scholarly journals A Bibliometric Analysis of Translation Studies: A Case Study on Chinese Canon The Journey to the West

SAGE Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824401989426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng (Robin) Wang ◽  
Philippe Humblé ◽  
Wen Chen
Keyword(s):  
Bibliometric Analysis ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
The West ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Journey To The West ◽  
Chinese Classic

A Chinese classic novel The Journey to the West (Chinese: 西游记, pinyin: Xi You Ji) has been yielding large volumes of English renditions across genres and media in the past 120 years starting in 1895. This body of renderings gives considerable material for research on how particularly translations have been handled. To give an overview of this research, this article proposes a bibliometric analysis to sketch a map of the translation studies conducted so far on The Journey to the West. A series of queries are made: which translators are most researched; which translations are most often compared with each other; which research questions are most addressed or ignored; which theories are most applied to resolve these questions. As Rovira-Esteva et al. state, “we need maps to know where we are so as to be helped instead of unconsciously being steered by them” (p. 160). The multiple and complementary perspectives we provide in this article are constructive to identify problems and lacunas and point out future directions. The present analytical framework has been applied to English translations of a Chinese classic, but we believe it can be successfully extrapolated to other similar cases.

A Comparative Study of Two Major English Translations of The Journey to the West: Monkey and The Monkey and the Monk

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Ji
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
English Language ◽  
Original Novel ◽  
Original Text ◽  
The West ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Textual Features ◽  
Journey To The West

As two major English translations of a famous sixteenth-century Chinese novelThe Journey to the West, Monkeyby Arthur Waley andThe Monkey and the Monkby Anthony Yu differ in many respects due to the translators’ different concerns and translation strategies. Whereas Waley’s translation omits many episodes and significantly changes textual features of the original novel, Yu’s translation is more literal and faithful to the original. Through a comparison of the different approaches in these two translations, this paper aims to delineate important differences in textual features and images of protagonists and demonstrate how such differences, especially the changing representation of Tripitaka, might affect English-language readers’ understanding of religious references and themes in the story. It also seeks to help us reconsider the relationship between translations and the original text in the age of world literature through a case study of English translations ofThe Journey to the West.

scholarly journals Investigating how we read translations

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 482-512
Author(s):  
Callum Walker
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Equivalent Effect ◽  
Skin Response ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Research Questions

Abstract Since its inception, Translation Studies has hinged on theoretical concepts of effects and reception, with various reader-oriented notions such as equivalent effect, skopos, acceptability and adequacy, and user-centredness, to name but a few, having pervaded the discipline for decades. Despite this preoccupation with the phenomenology of translations, we still know very little about how translations are actually experienced – written translations especially. This article calls for an expansion of research into the reception and experience of source texts and their translations, reviewing the opportunities afforded by recent technological developments in eye-tracking, galvanic skin response sensors, echocardiogram monitors, and other multi-sensory devices. Using a short case study, a number of research questions and an outline of an experimental method are proposed to contrast the reading experience of two translations of the same source text, serving as a prompt for future research of this kind. By drawing inspiration from the few existing examples of research in this incipient paradigm and the considerations offered in the example, this article aims to stimulate future research to explore the vast untapped potential in this area and to arrive at a better understanding of the effects that different translation approaches yield and the potential variation in effects between source and target text.

scholarly journals Resettling Afghan and Iraqi interpreters employed by Western armies: The Contradictions of the Migration–Security Nexus

2021 ◽  
pp. 096701062110508
Author(s):  
Sara de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Brain Drain ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
The West ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Multiple Configurations

This article develops a novel analytical framework for capturing the multiple, competing configurations that the migration-security nexus invokes in discourse and practice, combining insights from critical migration and security scholarship. The framework’s application is illustrated with an empirical case study of the protection and relocation of Afghan and Iraqi former local interpreters and other locally employed civilians working for Western armies. The analysis demonstrates that locally employed civilians (LECs) are simultaneously considered security actors in the East and security risks in the West, the ‘best and brightest’ causing brain drain and potential terrorists when crossing borders, both ‘model migrants’ and threats to western values. By uncovering the nexus’s multiple configurations and its contradictions, the framework supports the project of denaturalizing the migration-security nexus, while also showing that the discourses and practices justified through its various configurations include the legitimation of border violence and the denial of protection to migrants.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of Shifts in English Translations of The Quran: A Case Study on “Yusuf” Chapter

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reza Rezvani ◽  
Peyman Nouraey
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Different Types ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Level Shifts ◽  
Descriptive Theories

Long since Translation Studies emerged as a nascent academic discipline, it has seen a considerable number of descriptive theories and models, among which, Catford’s (1965) translation ‘shift’ approach has garnered particular attention within the realm of translational comparative studies. Quranic texts have constantly been the center of attention, as the Quran has established itself as the most famous and sublime text in Arabic. As such, the present comparative study aimed at investigating the frequencies of different types of translation shifts occurring in translations form Arabic into English drawing on Catford’s (1956) shift typology. To this end, seven translations of the first thirty verses of the Chapter ‘Yusuf’ rendered by Sarwar, Arberry, Irring, Pickthall, Saffarzade, Shakir and Yusef Ali were selected to be studied. First, each element was compared for any probable shift(s). Then, the Chi-square procedure was applied in order to establish the existence of any statistically significant differences in shift frequencies. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between five types of shifts. The results also revealed that the most frequent translation shifts from Arabic into Persian were Unit shifts and Level shifts with a mean of 83 and 49 respectively.

On the translator’s voice from the paratextual perspective–exemplified by Goldblatt’s English translation of Red Sorghum and Massage

FORUM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiansi Wang
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
Chinese Literature ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
International Communication ◽  
Narrative Voice ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Descriptive Case Study ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract The paper explores the translator’s voice from the paratextual perspective combined with a descriptive case study of Goldblatt’s English translation of Red Sorghum: A Novel of China and Massage. In the multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary integrated analytical framework of narrative stylistics and socio-translation studies, the author argues that the translator’s voice could be studied at two levels, i.e. narrative voice in the target text as well as peritext and situational voice in the translation process. Paratexts could be employed to endorse the existence of narrative voice. Besides, paratexts serve to shed light on the implied multiplicity of situational voice and probe into the pivotal aspects of the translator therein. The article aims to strengthen the bonds between paratexts and the translator’s voice, enrich the theory on the translator’s voice and further feed vigor into the field of translation studies. Meanwhile, the study deduces implications for enhancing the international communication of Chinese literature.

Reframed narrativity in literary translation: an investigation of the explicitation of cohesive chains

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-171
Author(s):  
Xi Li ◽  
Long Li
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Hong Lou Meng ◽  
Different Types ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Chinese Classic ◽  
Logical Links

Abstract Explicitation is a key concept in translation studies referring to turning what is implicitly narrated in a source text into explicit narration in a target text; it has been widely studied from different aspects across language pairs and genres. However, while most previous studies investigate explicitation through a few indicators of explicitness, most of which are specific logical links and connectives, textual explicitness encompasses far beyond these. To date, little attention has been paid, especially in literary translation, to semantic explicitation, which is realized through cohesive chains in textual development. Since cohesive chains represent the development of events and characters throughout the text, it is assumed the more there are of them, the more tangible a text is in realizing its meaning within its context. This research, therefore, sets out to investigate the cohesive chains in a Chinese classic novel, Hong Lou Meng, and in its two English translations, The Dream of the Red Mansions and A Story of the Stone, with an emphasis on how the texts are manifested as narratives in the respective contexts with different readers. It has found a trend of explicitation in translation from Chinese source text to English target texts in terms of the numbers of cohesive chains and the lexical items forming the chains. It has also found differences in the distribution of different types of cohesive chains (identity chains and similarity chains), which represent distinctive patterns of realizing the context in each text. The interpretation of these different stylistic features in narrative reflects both typological differences and translators’ choices.

scholarly journals Investigating “Unfaithful” Translations via the Appraisal Theory: A Case Study of Public Notices

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies ◽  
Hong Qian
Keyword(s):  
Appraisal Theory ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Text Types ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Linguistic Conventions ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Chinese Public

It is noticed that some English translations of Chinese public notices are “unfailthful” especially in terms of the linguistic expressions.This article attempts to investigage those English translations and compare them with the source texts via the Appraisal theory. The research questions are as follows: 1) What is the source text producer’s appraisal? 2) What is the translator’s appraisal? And how is the translator’s appraisal reflected in the target texts? 3) What are the differences between the source text producer’s appraisal and the translator’s appraisal? 4) What are the possible reasons for the translator to choose his/her appraisal and produce “unfaithful” translations? In order to anwer these questions, five Chinese public notices and their English translations which were mainly collected in Hong Kong and Macao are investigated in the present study. The source and target texts are analyzed with the Appraisal theory and then compared to find out their respective appraisal. The findings show that for both Attitude and Engagement parts, the appraisal between source texts and target texts is rather different. Some possible motivations are then explored. It is believed that socio-cultural environment is one of the most important factors influencing translators’ decision making in translating public notices. Besides, text types and linguistic conventions also contribute to the “unfaithful” phenomenon.

Fictive Mode, ‘Journey to the West’, and Transformation of Space: ‘Ali Mubarak’s Discourses of Modernization

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-358
Author(s):  
WEN-CHIN OUYANG
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Theoretical Principle ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
The West ◽  
Arab Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Journey To The West

I begin my exploration of ‘Ali Mubarak (1823/4–1893) and the discourses on modernization ‘performed’ in his only attempt at fiction, ‘Alam al-Din (The Sign of Religion, 1882), with a quote from Guy Davenport because it elegantly sums up a key theoretical principle underpinning any discussion of cultural transformation and, more particularly, of modernization. Locating ‘Ali Mubarak and his only fictional work at the juncture of the transformation from the ‘traditional’ to the ‘modern’ in the recent history of Arab culture and of Arabic narrative, I find Davenport's pronouncement tantalizingly appropriate. He not only places the stakes of history and geography in one another, but simultaneously opens up the imagination to the combined forces of time and space that stand behind these two distinct yet related disciplines.

A Pleasing Odour for Yahweh

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Anne Katrine De Hemmer Gudme
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The West ◽  
Sense Of Smell ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Crucial Part

This article investigates the importance of smell in the sacrificial cults of the ancient Mediterranean, using the Yahweh temple on Mount Gerizim and the Hebrew Bible as a case-study. The material shows that smell was an important factor in delineating sacred space in the ancient world and that the sense of smell was a crucial part of the conceptualization of the meeting between the human and the divine.  In the Hebrew Bible, the temple cult is pervaded by smell. There is the sacred oil laced with spices and aromatics with which the sanctuary and the priests are anointed. There is the fragrant and luxurious incense, which is burnt every day in front of Yahweh and finally there are the sacrifices and offerings that are burnt on the altar as ‘gifts of fire’ and as ‘pleasing odors’ to Yahweh. The gifts that are given to Yahweh are explicitly described as pleasing to the deity’s sense of smell. On Mount Gerizim, which is close to present-day Nablus on the west bank, there once stood a temple dedicated to the god Yahweh, whom we also know from the Hebrew Bible. The temple was in use from the Persian to the Hellenistic period (ca. 450 – 110 BCE) and during this time thousands of animals (mostly goats, sheep, pigeons and cows) were slaughtered and burnt on the altar as gifts to Yahweh. The worshippers who came to the sanctuary – and we know some of them by name because they left inscriptions commemorating their visit to the temple – would have experienced an overwhelming combination of smells: the smell of spicy herbs baked by the sun that is carried by the wind, the smell of humans standing close together and the smell of animals, of dung and blood, and behind it all as a backdrop of scent the constant smell of the sacrificial smoke that rises to the sky.

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