Against a single African literary translation theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 335-345
Author(s):  
Mukoma Wa Ngũgĩ
Keyword(s):  
Literary Translation ◽  
Translation Theory

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).

scholarly journals Diglossia in Literary Translation: Accommodation into Translation Theory

2004 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 447-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Raji Zughoul ◽  
Mohammed El-Badarien1
Keyword(s):  
Language Variation ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Translation Theory

Abstract Sociolinguistic research on varieties of language and language variation along with the necessity for meeting “equivalence” in terms of the appropriateness of the variety to the context have been well recognized in the formulation of a translation theory (Catford 1965, Crystal 1981, Newmark 1981 & 1988, and Mason 1990 among many others). However, the treatment of variation has always been restricted to “dialect” and has not encompassed the notion of diglossia. The delineation of equivalence in diglossic languages still begs for more questions than answers especially in literary translation where there is a continuous shift from one variety to another depending on the portrayal of characters and their interaction.

scholarly journals “The Master and Margarita” as a “Strong” Text of Russian Culture: Translation Aspect

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (33A) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Veronica Razumovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Complementary Approach ◽  
Cultural Spaces ◽  
Information Ambiguity ◽  
The Master And Margarita ◽  
Master And Margarita

The paper deals with the original inexhaustibility and translation multiplicity as new literary translation categories. Particular attention is paid to the information ambiguity of “strong” literary texts, which directly results in the generation of numerous centres of translation attraction. A “strong” text of Russian culture The Master and Margarita and its secondary texts resulting from the performed interlingual and intersemiotic translations served as the material for the present study. The centre of translation attraction, which is formed from the Bulgakov’s text, is considered from the standpoint of translation theory and literary criticism, which corresponds to the universal scientific principle of complementarity and provides a complementary approach to the “strong” text as a research object. The formation and further functioning of the centres of translation attraction is of particular interest in the case of using a “strong” literary text of Russian culture as an attractor of literary translation due to the traditional literocentrism of the Russian culture. Numerous translations of the novel provides “expendability” of a culturally significant text in the temporal and cultural spaces and serve as a guarantee of its “preservation” and survival.

scholarly journals Yuri Tynyanov’s comparative studies in the light of translation theory

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-276
Author(s):  
Alexej I. Zherebin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Studies ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Translation Strategy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Analytical Strategies ◽  
Translated Literature

Against the background of the latest trends in the field of translation theory, the article attempts to distinguish between the terms “translation studies” and “translatology”. The material for analysis is a number of authoritative studies by Russian and foreign authors, in which literary translation and translated literature are considered as a fact of cultural transfer and the subject of comparative literary studies. Variants of the translatological approach are illustrated by an example from George Steiner’s monograph After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation (1975) and Yuri Lotman’s “‘Journey to the Island of Love’ by Vasily Trediakovsky and the function of translated literature in Russian culture of the first half of the 18th century” (1985). The central part of the article is devoted to the comparative studies of Yuri Tynyanov in the early 1920s. An example of a more traditional translation approach is given by Tynyanovs study “Tyutchev and Heine” (1922), a classic example of Russian comparative studies that confirms the thesis that the delimitation and differentiated use of the terms “translation studies” and “translatology” allow us to more accurately describe the semantic structure of both scientific texts and those works of art to which they are devoted. On the contrary, in Tynyanovs study “Blok and Heine” (1921), which is close in theme and when created, both analytical strategies are present on equal terms; translation studies and translatology complement each other, forming a synthesis. A typological comparison includes both observations of Block’s translation strategy, supported by an aesthetic analysis of the works of both poets, and the posing of the question of the social function of art and the role of the artist in shaping the modernist metanarrative of personality emancipation.

Borges sobre la traducción / Borges on translation

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-39
Author(s):  
Suzanne Jill Levine
Keyword(s):  
Don Quixote ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Text Interpretation ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
Descriptive Approach ◽  
1001 Nights ◽  
Main Ideas ◽  
Correct Translation ◽  
Sobre Todo

El presente artículo tiene por objeto exponer la personal teoría de Borges sobre la traducción, y en concreto la traducción literaria. A partir de la literatura secundaria, pero sobre todo de la propia obra de Borges al respecto ¾concretamente los ensayos Las dos maneras de traducir (1926), Las versiones homéricas (1932), Los traductores de las 1001 noches (1936), El enigma de Edward Fitzgerald (1951) y la «ficción» Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote (1939)¾, se presentan y contextualizan las principales ideas del autor argentino, entre las que destaca el valor de la traducción como paradigma de lectura, escritura e interpretación de un texto. Asimismo se abordan aspectos que, si bien un sector de la teoría da hoy por supuestos, en su momento fueron pioneros, como son: la equiparación de original y traducción, la importancia del enfoque descriptivo y de la obra por encima del autor, el valor de la creatividad, la imposibilidad de que exista una sola traducción válida, el potencial de los errores de traducción, el concepto de ganancia a través de la traducción (no de pérdida), la (auto)censura y la ideología, etc. The aim of this article is to present Borges’ personal translation theory, particularly regarding literary translation. The Argentine author’s main ideas are introduced and contextualised through secondary literature, but especially through Borges’ own works in this regard ¾specifically the essays The Two Ways to Translate (1926), The Homeric Versions (1932), The Translators of the 1001 Nights (1936), The Enigma of Edward Fitzgerald (1951) and the «ficción» Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote (1939). Among those ideas, the value of translation as a paradigm for reading, writing, and text interpretation stands out. The article also deals with aspects that were pioneering in their time, even though nowadays they are taken for granted by some scholars. Those aspects include placing both the original and the translation on an equal plane, the importance of the descriptive approach and of the work over the author, the value of creativity, the impossibility of there being only one correct translation, the potential of mistranslations, the notion of gain through translation (instead of loss), (self)censorship and ideology, etc.

scholarly journals Translating The Waste Land: Literal accuracy, poetic fidelity and cross-cultural communication

Literator ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-38
Author(s):  
A. Wessels
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
The Waste Land ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Waste Land ◽  
The Impact

The author of this article published an Afrikaans translation of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land in 1992. This article is a personal contemplation and evaluation of the process of literary translation as experienced in the particular case, referring to aspects of translation theory where relevant. It discusses the unremitting balancing act that literary translation requires, where the translator has to pose the need for as close a literal translation as possible against the need to render, again as faithfully as possible, the comprehensive poetic effect of the work, as regards, for example, stylistic features, emotive force and symbolic significance. Through all of this runs the thread of (a sometimes unconscious) transculturation of the work, partly the result of the desire on the part of the translator to communicate the impact of the poem as successfully as possible to a specific audience with a specific cultural identity and cultural presuppositions. Sometimes the inescapable interpretative nature of literary translation could be attributable to the cultural identity of the translator himself and sometimes it could be the result of the innate cultural dimensions or temper of the recipient language. The problems encountered, solutions arrived at and transcultural evolution effected are illustrated from the (original and translated) texts.

scholarly journals Supply-driven Translation: Compensating for Lack of Demand

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-68
Author(s):  
Ondřej Vimr
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
Book Industry ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Descriptive Translation Studies ◽  
Target Culture

This chapter challenges the dominant notion in descriptive translation studies that literary translation is effectively driven by demand from the target culture. Gideon Toury argues that a target culture translates to fill gaps exposed by a source culture which the target culture views as prestigious. While this notion may work historically for the purposes of comparative literature, literary historians and translation theory, and in the context of high-brow literature, this chapter considers it unsuited to other genres, less widely translated literatures or the contemporary book industry. Using mainly Scandinavian and Czech examples, and others found in this volume, the chapter elucidates the notion of supply-driven translation from smaller European literatures, aimed at fighting the norm of non-translation. The chapter concludes by providing a typology of supply-driven interventions, with some commentary on their apparent advantages and drawbacks that sheds light on the roles, motivations and contributions of different intermediaries in the translation process.

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>

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