scholarly journals American Comics and Italian Cultural Identity in 1968: Translation Challenges in a Syncretic Text

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 81-93
Author(s):  
Laura Chiara Spinelli

Translation supports the construction of a national identity through the selection of foreign texts to be transferred to the target language. Within this framework, the effort made in the 1960s by Italian editors and translators in giving new dignity to comics proves emblematic. This paper aims to reconstruct the reception of American comic strips in Italy going through the issues of Linus published in 1967 and 1968: the selected cartoonists (e.g. Al Capp, Jules Feiffer, and Walt Kelly) participate in the cultural debate of the time discussing politics, war, and civil rights. The analysis of the translation strategies adopted will reveal the difficulty of reproducing the polysemy of metaphors, idioms and puns, trying to maintain consistency between the visual and the verbal code, but primarily the need to create a purely Italian cultural discourse.

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-230
Author(s):  
Raluca-Daniela Duinea

"The City of Oslo in Jan Erik Vold’s Poems. The aim of this paper is to examine, from a cultural and social perspective, the Norwegian urban areas and everyday situations in Jan Erik Vold’s (b. 1939) poems. Our close-reading technique reveals important social aspects, different places and streets, located in the capital city of Norway, Oslo. These urban poems written by the contemporary Norwegian poet Jan Erik Vold contribute to the reconstruction of a new Norwegian cultural identity as it is reflected in a selection of poems taken from Mor Godhjertas glade versjon. Ja (Mother Goodhearted’s Happy Version. Yes, 1968), followed by the poet’s wanderings in the city of Oslo in En som het Abel Ek (One Named Abel Ek, 1988), and concluding with his bitter social criticism in Elg (Moose, 1989) and IKKE. Skillingstrykk fra nittitallet (Not: Broadsides from the Nineties, 1993). Vold’s urban poems emphasise the transition from nyenkle (new simple), friendly and descriptive poems which present closely the city of Oslo on foot, to short, political and social critical poems from the 90s. Thus, it is of great importance to traverse various urban ‘landscapes’ in different periods of time, beginning with the 1960s, followed by the 80s and the 90s. Keywords: Jan Erik Vold, urban poems, social criticism, Norwegian urban areas, the city of Oslo "


Author(s):  
K. Mitchell Snow

A Revolution in Movement is the first book to illuminate how collaborations between dancers and painters shaped Mexico’s postrevolutionary cultural identity. K. Mitchell Snow traces this relationship throughout nearly half a century of developments in Mexican dance—the emulation of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in the 1920s, the adoption of U.S.-style modern dance in the 1940s, and the creation of ballet-inspired folk dance in the 1960s. Snow describes the appearances in Mexico by Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova and Spanish concert dancer Tortóla Valencia, who helped motivate Mexico to express its own national identity through dance. He discusses the work of muralists and other visual artists in tandem with Mexico’s theatrical dance world, including Diego Rivera’s collaborations with ballet composer Carlos Chávez; Carlos Mérida’s leadership of the National School of Dance; José Clemente Orozco’s involvement in the creation of the Ballet de la Ciudad de México; and Miguel Covarrubias, who led the “golden age” of Mexican modern dance. Snow draws from a rich trove of historical newspaper accounts and other contemporary documents to show how these collaborations produced an image of modern Mexico that would prove popular both locally and internationally and continues to endure today.


2021 ◽  
Vol 105 ◽  
pp. 02001
Author(s):  
Serhiy Potapenko

The paper develops an idea of globalising and localising strategies of media text translation in the framework of the rhetorical canons of invention, concerning selection of arguments; disposition, dealing with their arrangement; elocution, aimed at the choice of linguistic units; performance, underlying the formation of different kinds of discourse. The globalising strategy of translation renders the international content into the target language with minor changes in disposition or elocution while the localising strategy adjusts the global content to the worldview of the local readership changing text organisation at particular rhetorical levels. The article discusses the application of the globalising and localising strategies to the translation of the BBC’s English online headlines into Ukrainian with respect to their three structural positions: attracting attention by foregrounded units, keeping it by predicative groups, nudging the reader towards the text body in the final position. It is found that Ukrainian translations of English headlines intensify the globalising strategy extending the nudging utterances which compel the reader to turn to the text while the localising strategy is implemented by the techniques of specification or perspectivation altering the disposition of the original headline by foregrounding references to the entities important for the local audience.


2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Wolf

Abstract For Stephen Greenblatt, cultures are “inherently unstable, mediatory modes of fashioning experience,” and it is only through the imaginary order of exclusion that a culture can be simulated as a stable entity. Greenblatt calls such an exclusion “blockage,” a phenomenon that occurs constantly, thereby preventing the collapse of cultural identity. What does this mean for translation practice, where such “blockages,” i.e., textual manipulation or re-writing, can be regarded as constitutive elements of the translation process? This paper examines the question in the particular context of translation practice in the late Habsburg Monarchy. The paper will analyse the different agents which underlie the selection mechanisms–or “exclusion procedures”–in translation and will explore the phenomenon of censorship from both a metaphorical and systemic point of view. The agents involved in the selection of texts to be translated as well as in the selection of translation strategies are manifold and are all interwoven. The selection of texts automatically represents a filter for the analysis of a certain period and is, therefore, a key agent in the reception process. Other important agents are patrons, who are often themselves translators and vital representatives of cultural mediation, as well as translators from various backgrounds, involved to varying degrees in contemporary cultural discourse. Finally, the role of editors, publishers and reviewers as main filters of representations of the cultural Other in a particular culture will be considered. Greenblatt’s model of “cultural blockage” will be examined against this background. Its applicability and limits will be discussed in the context of translation where the issue of the representation of the Other is of paramount importance and where “blockage” definitely illustrates the recognition of cultural distance.


1985 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 50-55
Author(s):  
Cora Polet

In the course of history there have been different schools of thought about how texts should be translated, and the effect translations have on the target language literature, either directly or indirectly. Garmt Stuiveling, formerly professor of Dutch Studies at the University of Amsterdam, and for many years chairman of the Dutch Writers' Union, produced the following dictum: in a translation sixty-five per cent of what the author has tried to express, reaches the reader. In translators' circles a variety of views can be heard. This one for instance: the profession of a translator is more demanding than that of a writer. A writer uses his own style, but a translator must master a number of styles, since he translates different authors. Or this one: the achievement of a translator is equal to that of a writer; the source language version and the target language version provide texts of equal literary value. A more modest view, and the one held by the writer of the present article, could be phrased as follows: literary translation is a craft, a creative craft to be sure, but still a craft. And playing with words and stylistic features is part of that craft. A literary translator is to be compared to a performing artist, rather than his creative counterpart. It is noted that there has never been any research into the norms of present day translators. This means that judging translations, whether for purposes of reviews, a jury's decision or the awarding of grants, is often a matter of inspired guesswork. If such research were ever carried out, it should also discover whether translators actually use in their own work the translation strategies they profess to be using. Finally a selection of translating errors culled from literary works is proof that translators are not always good readers, to judge by the non-sense they sometimes manage to produce.


1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-291
Author(s):  
P.S.M. PHIRI ◽  
D.M. MOORE

Central Africa remained botanically unknown to the outside world up to the end of the eighteenth century. This paper provides a historical account of plant explorations in the Luangwa Valley. The first plant specimens were collected in 1897 and the last serious botanical explorations were made in 1993. During this period there have been 58 plant collectors in the Luangwa Valley with peak activity recorded in the 1960s. In 1989 1,348 species of vascular plants were described in the Luangwa Valley. More botanical collecting is needed with a view to finding new plant taxa, and also to provide a satisfactory basis for applied disciplines such as ecology, phytogeography, conservation and environmental impact assessment.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Cocargeanu

Romanian children's literature, particularly translations for children, has rather low visibility in international children's literature scholarship, and translations of Beatrix Potter have not been extensively researched, either. This article contributes to filling these gaps by exploring the challenges involved in the recent publication of the first licensed Romanian edition of Beatrix Potter and the strategies employed to solve them. It identifies extra-textual challenges, related to the possibility of publishing Potter, the licensing process, the selection of particular tales and book formats for publication, and marketing strategies; and textual challenges, arising from Potter's writing style, the interdependence between visual and verbal aspects in her tales, their cultural specificity and read-aloud qualities. It also discusses the roles of the British and Romanian publishers in the publishing process and relates the translation strategies visible in the texts to the translator's apparently divided responsibility towards Potter and the Romanian audience, her conceptions of children and children's literature, and the Romanian literary tradition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-228
Author(s):  
Natasha V. Christie ◽  
Shannon B. O’brien

This work examines how Barack Obama’s speeches and remarks used various rhetorical techniques to strategically maneuver his rhetoric to address racial issues and represent African American concerns. The results of a content analysis of a selection of Obama’s speeches and remarks confirm that Obama and his speechwriters favored the use of statements of color-blind universalism. However, when making certain remarks regarding civil rights issues or perceived racial issues, the pattern shifted, presenting a rare glimpse of the unbalanced representation of African American concerns. These findings suggest that Barack Obama’s speeches and remarks performed double-consciousness; they used universal, balanced, and targeted universalism rhetorical techniques as a genuine, congruent political style for representing African American concerns as a “raced” politician.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-100
Author(s):  
Benjamin Houston

This article discusses an international exhibition that detailed the recent history of African Americans in Pittsburgh. Methodologically, the exhibition paired oral history excerpts with selected historic photographs to evoke a sense of Black life during the twentieth century. Thematically, showcasing the Black experience in Pittsburgh provided a chance to provoke among a wider public more nuanced understandings of the civil rights movement, an era particularly prone to problematic and superficial misreadings, but also to interject an African American perspective into the scholarship on deindustrializing cities, a literature which treats racism mostly in white-centric terms. This essay focuses on the choices made in reconciling these thematic and methodological dimensions when designing this exhibition.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khairani Hayat Situmorang ◽  
I. W. Dirgeyasa ◽  
Zainuddin Zainuddin

The research dealt with Metaphor Sentences. The aims of this study were: (1) to find out the translation strategies of metaphors are used in The Magic of Thinking Big and (2) to describe the translation strategies maintain metaphors in The Magic of Thinking Big. The research was conducted by using qualitative design. The data of this study were sentences. The data were collected through documentary technique and the instrument was the documentary sheet. The technique of data analysis was descriptive. The finding of this study revealed that: (1) The metaphor in The magic of Thinking Big were translated by applying six translation strategies, namely: word for word Translation (5.3%) lieral translation (4.3%), faithful translation (57.5%), Free translation (3.2%), communicative translation (30.5%) and discursive creation was found (2.2%). (2) The metaphors are maintained that found in the Magic of Thinking Big are original metaphors turned into another original metaphors, stock metaphors turned into another stock metaphors, adapted metaphors turned into adapted metaphors, dead metaphors turned into dead metaphors, original metaphor turned into stock metaphor, stock metaphor turned into original metaphor, meanwhile, 10 original metaphors and 1 dead metaphor are no longer classified as metaphors. Language has special characteristic that is metaphor sentences, therefore in the case of translating of metaphor sentences in which their concept in unknown for readers, the translator often faces the problems to find out the translation strategies to translate metaphor in a source language (SL) and how the metaphor sentences are maintained in the target language (TL).Keywords : Metaphor, Translation Strategies, Maintain Metaphor


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