scholarly journals The Disappearing Medium: Remarks on Language in Translation

2011 ◽  
pp. 165-179
Author(s):  
George Varsos
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Recent Criticism ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
German Romanticism ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Language And Culture

This essay discusses problems pertaining to the disappearance of the language of the original text in the case of literary translation. After a reminder of recent criticism directed against ethnocentric translation strategies, the question is raised of the theoretical promises of alternative strategies. The text examines the different ways in which the relations between language and culture are theorized, taking two lines of inquiry that have strongly infl uenced contemporary translation theory: that of German Romanticism and that of Walter Benjamin.

Zu Geschichte, Theorie und Praxis der Bühnenübersetzung. Am Beispiel von Corneilles Komodie "Le Menteur"

2018 ◽  
pp. 367-398
Author(s):  
Rainer Kohlmayer
Keyword(s):  
Literary Translation ◽  
Original Version ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
English Version ◽  
Suspension Of Disbelief ◽  
Verse Form ◽  
Theorie Und Praxis

After a brief summary of Herder’s enormous influence on literary translation in Germany (translation restores the specific orality of the original text) the essay points out five fundamental criteria that obtain when translating for the stage: Orality, Individual speech of dramatis personae, Relations between persons (as subtext), Necessity of immediate audience comprehensibility (as opposed to the readers’ situation), Theatricality / Fictionality with its typical „suspension of disbelief ” (Coleridge). These criteria are then applied to Pierre Corneille’s comedy Le menteur, written in Alexandrines, the characteristic verse form of French classicism. The original version of 1643 is compared to the verse translations by Goethe (1767), Bing (1875), Schiebelhuth (1954), Kohlmayer (2005), with a side glance at Ranjit Bolt’s English version of 1989. The ease with which young Goethe renders the classicist form of the original into colloquial German is contrasted by Schiebelhuth’s stilted ‚foreignizing’ of the text. The explanation offered is the (fatal) influence of Schleiermacher’s well-known translation theory of 1813, with its categorical preference of foreignizing, in contrast to domesticating (in Venuti’s terminology).

Literary Translation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Pym
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Huge Number ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Literary Practices ◽  
Foreignizing Translation ◽  
National Languages

Literary translation has progressively been dominated by a Western translation form that imposes basic binarisms, assuming separate (national) languages, a foundational opposition between domesticating and foreignizing translation strategies, and separate voices for author and translator, with the latter in a subordinate position. This binary, individualist, and nationalist conceptualization furnishes a way of talking about translations that often has little to do with the vitality and pragmatism of the literary translator’s craft, where there are mostly more than two options in play. When coupled to notions of literariness that privilege means of expression, the form also produces strong concepts of untranslatability, usually based on the banal observation that different languages offer different means of expression. A strong answer to the alleged impossibility of translation is the idea, found in Walter Benjamin and Andrey Fedorov, that literary translations do not replace their “source” or “start texts” but are instead an interpretative extension of them, and should be read as such. The Western translation form also overlooks the variety of translative activities that existed prior to its rise in the early modern period. With its emphasis on separation and accuracy, it traveled out with the railway lines and steam printing presses of modernity, supplanting most of the non-Western translation forms as literary practices. Western translation studies, as an academic discipline, has followed the same paths several generations later, imposing its binary metalanguage in the process. In this, it has become part and parcel of a world configuration of networks where a few central languages, with English as a super-central language, have enormous numbers of translations being done from them, while they themselves appear to have relatively few translations in them. This has been called the “three-percent problem,” so named because only 3 to 4 percent of texts in English are translations. The low percentage is nevertheless a function of the huge number of titles published in English, which means that English regularly has more translations than do French or Italian, for example. There are nevertheless hegemonic relations in the way that international literary events are created in central languages and then translated outward, such that a disproportionate degree of fame tends to accrue to those who write in the central languages. Can this configuration be changed? If the foundational binarisms of the Western translation form were based on the fixity of the printing press, which separated languages and objectified stable texts, then new translation forms should be sought in the global accessibility and fluidity of digital technologies, which offer translators unexplored possibilities.

Representations of the dead and the afterlife in translations of Mudan Ting, a masterpiece in Chinese Kunqu theatre

Babel ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy S.B. Ngai
Keyword(s):  
Target Language ◽  
English Text ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Related Material ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Semantic Translation ◽  
Cultural Taboos ◽  
Peony Pavilion ◽  
Target Readership

The aim of this paper is to identify and analyze the strategies used to translate into English death related cultural taboos viz. death, ghost and resurrection represented in the prominent classical Chinese drama Mudan Ting. Particular reference is made to the articulation of these taboos in three seminal English versions of Mudan Ting (as Peony Pavilion) by Cyril Birch, Wang Rongpei and Zhang Guanqian, respectively. Although these translators all follow the source text closely, certain differences in their translation strategies warrant attention. Cyril Birch takes an acculturation approach to the translation of death-related material, whereas Wang Rongpei adheres to the original text and tends to use semantic translation. In contrast, Zhang Guanqian usually translates literally, infusing the English text with a “foreign” flavor. These differences are examined in light of the general propensity among translators to take an avoidance approach to death-related material. The strategies used to translate taboo subjects are found to depend on the translator’s intentions, the target readership, the specific nature of the culturally loaded elements and the availability of equivalent expressions in the target language and culture.

scholarly journals Dethroning Dante: Skopostheorie in Action

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Timothy Smith
Keyword(s):  
Literary Translation ◽  
Seamus Heaney ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Translation Strategy ◽  
English Translations ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Rhyme Scheme ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
The Right

<p>Dante’s Commedia has been translated into English more than one hundred times. As a result, there are plenty of opposing opinions on how best to translate Dante’s masterwork. One can mimic Dante’s rhyme scheme (terza rima), utilize a more conventional English metre or rhyme scheme, or resort to a prose translation that abandons any attempt to reproduce Dante’s poetics. It is the purpose of this study to demonstrate that all of these are, in the right context, appropriate translation strategies; no platonic ideal translation strategy exists. To provide a more tolerant approach to translations of Dante’s poetry, I employ a translation theory called Skopostheorie (skopos theory). This theory argues that each translation has its own unique purpose (skopos); there are any number of (valid) strategies available to the translator. This theory is often seen as extreme, providing the translator with too much freedom to manipulate the text. Accordingly, this thesis first makes a case for the application of Skopostheorie in literary translation, attempting to defend it against its critics. Second, this essay exhibits how the theory may be applied in practice. To demonstrate its application, I look at three very different English translations of the first canto of Dante’s Inferno published during the 1990s. These translations are by Seamus Heaney (1993), Steve Ellis (1994), and Robert M. Durling (1996). In doing so, I hope to identify the various approaches of these translators, to demonstrate the breadth of options available to translators of Dante’s capolavoro, and to add to the discourse on the reception of Dante in the English-speaking world.</p>

Minority voices in literary fiction: a case study of translating multilingual practices

Multilingua ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arja Nurmi
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Ethnic Identities ◽  
Literary Fiction ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Field Of Inquiry

AbstractTranslating multilingual texts is still a new field of inquiry. Transplanting a text where the function of embraced multilingual practices is strongly related to local ethnic identities can provide challenges for translators and readers alike. This study discusses the translation strategies adopted by second-year translation students on an assignment to translate part of Patricia Grace’s short story “The Dream” into Finnish. The strategies for dealing with the Maori passages in the story varied, both in terms of how many of the Maori passages were preserved and how much intratextual translation was included in the text. The strategies were investigated both in the translations themselves and in the accompanying translation comments the students produced. The degree to which the translators showed an in-depth understanding of the nuances relevant to the representation of an ethnic minority of another culture varied. There was more sensitivity to a Finnish reader’s insufficient familiarity with the Maori language and culture than to the meaning of the representations of Maori language and culture in the original text.

scholarly journals The Essence of Arabic Rhetoric Contributions from Arabic-English Translation

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-41
Author(s):  
Ramadan Ahmed Almijrab
Keyword(s):  
Literary Work ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Original Culture ◽  
Cultural Implications ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
Arabic Rhetoric

In translation, the target text in general displays fewer linguistic variations than the source text, and its lexical and syntactic patterns incline to be copied, creating interference and standardization of the ST. Is a translation meant for audiences who are unable to comprehend the original text? Or is it saying the same thing again? These questions demonstrate the divergence of the audience in the domain of art. Yet any rendition, which tries to convey the function, cannot transmit anything but essential information. Does this mean that conveying the essential information represents the cause of inferior translation? Does the inferiority come as a result of the transfer of inaccurate content? This is the trademark of translationese. Is it true that traduttore, traditore? Does this really mean a translator is born not made? However, scholars engaged in a heated debate about what is generally regarded as the essential material of a literary work, what it contains in addition to information. Does it mean that we admit that literary work is profound and mysterious? Do we admit that literary work is poetic to the extent that it can only be reproduced by a translator only if he is also a poet? This will be true whenever a translation undertakes to serve its readerships. However, do we blame the translator if the original culture does not exist in the reader’s language and culture? In the present paper, we will attempt to lay a finger on the significance of achieving equivalence in literary translation within cultural implications that may block the translator. A primary of the place is assigned to البلاغة (Arabic rhetoric) as one of the cornerstones of Arabic.

scholarly journals Dethroning Dante: Skopostheorie in Action

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Timothy Smith
Keyword(s):  
Literary Translation ◽  
Seamus Heaney ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Translation Strategy ◽  
English Translations ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Rhyme Scheme ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
The Right

<p>Dante’s Commedia has been translated into English more than one hundred times. As a result, there are plenty of opposing opinions on how best to translate Dante’s masterwork. One can mimic Dante’s rhyme scheme (terza rima), utilize a more conventional English metre or rhyme scheme, or resort to a prose translation that abandons any attempt to reproduce Dante’s poetics. It is the purpose of this study to demonstrate that all of these are, in the right context, appropriate translation strategies; no platonic ideal translation strategy exists. To provide a more tolerant approach to translations of Dante’s poetry, I employ a translation theory called Skopostheorie (skopos theory). This theory argues that each translation has its own unique purpose (skopos); there are any number of (valid) strategies available to the translator. This theory is often seen as extreme, providing the translator with too much freedom to manipulate the text. Accordingly, this thesis first makes a case for the application of Skopostheorie in literary translation, attempting to defend it against its critics. Second, this essay exhibits how the theory may be applied in practice. To demonstrate its application, I look at three very different English translations of the first canto of Dante’s Inferno published during the 1990s. These translations are by Seamus Heaney (1993), Steve Ellis (1994), and Robert M. Durling (1996). In doing so, I hope to identify the various approaches of these translators, to demonstrate the breadth of options available to translators of Dante’s capolavoro, and to add to the discourse on the reception of Dante in the English-speaking world.</p>

scholarly journals СТИЛІСТИЧНО МАРКОВАНА ЛЕКСИКА В РОМАНІ ТОМАСА БРУССІҐА “АM KÜRZEREN ЕNDE DER SONNENALLEE” ТА ЇЇ ВІДТВОРЕННЯ В УКРАЇНСЬКОМУ ПЕРЕКЛАДІ

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-80
Author(s):  
Ольга Кучма ◽  
Євгенія Тимченко
Keyword(s):  
German Text ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Word Choice ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Diffi Cult ◽  
Word Translation ◽  
Lost In Translation ◽  
Individual Style

The article deals with problems of literary translation on the lexical level. Translation strategies and techniques used to reproduce stylistically marked words and expressions of Thomas Brussig’s novel “Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee” and the equivalency of their functions in the Ukrainian translation are explored. The word choice of the well known German author targeted at creating humorous or satirical tone in his novels constitutes his own individual style which is diffi cult to reproduce in other languages. That is why each new translation of his novel arouses a great interest of linguists and translatologists. The purpose of this article, therefore, was to classify the stylistically coloured vocabulary of the novel and to examine the lexical and stylistical choices of the translator S. Onufriv, especially the means chosen to render dialectisms, slang and jargon expressions, historical words from the GDR time, expressive personal nicknames, and denominations into Ukrainian. The main terms used in this article to describe the relation between the original text and its translation are “stylistic equivalency” and “stylistic density”, their application being explained based on the linguistic theories of translation (Fedorov, Retsker, Koller, Reiß). In the article, the comparative and descriptive methods as well as the quantitative estimations were used. Seven text fragments with 123 stylistically coloured expressions of lower register were chosen for our analysis. It revealed a higher stylistic density of the Ukrainian translation compared to the German text due to the use of stylistically lower vocabulary and Ukrainian dialect words used to substitute stylistically neutral words of the German author: 181 coloured words and expressions were found. The most important translation issues regarding the reproduction of dialect, slang words and of expressive names were defi ned. It was discovered that the eff ect caused by combining words of diff erent registers (formal and casual) had been lost in translation. Full stylistic equivalency of the youth slang translation as well as features of individual translator’s style were revealed. Several suggestions were made on how to avoid word-to-word translation in some places of the analyzed text fragments. To obtain the whole picture of formal translation equivalency, the tasks for further equivalency studies on other text levels were formulated. Key words: stylistically marked words and expressions, dialectisms, slang expressions, expressive personal nicknames and denominations, translation, stylistic equivalency, stylistic density

Advances in Semiotics of Translation: A Model of Text Analysis and Comparison for Literary Translation

2020 ◽  
Vol 06 (01) ◽  
pp. 297-300
Author(s):  
Alize Can Rençberler
Keyword(s):  
Text Analysis ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
The World ◽  
Text Types ◽  
Semantic Awareness

Unlike other text types, literary texts offer signs with semantic diversity and several reading modes to the reader through different genres. Translation of literary texts puts them through cultural circulation across the world. Translators, incurring the responsibility of the original texts, pondering on the ways to overcome the pitfalls, and bringing the translated text to readers’ service, undertake a challenge to succeed in the initiative for this circulation. In the book’s foreword, Sündüz Öztürk Kasar draws attention to this point and clarifies that the act of translation admittedly alters the direction of the text it deals with, evolving it into another world of language and culture. Translation also reveals the meaning of the original text that has not been realized in the target culture’s linguistic and socio-cultural context but conceivably expecting to be discovered between the lines. According to Öztürk Kasar, that is the reason why translators should be more sensitive to the signs than anybody else is and have linguistic and semantic awareness.

Arabic in Modern Hebrew Texts

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Creative Writing ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Population Displacement ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern Hebrew

In the late 1950s, Iraqi Jews were either forced or chose to leave Iraq for Israel. Finding it impossible to continue writing in Arabic in Israel, many Iraqi Jewish novelists faced the literary challenge of switching to Hebrew. Focusing on the literary works of the writers Shimon Ballas, Sami Michael and Eli Amir, this book examines their use of their native Iraqi Arabic in their Hebrew works. It examines the influence of Arabic language and culture and explores questions of language, place and belonging from the perspective of sociolinguistics and multilingualism. In addition, the book applies stylistics as a framework to investigate the range of linguistic phenomena that can be found in these exophonic texts, such as code-switching, borrowing, language and translation strategies. This new stylistic framework for analysing exophonic texts offers a future model for the study of other languages. The social and political implications of this dilemma, as it finds expression in creative writing, are also manifold. In an age of mass migration and population displacement, the conflicted loyalties explored in this book through the prism of Arabic and Hebrew are relevant in a range of linguistic contexts.

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