The View from Memetics

PARADIGMI ◽  
2009 ◽  
pp. 75-88
Author(s):  
Andrew Chesterman
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Cultural Transfer

- This essay proposes a memetic view of translation, as an alternative and perhaps more fruitful way of conceptualizing the issues involved. After a brief introduction to memetics as a theory of cultural transfer, we outline its relation to genetics and then consider its relevance for Translation Studies. Particular attention is given to a recent article by Maria Tymoczko which challenges some of the traditional assumptions of Translation Studies. Can memetics offer a way to meet these challenges? The essay closes with an assessment of some of the criticisms that have been directed against memetics.Keywords: Meme, Imitation, Cultural evolution, Transfer, Modification, Translation.Parole chiave: Meme, Imitazione, Evoluzione culturale, Trasmissione, Modificazione, Traduzione.

scholarly journals Taking the Historical-Social Dimension Seriously: A Reply to Bandini et al.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Noël Haidle ◽  
Oliver Schlaudt
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Fundamental Notion ◽  
Dynamic Interpretation

AbstractIn our recent article, "Where Does Cumulative Culture Begin? A Plea for a Sociologically Informed Perspective" (Haidle and Schlaudt in Biol Theory 15:161–174, 2020) we commented on a fundamental notion in current approaches to cultural evolution, the “zones of latent solutions” (henceforth ZLS), and proposed a modification of it, namely a social and dynamic interpretation of the latent solutions which were originally introduced within an individualistic framework and as static, genetically fixed entities. This modification seemed, and still seems, relevant to us and, in particular, more adequate for coping with the archaeological record. Bandini et al. (Biol Theory, 2021) rejected our proposition and deemed it unnecessary. In their critique, they focused on: (1) our reservations about an individualistic approach; (2) our objections to the presumption of fully naive individuals; and (3) our demand for an extended consideration of forms of social learning simpler than emulation and imitation. We will briefly reply to their critique in order to clarify some misunderstandings. However, the criticisms also show that we are at an impasse on certain crucial topics, such as the meaning of ZLS and the scope and nature of culture in general. Thus, we consider it necessary to make an additional effort to identify the conceptual roots which are at the very basis of the dissent with Bandini et al.

The Strata of Subcultural Translation

2018 ◽  
pp. 142-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ali Kharmandar
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Translation Studies

This study proposes a new understanding of cultural evolution through translations embedded in subcultures. The underlying argument is that translation does not evenly and equally affect all social strata in a given culture, but there are selective (inclusive and exclusive) mechanisms that diversify a culture into several usually competing sub-groups. Evolution through translation takes place in parallel and very different sub-streams as subcultures. To make this understanding possible, however, some taken-for-granted notions should be revisited in translation studies (TS) and some gaps should be filled before subcultural translation can be framed. This study proposes an analytic whole in which a momentum of change in history leads to a reacquisition of disposition in cultural subjects, ultimately shaping a form of capital realized as semiotic/lingual translation. To explain this process, Foucault's historical discontinuity, Ricoeur's narrative identity, and Bourdieu's capital are incorporated.

Gender, Translation, and Censorship

2018 ◽  
pp. 42-66
Author(s):  
Gora Zaragoza
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Second Republic ◽  
Franco Regime ◽  
Cultural Transfer ◽  
English Novel ◽  
Cultural Expansion ◽  
Cultural Turn ◽  
The Well Of Loneliness

After the “cultural turn” in the 1980s, translation was redefined as a cultural transfer rather than a linguistic transposition. Key translation concepts were revised, including equivalence, correction, and fidelity. Feminist approaches to translation emerged, for example, the recovery of texts lost in patriarchy. Following the death of Franco and the transition to democracy, Spain initiated a cultural expansion. The advent of the Franco regime after the civil war (1936-1939) resulted in years of cultural involution and the abolition of rights for women attained during the Spanish Second Republic (1931-1939). Severe censoring prevented the publication of literature—both native and foreign (through translation)—that contradicted the principles of the dictatorship. This chapter will examine the link between gender, translation, and censorship, materialised in Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness (1928), the first English novel to tackle lesbianism and transgenderism, an example of translation in cultural evolution.

Single or Return, Ladies? The Politics of Translating and Publishing Heine on Shakespeare

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 181-200
Author(s):  
Raphaël Ingelbien
Keyword(s):  
Book History ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Gender Politics ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Cultural Transfer ◽  
Transfer Theory ◽  
Textual Production ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Anna Jameson

This article contrasts two English translations of Heinrich Heine's Shakspeares Mädchen und Frauen (1838), produced by Charles Godfrey Leland (1891) and Ida Benecke (1895), which are now regularly (though randomly) quoted in Shakespeare scholarship. The comparison sheds light on different strategies involved in translating a text as an independent document or as part of a ‘Collected Works’ series. The discrepancies between publication contexts are correlated with differences between domesticating and foreignizing approaches, and with the diverging appreciations of Heine's place within Shakespeare criticism that such choices entail. The translators' gender politics are also shown to affect their renderings of Heine's text on female characters in Shakespeare, which was itself indebted to a book by Anna Jameson (1832). Finally, cultural transfer theory and histoire croisée are used to explore a ‘re-transfer’ that involved British Shakespeare critics, an atypical Jewish-German writer who drew on their work, and Heine's ‘English’ translators. The article highlights the necessary imbrication of translation studies and book history in the analysis of complex transcultural forms of textual production, of which Shakespeare criticism is paradigmatic.

Cultural Evolution and Cultural Translation

2018 ◽  
pp. 121-140
Author(s):  
Ge Song
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Cultural Translation ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Culturally Different ◽  
Chinese Overseas

In the early 20th century, Chinese communities in the then-Malay and Singapore began to take shape. The sudden shift of living conditions, especially the sociopolitical atmosphere, uprooted these migrated Chinese who had to adapt to new cultural realities of their host lands. This article argues for the cultural dimensions of Chinese overseas, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore, as an object of translation studies, since these Chinese overseas have already shown a uniquely evolved culture that is different from that in China. Linguistic displacement in the same language is a reflection of cultural discrepancy resulted from cultural evolution, and cultural divergence innately calls for the intervention of cultural translation. This paper is expected to garner fruitful insights into the cultural translation between two geographically and culturally different Chinese communities.

Gender, Translation, and Censorship

2019 ◽  
pp. 1868-1892
Author(s):  
Gora Zaragoza
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Second Republic ◽  
Franco Regime ◽  
Cultural Transfer ◽  
English Novel ◽  
Cultural Expansion ◽  
Cultural Turn ◽  
The Well Of Loneliness

After the “cultural turn” in the 1980s, translation was redefined as a cultural transfer rather than a linguistic transposition. Key translation concepts were revised, including equivalence, correction, and fidelity. Feminist approaches to translation emerged, for example, the recovery of texts lost in patriarchy. Following the death of Franco and the transition to democracy, Spain initiated a cultural expansion. The advent of the Franco regime after the civil war (1936-1939) resulted in years of cultural involution and the abolition of rights for women attained during the Spanish Second Republic (1931-1939). Severe censoring prevented the publication of literature—both native and foreign (through translation)—that contradicted the principles of the dictatorship. This chapter will examine the link between gender, translation, and censorship, materialised in Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness (1928), the first English novel to tackle lesbianism and transgenderism, an example of translation in cultural evolution.

Processes of what models?

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Muñoz Martín
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Process Research ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Nested Models ◽  
Brain Process ◽  
Level Of Abstraction

In a recent article, Chesterman (2013) elaborates on Toury’s (2012) distinction between ‘translation acts’ (cognitive process) and ‘translation events’ (sociological process), and adds a third, superordinate level of ‘translation practices’ (cultural, historical, anthropological). Such successively nested models seem intuitively correct when applied to categorizing different approaches within translation studies. However, when used within cognitive and psycholinguistic approaches, such categories are found to lead to flawed reasoning. When Chesterman’s proposal is considered from perspectives such as the level of abstraction and the dynamicity of the models, many examples provided as illustration turn out to be misleading. The bulk of such errors points to an implicit notion of cognition which is contested by a growing number of researchers within translation process research: a view of thought as an internal, neutral, and logical brain process, mainly focused on problem-solving.

scholarly journals Reaching a foreign audience

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 07-20
Author(s):  
Nathalie Ramière
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Cultural Transfer ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Audiovisual Translation ◽  
French Films

This paper examines some of the issues involved in the intercultural transfer of films. It focuses on the translation of culture-specific references and questions in particular the validity of the notions of foreignisation and domestication, brought to the fore of Translation Studies by Venuti (1995), as a conceptual framework traditionally used to discuss the strategies applied when translating cultural specifics. Drawing on the findings of a pilot study consisting of three French films dubbed and subtitled into English, this paper suggests a theoretical challenge by proposing a more pragmatic approach to the study of cultural transfer in audiovisual translation (AVT). More particularly, it will examine whether it is possible to observe any form of consistency in the strategies used for the translation of culturally-bound references and what this implies for the dialogic relationship between Self and Other, and the representation of alterity.KEYWORDS: Audiovisual translation, cultural transfer, culture-specific references, foreignisation, domestication

Social transmission bias and the cultural evolution of folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hirshleifer ◽  
Siew Hong Teoh
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Economic Attitudes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Beliefs ◽  
Over Time

AbstractEvolved dispositions influence, but do not determine, how people think about economic problems. The evolutionary cognitive approach offers important insights but underweights the social transmission of ideas as a level of explanation. The need for asocialexplanation for the evolution of economic attitudes is evidenced, for example, by immense variations in folk-economic beliefs over time and across individuals.

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