On Not Being an Author: De Quincey's ‘Confessions’ and the Performance of Romantic Translatorship

Romanticism ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-271
Author(s):  
Brecht de Groote
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Thomas De Quincey ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Successes And Failures

Through his ‘Confessions of an English Opium-Eater’, Thomas De Quincey effects a meticulously crafted entrance onto the literary scene: less a series of confidential notes than a stage-managed performance, the ‘Confessions’ serve as a stage on which he announces his literary ambitions. One such set of performative acts has received little attention: it pertains less to establishing a ground from which to authoritatively create, than it does to laying down a structure through which to mediate. Acting on recent developments within literary criticism and translation studies, this article examines the ways in which the ‘Confessions’ launch their writer on a career in interlingual and intercultural transfer, and how this performance of minority is designed to operate alongside other Romantic writers. The article ponders the successes and failures of mediation on display in emblematic scenes, and attends to how these chart the uneasy relationship between authorship and translatorship.

Milton in China ‘Yet Once More’

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing Yan
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Paradise Lost ◽  
Subsequent Discussion ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Collaborative Context ◽  
Chinese Literary Criticism ◽  
Near Future

This chapter overviews Chinese reception of Milton, with an emphasis on some of the most well-known Chinese translations of Paradise Lost. Close readings of these translations against Milton’s original demonstrate the difficulties of and resolutions for rendering Milton’s verse specific to Chinese. The subsequent discussion of the paratexts accompanying Chinese translations and of ‘introduction to world literature’ series gives a sense of the collaborative context that has shaped and continues to shape today’s general reception of Milton in China. That politically charged reception, eager to view Milton’s Satan as the embodiment of the poet’s revolutionary spirit, also dominates some recent works of Chinese literary criticism. The chapter ends by conceding that, while Milton scholarship in China has been relatively univocal and is still young, recent developments in world literature promise that innovative and intriguing work on Milton can be expected from China in the near future.

scholarly journals Soziales System statt Ökosystem: Für eine gesellschaftstheoretische Grundierung des Ecocriticism

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Hofer
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
German Literature ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Niklas Luhmann ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Soziales System ◽  
Ecological Communication

Keywords: ökologisch orientierte Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft, gesellschaftstheoretische Grundierung, ökologische Kommunikation, diskurstheoretischer Ansatz, Niklas Luhmann, prekäre Erkenntnismöglichkeiten. Why has ecocriticism yet to gain recognition in German literature departments? One reason is that fundamental questions about literature as a form of ecological communication and its function in society have yet to be satisfactorily answered. Even significant recent developments in ecocritical theory like Zapf’s “Cultural Ecology” are problematic, inasmuch as they are based on an over-simplified conception of ecology and the harmony of ecosystems. A more robust theoretical grounding for ecocriticism can be found in social theory. Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory provides the theoretical framework for an adequate understanding of ecological crisis and of the role of literature and literary criticism in addressing it. Palabras clave: literatura ecológica y ciencias culturales, fundamentos de la teoría social, comunicación ecológica, principios de la teoría discursiva, Niklas Luhmann, precario descubrimiento de posibilidades ¿Por qué la ecocrítica todavía tiene que obtener reconocimiento en los departamentos de literatura Germánica? Una razón es que las preguntas fundamentales sobre la literatura como forma de comunicación ecológica y su función en la sociedad aún no han obtenido una respuesta satisfactoria. Incluso los desarrollos recientes en teoría ecocrítica como la “Ecología Cultural” de Zapf son problemáticos  en tanto que se basan en un concepto de ecología y en una armonía de los ecosistemas excesivamente simplificado. Puede encontrarse una base teórica más consistente para la ecocrítica en la teoría social. La teoría de sistemas de Niklas Luhmann proporciona el marco teórico para una interpretación adecuada de la crisis ecológica y del papel de la literatura y de la crítica literaria en su tratamiento de ésta

scholarly journals From Translation Studies and audiovisual translation to media accessibility

Target ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aline Remael ◽  
Nina Reviers ◽  
Reinhild Vandekerckhove
Keyword(s):  
Speech Recognition ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Hybrid Form ◽  
Audio Description ◽  
Translation Practice ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The One

Abstract Recent developments in Translation Studies and translation practice have not only led to a profusion of approaches, but also to the development of new text forms and translation modes. Media Accessibility, particularly audio description (AD) and subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH), is an example of such a ‘new’ mode. SDH has been evolving quickly in recent decades and new developments such as interlingual SDH and live subtitling with speech recognition bring it closer to established forms of translation and interpreting. On the one hand, interlingual SDH reintroduces Jakobson’s (1959) ‘translation proper’ while the use of speech recognition has led to the creation of a hybrid form that has affinities with both subtitling and interpreting. Audio description, for its part, cannot even be fitted into Jakobson’s ‘intersemiotic translation’ model since it involves translation from images into words. Research into AD is especially interesting since it rallies methods from adjacent disciplines, much in the same way that Holmes ([1972] 1988) described TS when it was a fledgling discipline. In 2008, Braun set out a research agenda for AD and the wealth of topics and research approaches dealt with in her article illustrate the immense complexity of this field and the work still to be done. Although AD and SDH research have developed at different paces and are concerned with different topics, converging trends do appear. Particularly the role of technology and the concept of multimodality seem to be key issues. This article aims to give an overview of current research trends in both these areas. It illustrates the possibilities of technology-driven research – particularly popular in SDH and live-subtitling research – while at the same time underlining the value of individual, human-driven approaches, which are still the main ‘modus operandi’ in the younger discipline of AD where much basic research is still required.

scholarly journals Resente Matteusnavorsing in Suid-Afrika

1994 ◽  
Vol 50 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. J.B. Combrink
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
South African ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
Sermon On The Mount ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
African Context ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Specific Contribution

Recent Matthean-research in South Africa This article deals with recent developments in Matthean research, mostly by members of the New Testament Society of South Africa. Initially, research on Matthew was influenced to a large degree by discourse analysis. Literary criticism and narratology also made an impact on this research, as well as speech-act theory, pragmatics and rhetoric. Social-scientific criticism also played a role, and the Sermon on the Mount has also been read as littérature engagée. Recently, the specific contribution of Matthew to the subjects of Theology and Ethics has also received attention. A growing sensitivity to the South African and the broader African context is also currently being seen..

Shared culture?

Target ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaisa Koskinen
Keyword(s):  
European Commission ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Institutional Culture ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Previous Attempt ◽  
Personal Note ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Shared Culture ◽  
Cultural Turn ◽  
The Eu

Ever since the “cultural turn” in Translation Studies it has been commonplace to state that translation is an act of cultural mediation. However, the concept of culture as such has remained elusive. A number of questions remain unanswered: How can we define a culture? What kind of empirical evidence is needed to prove the existence of a particular culture? Looking for answers, I start with a personal note, with my own previous attempt at conceptualizing translators’ work in the European Commission by defining the EU institutions as a (multilingual and institutional) culture of its own. Responses to this model convey varying views of the concept of culture. By analyzing and contextualizing these responses it is my aim to provide some answers to the question of what kind of a construction culture is. The results of the analysis are then used to reflect on recent developments in Translation Studies.

scholarly journals On literary narratives, fictionality, and the rules of conversation

Linguistica ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-250
Author(s):  
Anna Buckett
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Laurence Sterne ◽  
Roland Barthes ◽  
Recent Developments

"Writing, when properly managed (as you may be sure I thirik mine is) is but a different name for conversation" - "thus Laurence Sterne in Trist Shandy ( 1767). Such statements provoke an examination of possible links between literary narratives and iinguistic models of oral communication. Recent developments in the field of pragmatics, in particular Speech Acts, Deixis and H. P.Grice's Logic and Conversation, provide concepts and structurai principles which could prove useful to literary criticism. This comment, for instance, by Roland Barthes might suggest the need to resort to the theory of deixis: Il ne peut y avoir de recit sans narratetir et sans auditeur.

scholarly journals Haciéndonos minoritarixs

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie J. Harkema
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Women's Writing ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Traditional Model ◽  
Literary Canon ◽  
Theoretical Level ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
Iberian Studies

While the field of Iberian Studies proposes a radical departure from the understanding of the literary canon dominant within Hispanism, it largely continues to overlook areas marginalised under the traditional model, such as women’s writing. On a more theoretical level, there is a need for further reflection on the role gender plays in critical approaches to Iberian literatures and cultures. This essay turns to the feminist theory of Rosi Braidotti and to recent developments in Feminist Translation studies in Galicia to argue for a re-thinking of the field not only from the geographical peripheries of the Iberian Peninsula but also from the peripheries of the traditional canon.

Interlingual re-instantiation – a new systemic functional perspective on translation

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (4-5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ladjane Maria Farias de Souza
Keyword(s):  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
New Model ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Primary Focus

AbstractFrom a systemic functional perspective, translation has been dealt with mostly by means of the hierarchy of realization and has been modeled against parameters of difference between language systems – equivalence and shift. Such a concern with equivalence between language systems reflects the primary focus of research on the supporting language theory itself. As recent developments in systemic functional linguistics have shifted focus from system to uses and users, proposing three complementary hierarchies – realization, instantiation, and individuation – a more comprehensive perspective on translation has been enabled, which includes the systems, uses, and users involved. In tune with recent developments in translation studies, it views translation as a negotiation of meanings (including the notion of “equivalence”) between users via a specific use – the translated text. This article introduces this new model, its foundations, proposed concepts, and suggested methodology, as well as a glimpse of the model at work.

scholarly journals Translation Practices and the Issue of Directionality in China

2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 896-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baorong Wang
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Chinese Translation ◽  
The West ◽  
Chinese Context ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Inverse Translation

Directionality is one of the most interesting recent developments in translation studies in the West. The scene, however, is rather different in China with a long history of inverse translation. This article aims to outline translation practices in China and Chinese thinking on directionality while providing a few pointers for further research. Part one surveys major translation projects that were carried out or are being carried out and how Chinese translation scholars thought/think about directionality. The survey covers nineteen centuries from the 2nd century A.D. through the present time, albeit most of the data are devoted to the periods from the turn of the 20th century. It is found that although inverse translation is an age-old practice in China, the issue of directionality began to be seriously considered and debated only in the early 1980s, and that there has been increased attention to the topic in recent years. Part two briefly reviews the current status of research and concludes that directionality is an under-researched area in Chinese translation studies. The article ends with some suggestions for further research on the subject in the Chinese context, drawing on the latest research conducted in the West.

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