within a nation state are analysed in much detail and illustrated with a huge amount of examples taken from many genres (speeches, focus-groups, interviews, media, and so forth). In addition to the critical discourse analysis of multiple genres accompanying various commemorative and celebratory events in 1995, this extended and revised edition is able to draw comparisons with similar events in 2005. The impact of socio-political changes in Austria and in the European Union is also made transparent in the attempts of constructing hegemonic national identities.
This book is a collection of theoretical and empirical studies steering the reader through the intricacies of literary translation from the perspective of national identity. It offers a multifaceted view of the condition of the contemporary national identities and its linguistic transfer from different perspectives.
The book charts more and less successful attempts to preserve the element of national identity in translated texts. The topics discussed include research on national identity in translation, the role of translators as shapers of national identity and its disseminators or views of translations as a history of national identity shaping.
The book focuses on the translation issues connected with cross-cultural communication, selected linguistic and cultural components of nationality, diverse elements of humour and different methods and features of their rendition, intricacies of audiovisual translation and challenges arising in the sphere of a translator's professional training.
By combing DTS with a three-dimensional model adapted from DHA, we aim to study the discursive construction of national identities in (political) diplomatic discourse between China and the West, from a translation perspective. Specifically, we examine the translation of national affiliations and forms of address between 1792 and 1867, when China was experiencing a national identity crisis. We describe and explain what and how the Chinese and Western national identities were constructed by translation, using mainly qualitative analysis, supported at times by quantitative analysis. We also investigate the extent to which translators have aligned themselves with the governments they served, and the norm they followed before and during the identity crisis. Traditionally, discourse-historical approach (DHA) has typically been applied to study the discursive construction of national identity in political discourse. However, DHA has not yet taken into account the phenomenon of translation, though translation is an important tool for constructing and promoting national identities. Meanwhile, translation studies (TS) on national identity have traditionally not adopted DHA, though DHA has been typically applied to study the construction of national identity in political discourse. Moreover, TS on national identity often focuses on linguistic and political tensions within a bilingual or multilingual nation or institution. However, national discourse in intercultural clashes between two distinct countries also remains to be explored. Our corpus is collected from historical discourse in diplomatic missions and discourse of diplomatic officials, which consists of 29 letters and proclamations with a total word count of 25,794. The results of this study show that the affiliations of translators shaped their translation strategies in constructing national identity. Translators who claimed allegiance to the Qing court tended to follow the norm of tributary discourse to construct a discourse where the Chinese national identity appeared superior and Sinocentric, while the Western national identity appeared inferior and subordinate. However, norms are not fixed but open to change. During the Chinese national identity crisis, the gradual change in translation regularities and the abolition of certain discursive practices via an official statement from the authorities reflected a weakening of the norm of tributary discourse. This evolution of the norm could reflect, at least in part, China's changing attitude toward the West and the transformation of Chinese national identity. Our study contributes to PDA, political discourse translation, and translation history. Firstly, it extends the traditionally monolingual application of DHA to the bilingual context of DTS, proving that the discipline of (D)TS and DHA benefit from interdisciplinary cooperation, thus pointing to a promising direction in PDA and political discourse translation. Secondly, our study enriches TS on identity and ideology by studying different forms of power struggles in political discourse, thus enlarging the variety of political discourse and advancing a more extensive PDA. Thirdly, our study provides refreshing insights into textual markers, namely, national affiliations, nominal and pronominal forms of address, for studying identity issues in translated political discourse. Last but not least, our study contributes to the studies in the translation history of 19th-century China.
As the colonial hegemony of empire fades around the world, the role of language in ethnic conflict has become increasingly topical, as have issues concerning the right of speakers to choose and use their preferred language(s). Such rights are often asserted and defended in response to their being violated. The importance of understanding these events and issues, and their relationship to individual, ethnic, and national identity, is central to research and debate in a range of fields outside of, as well as within, linguistics. This book provides a clearly written introduction for linguists and non-specialists alike, presenting basic facts about the role of language in the formation of identity and the preservation of culture. It articulates and explores categories of conflict and language rights abuses through detailed presentation of illustrative case studies, and distills from these key cross-linguistic and cross-cultural generalizations.
Michael Cronin looks at how translation has played a crucial role in shaping debates about identity, language and cultural survival in the past and in the present. He explores how everything from the impact of migration on the curricula for national literature courses, to the way in which nations wage war in the modern era is bound up with urgent questions of translation and identity. Examining translation practices and experiences across continents to show how translation is an integral part of how cultures are evolving, the volume presents new perspectives on how translation can be a powerful tool in enhancing difference and promoting intercultural dialogue. Drawing on a wide range of materials from official government reports to Shakespearean drama and Hollywood films, Cronin demonstrates how translation is central to any proper understanding of how cultural identity has emerged in human history, and suggests an innovative and positive vision of how translation can be used to deal with one of the most salient issues in an increasingly borderless world.
This is the first collection of articles devoted entirely to less translated languages, a term that brings together well-known, widely used languages such as Arabic or Chinese, and long-neglected minority languages with power as the key word at play. It starts with some views on English, the dominant language in Translation as elsewhere, considers the role of translation for minority languages both a source of inequality and a means to overcome it , takes a look at translation from less translated major languages and cultures, and ends up with a closer look at translation into Catalan, a paradigmatic case of less translated language, in a final section that includes a vindication of six prominent Catalan translators. Combining sound theoretical insight and accurate analysis of relevant case studies, the contributors to this collection make a convincing case for a more thorough examination of less translated languages within the field of Translation Studies.
