scholarly journals The strain of constraint

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-282
Author(s):  
Chris Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Literary Translation ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Literary Marketplace ◽  
Raymond Queneau ◽  
Material Form ◽  
Practical Constraints

This article seeks to define and illustrate the notion of ‘constraint’ as it applies to literary translation. After a brief discussion of various ways in which the concept of constraint intersects with literary translation, the focus turns to the notion of ‘elasticity’, which describes tensions exerted upon the translator by factors particular to a given translation project, whether these are stylistic, formal, lexical, or intentional literary constraints. This tension forces the translator to work ‘otherwise’ and dictates to a certain extent where the translator must situate him or herself along a continuum of ‘faithfulness’ that ranges from material form to semantic meaning. Four examples are taken from the author’s own work as a literary translator, drawing on translations of ‘constrained’ texts of progressive difficulty by Marcel Schwob, Raymond Queneau, Olivier Salon, and J.-A. Soubira. Finally, this illustration of varying textual elasticity and constraint is examined from a sociological angle, which seeks to explore practical constraints of literary translation in today’s American literary marketplace.

SEM at Low Beam Voltage

1984 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 440-443
Author(s):  
James Pawley
Keyword(s):  
Low Voltage ◽  
Probe Diameter ◽  
Small Probe ◽  
Beam Voltage ◽  
Practical Constraints

Operation of the SEM with V0 = l-3kV (LVSEM) was early recognized to reduce charging artefacts and increase topographic contrast. This early promise was not pursued because several theoretical and practical considerations made it difficult to produce a small probe diameter (d0) at low voltage. Recently, the necessity of using low V0 to image uncoated semiconductors without damaging them has prompted a re-evaluation of LVSEM. This re-evaluation has taken the form of efforts to eliminate the practical constraints and to alleviate the theoretical ones. In the process, some heretofore neglected theoretical advantages of LVSEM have emerged. These problems and possibilities will now be discussed in more detail.

Iconic Books from Below

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 185-200
Author(s):  
Dorina Miller Parmenter
Keyword(s):  
Evangelical Christianity ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
High Church

Investigating the Christian Bible as “America’s Iconic Book” (following Marty 1982) reveals that this icon is generated and maintained not only through lofty theology and high church rituals, but also through mundane and often invisible biblical practices. By examining how people engage with their personal Bibles, scholars can better understand how status and authority is generated not only through semantic meaning, but also through material and embodied actions. This article looks at one example of this in contemporary American Evangelical Christianity: the display of worn-out Bibles and the discourses that surround the phenomena of duct-taped Bibles.

Looking at Words

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 67-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Brent Plate
Keyword(s):  
Print Culture ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Words And Images ◽  
The Way

Regardless of their semantic meaning, words exist in and through their material, mediated forms. By extension, sacred texts themselves are material forms and engaged in two primary ways: through the ears and eyes. This article focuses on the visible forms of words that can stir emotional and even sacred responses in the eyes of their beholders. Thus words can be said to function iconically, affecting a mutually engaging form of "religious seeing." The way words appear to their readers will change the reader's interaction, devotion, and interpretation. Examples range from modern popular typography to European Christian print culture to Islamic calligraphy. Weaving through the argument are two key dialectics: the relation of words and images, and the relation of the seen and the unseen.

TRANSLATION AS MENTAL INTERPRETATION ACTIVITY IN LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (28) ◽  
pp. 43-53
Author(s):  
Svitlana Gruschko
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Cross Language

In the article the phenomenon of translation is regarded as mental interpretation activity not only in linguistics, but also in literary criticism. The literary work and its translation are most vivid guides to mental and cultural life of people, an example of intercultural communication. An adequate perception of non-native culture depends on communicators’ general fund of knowledge. The essential part of such fund of knowledge is native language, and translation, being a mediator, is a means of cross-language and cross-cultural communication. Mastering another language through literature, a person is mastering new world and its culture. The process of literary texts’ translation requires language creativity of the translator, who becomes so-called “co-author” of the work. Translation activity is a result of the interpreter’s creativity and a sort of language activity: language units are being selected according to language units of the original text. This kind of approach actualizes linguistic researching of real translation facts: balance between language and speech units of the translated work (i.e. translationinterpretation, author’s made-up words, or revised language peculiarities of the characters). The process of literary translation by itself should be considered within the dimension of a dialogue between cultures. Such a dialogue takes place in the frame of different national stereotypes of thinking and communicational behavior, which influences mutual understanding between the communicators with the help of literary work being a mediator. So, modern linguistics actualizes the research of language activities during the process of literary work’s creating. This problem has to be studied furthermore, it can be considered as one of the central ones to be under consideration while dealing with cultural dimension of the translation process, including the process of solving the problems of cross-cultural communication.

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