scholarly journals Censorship as Cultural Blockage: Banned Literature in the Late Habsburg Monarchy

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Cultural Distance ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Habsburg Monarchy ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Translation Practice ◽  
Selection Mechanisms ◽  
Selection Of

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.

Tauchnitz for Translators. The Circulation of English-language Literature in Finland

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 161-179
Author(s):  
Outi Paloposki
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Book History ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Book Production ◽  
German Publisher ◽  
Language Literature ◽  
Selection Of

The article looks at book production and circulation from the point of view of translators, who, as purchasers and readers of foreign-language books, are an important mediating force in the selection of literature for translation. Taking the German publisher Tauchnitz's series ‘Collection of British Authors’ and its circulation in Finland in the nineteenth and early twentieth century as a case in point, the article argues that the increased availability of English-language books facilitated the acquiring and honing of translators' language skills and gradually diminished the need for indirect translating. Book history and translation studies meet here in an examination of the role of the Collection in Finnish translators' work.

scholarly journals Let the Game Begin: Ergodic as an Approach for Video Game Translation

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
SF. Lukfianka Sanjaya Purnama ◽  
SF. Luthfie Arguby Purnomo ◽  
Dyah Nugrahani
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
The City ◽  
Selection Of

This paper attempts to propose ergodic as an approach for video game translation. The word approach here refers to an approach for translation products and to an approach for the translation process. The steps to formulate ergodic as an approach are first, Aarseth’sergodic literature is reviewed to elicit a basis for comprehension toward its relationship with video games and video game translation Secondly, taking the translation of Electronic Arts’Need for Speed: Own the City, Midway’s Mortal Kombat: Unchained, and Konami’s Metal Gear Solid, ergodic based approach for video game translation is formulated. The formulation signifies that ergodic, as an approach for video game translation, revolves around the treatment of video games as a cybertext from which scriptons, textons, and traversal functions as the configurative mechanism influence the selection of translation strategies and the transferability of variables and traversal function, game aesthetics, and ludus and narrative of the games. The challenges countered when treating video games as a cybertext are the necessities for the translators to convey anamorphosis, mechanical and narrative hidden meaning of the analyzed frame, to consider the textonomy of the games, and at the same time to concern on GILT (Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, and Translation).KeywordsErgodic ; Translation Approach; Video Game Translation ; Textonomy; Anamorphosis

scholarly journals Cultural Identity Distance Computation through Artificial Intelligence as an Analysis Tool of the Amazon Indigenous People. A Case Study in the Waorani Community

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9513
Author(s):  
Aldrin Marcel Espín-León ◽  
Antonio Jimeno-Morenilla ◽  
María Luisa Pertegal-Felices ◽  
Jorge Azorín-López
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Cultural Distance ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Self Organizing Map ◽  
Minimum Path ◽  
Complex Concept

Cultural identity is a complex concept that includes subjective factors such as ideology, family knowledge, customs, language, and acquired skills, among others. Measuring culture involves a significant level of difficulty, since its study and scope differ from the point of view, the time and the place where the studies are carried out. In the Amazon, indigenous communities are in an accelerated process of acculturation that results in a loss of cultural identity that is not easy to quantify. This paper presents a method to measure the cultural distance between individuals or between groups of people using Artificial Intelligence techniques. The distance between individuals is calculated as the distance of the minimum path in the self-organizing map using Dijkstra’s algorithm. The experiments have been carried out to measure the cultural identity of indigenous people in the Waorani Amazon community and compares them with people living in cities who have a modern identity. The results showed that the communities are still distant in terms of identity from the westernised cities around them, although there are already factors where the distances are minimal concerning these cities. In any case, the method makes it possible to quantify the state of acculturation. This quantification can help the authorities to monitor these communities and take political decisions that will enable them to preserve their cultural identity.

scholarly journals Die vertaler as bemagtigingsagent: ’n gevallestudie

Literator ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-62
Author(s):  
T.R. Rodrigues
Keyword(s):  
Target Audience ◽  
Target Group ◽  
Practical Issue ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Discourse Patterns ◽  
Linguistic Conventions ◽  
Point Of Departure

The translator as agent of empowerment: A case study In this article the focus is on the role of the translator as an agent of empowerment for linguistically marginalised communities; it also raises the practical issue of his/her role as an intermediary equipped with knowledge of the source and target cultures and their (non-)overlap. The community translation approach, which emerged from a socio-linguistic perspective, forms the basis for this point of departure. The aim of this approach is to give these communities access to the same information and services as the linguistical “elite”. In order to realise this, the translator uses discourse patterns and linguistic conventions of the target group. For this approach, the needs of the target audience in the translation process are of paramount importance. To illustrate the translator’s role as an agent of empowerment as well as an effective intermediary, this article’s focus is on translation strategies used in a pragmatic text.

Thinking through drawing

2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Magnani
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Reasoning ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Road Signs ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cognitive Activities ◽  
Intelligence Modeling ◽  
Epistemological Point ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThe concept ofmanipulative abductionis devoted to capture the role of action in many interesting cognitive situations: action provides otherwise unavailable information that enables the agent to solve problems by starting and performing a suitable abductive process of generation or selection of hypotheses. We observe that many external things, usually inert from an epistemological point of view, can be transformed intoepistemic mediators. I will present some details derived from the history of the discovery of the non-Euclidean geometries that illustrate the relationships between strategies for anomaly resolution and visual thinking. Geometrical diagrams are external representations that play both amirrorrole (to externalize rough mental models) and anunveilingrole (as gateways to imaginary entities). I describe them as epistemic mediators able to perform various explanatory, non-explanatory, and instrumental abductive tasks (discovery of new properties or new propositions/hypotheses, provision of suitable sequences of models as able to convincingly verifying theorems, etc.). I am also convinced that they can be exploited and studied in everyday non-mathematical applications also to the aim of promoting new trends in artificial intelligence modeling of various aspects of hypothetical reasoning: finding routes, road signs, buildings maps, for example, in connection with various zooming effects of spatial reasoning. I also think that the cognitive activities of optical, mirror, and unveiling diagrams can be studied in other areas of manipulative and model-based reasoning, such as the ones involving creative, analogical, and spatial inferences, both in science and everyday situations so that this can extend the epistemological, computational, and the psychological theory.

scholarly journals Play for Two Voices: On Translating the Poetry of Anja Utler

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Kurt Beals
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Translation Practice ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Polysemous Words ◽  
Theoretical Conceptualization

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.

The Role of Corpora in Investigating the Linguistic Behaviour of Professional Translators

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Baker
Keyword(s):  
Translation Studies ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Text Type ◽  
Translation Practice ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Individual Source ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour ◽  
The Impact

The Translational English Corpus held at the Centre for Translation Studies at UMIST is a computerised collection of authentic, published translations into English from a variety of source languages and by a wide range of professional translators. This resource provides the basis for investigating a range of issues related to the distinctive nature of translated text, the style of individual translators, the impact of individual source languages on the patterning of English, the impact of text type on translation strategies, and other issues of interest to both the translation scholar and the linguist. Most importantly, this concrete resource allows us to develop a framework for investigating the validity of theoretical statements about the nature of translation with reference to actual translation practice.

The Smurfette Principle

2020 ◽  
pp. 29-49
Author(s):  
Liesbeth Lijnzaad
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Current System ◽  
National Group ◽  
Gender Balance ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Preparatory Stage ◽  
The One ◽  
Selection Mechanisms ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter discusses international judges’ paths towards the bench, arguing that more attention should be paid to the nomination process, rather than focusing only on elections. It dwells on the so-called Smurfette principle, an image borrowed from the contemporary analysis of popular visual culture about the role of ‘the one woman’ singled out in a group of men—and what this means for women on the bench. In looking at how to increase the number of women on the bench, the chapter reflects on who selects candidates and how, and what institutional mechanisms exist, or could be established, to improve the gender balance. This entails an analysis of the importance of domestic selection mechanisms, including the role of the national group of the Permanent Court of Arbitration as a forum for the selection of candidates. The central idea is that a gender balance cannot be fully achieved through elections so it needs to be pursued in the preparatory stage. Finally, the chapter addresses questions about potential improvements of selection processes as the possibilities of the current system may at times be under-explored.

scholarly journals Altered States: Translation and Minority Languages

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Cronin
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Linguistic Complexity ◽  
Language Bias ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Intellectual Inquiry ◽  
Translation Practice

Abstract Altered States: Translation and Minority Languages — The linguistic complexity of Europe is often ignored in political accounts of its translation practice. In particular, the historical experience and contemporary fate of European minority languages are overlooked in assessing the translation strategies available to speakers of minority languages. The problem partly results from a failure to think creatively about definitions of minority languages in a translation context. This context includes the dimension of new technologies which may lead to a new reclassification of languages in Europe and elsewhere. The role of translation in the case of one European minority language, Irish Gaelic, is considered in terms of the dilemmas faced by lesser used languages. Translation is both welcomed and feared. The options available to translators in minority languages differ crucially from those on offer to translators in majority languages. These differences need to be reflected in the theoretical discourse on translation in minority languages but this is not often the case. Furthermore, translation studies as a discipline rarely reflects on its own majority language bias, embedded in the structures of the disciplinary dissemination of knowledge. Minority languages are not only essential to a diversity that sustains the fragile ecosystem of human culture but they also raise questions that lie at the heart of translation studies as an area of intellectual inquiry.

The Translator as a Creative Being with special regard to the translation of literature and LSP

Babel ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irma Sorvali
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Interview Method ◽  
Il Y A

Abstract The translation process is studied from the translator's point of view. The translator is considered as an individual, i.e. as a creative being, and the process proper is thus seen as a typically human one. Translation strategies have been described in various ways within the framework of translation studies (TS). Transfer as such has very often been studied by linguistic analysis, but this is not sufficient to characterize the process itself. Other kinds of information are needed, which we can best obtain by interviewing translators. The interview method has not been widely used in TS, but it can provide very useful material on the creative nature of the translation process. Aesthetic and emotional values are of great importance in literary translation, but it is very difficult to measure them. Translators chiefly engaged with language written for special purposes (LSP) can be interviewed in a more objective way. Every translator has his principles of translating, and these can display very great variation, due to the creativity of the translator, but there are also phenomena that are common to all translating and all language transfer. There are thus individual and inter-individual differences, but also similarities. It is these differences and similarities that are described here. Résumé Le processus de la traduction est étudié du point de vue du traducteur considéré comme une entité individuelle, c'est-à-dire comme un être créatif, et par conséquent, le processus de traduction est considéré comme étant une activité typiquement humaine. Dans le cadre des études consacrées à la traduction (ET), les stratégies de la traduction ont été décrites de plusieurs manières différentes. En tant que stratégie, le transfert a souvent été étudié par le biais de l'analyse linguistique, mais en soi, cette approche est insuffisante pour caractériser le processus de traduction. Les ET n'ont pas souvent eu recours à la métode d'interview qui s'avère pourtant très utile pour faire apparaître l'aspect créatif du processus de traduction. Dans la traduction littéraire, les valeurs esthétiques et sentimentales sont très importantes mais il n'en demeure pas moins qu'elles sont aussi très difficiles à mesurer. Les traducteurs qui traduisent essentiellement des textes rédigés dans un but spécifique (TBS) peuvent être interviewés d'une manière plus objective. Chaque traducteur applique ses propres principes de traduction qui peuvent grandement varier selon la créativité du traducteur, mais il y a cependant des phénomènes communs à toutes les traductions et a tous les tranferts linguistiques. On peut donc affirmer qu'il y a des différences individuelles et inter-individuelles mais aussi des similitudes. Ce sont précisément ces differences et similitudes que l'auteur souhaite décrire dans le présent article.

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