scholarly journals Postcolonialism and translation: the dialectic between theory and practice

Author(s):  
Paul F. Bandia

Postcolonial intercultural writing has been likened to translation both in terms of the writing practice and the nature of the postcolonial text, which often involves multiple linguistic and cultural systems. To highlight the significance of this view of translation as a metaphor for postcolonial writing and its impact on current translation theory, this paper attempts to lay the groundwork for defining the linguistic and cultural status of postcolonial discourse and to establish parallels between the translation process and some strategies for crafting the postcolonial text. The ontological relation between translation theory and practice is discussed in the light of post- colonial translation practices which have broadened the scope of research in translation studies to include issues of ideology, identity, power relations, and other ethnographic and sociologically based modes of investigation.

Semiotica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangxu Zhao

Abstract For some Western translators before the twentieth century, domestication was their strategy to translate the classical Chinese poetry into English. But the consequence of this strategy was the sacrifice of the ideogrammic nature of these poems. The translators in the twentieth century, especially the Imagist poets and translators in the 1930s, overcame the problems of their predecessors and their translation theory and practice was close to that of the contemporary semiotic translators. But both Imagist translators and contemporary semiotic translators have the problem of indifference to the feeling of the original in their translations. For the problem of translating the classical Chinese poetry by the Westerners before the twentieth century and the Imagist poets and translators of the twentieth century, see Zhao and Flotow 2018. This paper attempts to set up an aesthetic-semiotic approach to the translation of the iconicity of classical Chinese poetry on the basis of the examination of both Eastern and Western translation studies.


Author(s):  
Mirian Ruffini ◽  
Gabriel Both Borella

The publication of translations of postcolonial literary works is increasingly gaining space in the Brazilian publishing market. In this article, the articulation between Translation Studies and Postcolonial Studies is sought through the analysis of the post-colonial novel Half a Life, by V.S. Naipaul, and its translation to Brazilian Portuguese, entitled Meia Vida. Discussions of ideological aspects in the translation of postcolonial texts and the very choice of what is translated and by whom are questions raised by the text, as well as the challenges of translating postcolonial literary texts. Finally, it is discussed how the postcolonial discourse of the original work is transmitted through translation, ascertaining possible suppression or maintenance of the postcolonial tone of the original work in the translated work.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 107-113
Author(s):  
Orbodoeva Larisa M. ◽  
◽  
Sambueva Vera B. ◽  
Taraskina Yaroslava W. ◽  
◽  
...  

The article deals with the requirements for the Linguistics Bachelor’s thesis, the program of Translation and Translation Studies in the Buryat State University. At present the issue of correlation between the research topics of graduate papers and needs of the translation market is becoming relevant because it helps to improve the quality of future translators’ preparation. Bachelor’s thesis should solve real complex translation objectives. The purpose of this article is to justify the need for a practical orientation of the Bachelor’s thesis. The methodological basis of the study is a practiceoriented approach to learning. The material of the study is the Federal Educational Standard in Linguistics, Bachelor’s level; the Professional Translator Standard, Buryat State University students’ graduate papers of the past five years majoring in Translation and Translation Studies. Research methods are analysis of the translation theory and practice literature; study and analysis of legal documents regulating the process of obtaining Bachelor’s degrees in Linguistics, the method of summarizing pedagogical experience. The Professional Translator Standard’s introduction requires the revision of practice-oriented approach to training and to writing the Bachelor’s graduate papers, which changes the research tasks of the Bachelor’s thesis and the selection of the material of the thesis that would meet the market requirements. Keywords: linguistic education, translator’s competencies, graduate paper, bachelor’s thesis,practical-oriented approach, translation solutions


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 167-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjun Sun

Since Holmes’ founding statement for translation studies in 1972, four decades have passed. During that time some trends seem to have developed in the discipline, and it is time to stop and take stock. This paper touches upon issues essential to understanding translation studies today, such as (1) the nature of translation; (2) the research scope of translation studies; (3) interdisciplinary orientation and its implications; (4) research methods; and (5) the relationship between translation theory and practice. An examination of these issues indicates that the discipline of translation studies is increasingly subject to opposing or competing research approaches and is exhibiting a kind of disciplinary fragmentation. There are imbalances in the research methods used and in the topics that emerge in the research literature. There is a growing gap between translation theory and practice. This paper tries to examine the reasons for these trends and offer perspectives on ways to reach some common disciplinary and professional ground.


Author(s):  
Georgina Heydon ◽  
Sajjad Kianbakht

The present research intends to illustrate the contributions, the newly developed multidisciplinary field of research known as Cultural Linguistics can make to the Translation Studies and the translation of humour as a culturally constructed element. The study starts with explaining the aims and objectives of the research and the key concepts that constitute our model of analysis. Then, as the main objective of this study, we propose a new model for the translation of humour encompassing a typology of conceptual structures for the analysis of humour translation, a large step in Translation Studies, that contributes to the on-going research in translation theory and practice. Later on, we describe how the proposed model and its typology of conceptual structures can be applied to the analysis of examples extracted from novels in translation between English and Persian in comparative studies.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Kurt Beals

Written in the form of a dialog between translator and translation theorist, this article considers both the difficulty and the necessity of a reciprocal, mutually informed relationship between translation theory and practice. The starting point of the article is my experience translating the poetry of Anja Utler, a contemporary Austrian poet whose linguistic experimentation poses a significant translation challenge. Utler's poetry functions in part by means of what she calls “interweaving” (“Verflechtung”), making use of highly polysemous words to efface boundaries between landscape, body, and language. In addition to blurring semantic lines, Utler also employs certain syntactical and grammatical characteristics of the German language (such as separable prefixes) in unorthodox ways that multiply possibilities of meaning. One of the greatest difficulties for a translator, then, is to find ways of approximating this semantic and syntactic play and innovation in a language that rarely offers a one-to-one equivalent. In addition to addressing specific practical issues in translating Utler's poetry, I consider the role that translation theory played in shaping my translation strategies, and more generally the interaction between the theoretical conceptualization of translation and its actual execution. I also describe my communication with the author, who has contributed greatly to the translation process, supporting an idea of translation as collaboration. Translation theory and practice appear less as correctives to each other than as a cooperative undertaking, part of a conversation between translator, theorist, author, and reader from which, ideally, all sides benefit in the end. By portraying this exchange as an internal dialog, I hope to demonstrate that the realms of translation practice and theory are not alien to one another, but rather engaged in constant, productive exchange, both within the mind of the individual translator/theorist and on the level of translation as a social phenomenon.


Author(s):  
Ondřej Vimr

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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
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Francesca Benocci

<p>This thesis is a case study in literary translation. It consists of a creative component (60%) — an anthology of contemporary New Zealand women poetry translated into Italian — and a critical component (40%) — an interdisciplinary commentary outlining the historical, linguistic, cultural, literary and translational aspects underpinning my work as editor, literary translator and scholar. My interest in New Zealand literature began with my Master’s thesis, when reading Keri Hulme’s 1985 Booker Prize winning novel the bone people exposed me to the linguistic and cultural specificities of literary works produced in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This interest was further ignited by reading Marinella Rocca Longo’s pioneering study of New Zealand poetry, La poesia neozelandese dalle origini inglesi ai contemporanei, published in 1977. To this day, Hulme’s novel remains untranslated in Italian and Rocca Longo’s monograph is the only comprehensive study about New Zealand poetry for an Italian-speaking readership, one with which I have engaged constructively and critically in the course of my studies. This doctoral thesis thus combines translation and poetry. More specifically, it asks itself what it means to translate contemporary New Zealand women poets into Italian. This choice is motivated by three aims, which complement the wider ambition to make New Zealand writing better known to Italian readers: to better reflect the ethnic richness of New Zealand literature; to highlight the major role played by women in developing and expanding New Zealand poetry; to discuss translation theory from a post-colonial and feminist viewpoint. These factors are reflected in the structure and contents of this thesis. A historical overview of New Zealand literature in general and of New Zealand poetry in particular as an example of post-colonial literature is followed by a discussion on which theories and practices of translation are ethically as well as aesthetically the most appropriate for the translation of post-colonial poetry written by women. The comprehensive anthology I have compiled and the commentary that accompanies it bring this discussion to life, celebrating not only the creative and scholarly contribution of the translator as an intercultural negotiator, but also the ethical responsibility underscoring this task. The opportunity to undertake this research in Aotearoa/New Zealand has made this study particularly intense as well as personal, as I negotiated and renegotiated the space between theory and practice, pushing myself to expand and deepen the choices a translator is called to make as a reader, as an interpreter, as a critic, and as a writer. I hope that this goal has been achieved in the negotiation between the theoretical, scholarly and creative parts of this project that are embodied in the outcome of this thesis.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 352-359
Author(s):  
Irena Kristeva ◽  

This article sets out to outline the evolution of the Translation Studies in Bulgaria from 1970 till the beginning of the 21st century. It aims to provide a brief overview of some pioneering articles, the studies that marked the development of translation theory from 1970 to 1990 and some works from the post-totalitarian period. In 1976 the Publishing House Narodna kultura lays the foundation stone for Translation studies, creating the collection “The Art of Translation”. From the 1970s, the Theory and Practice of Translation are included in the courses offered by the Faculty of Western Languages of Sofia University. If the key word defining the translating activity in Bulgaria from the Second World War to the 1990s is confinement, the one that qualifies its state at the beginning of the 21st century is openness. Very controlled in the years 1970 – 1990, the translatological reflection frees itself from the ideological pressure at the turn of the 20st and 21st centuries.


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