Inquiries on Cultural Markers in Translation

In descriptive translation studies, the identification of cultural markers brings with it certain theoretical and methodological difficulties: the very conceptualization of the cultural marker; its subcategories, both linguistic and extra-linguistic; the appropriate procedures to carry out its identification. The present essay seeks to map the extent of these difficulties and make a number of proposals, yet to be tested in descriptive practice.

Cultural markers in the Brazilian film O auto da Compadecida and its subtitles in English

This article proposes a typology of translation of cultural markers in subtitles and uses as research material the film O auto da Compadecida (Arraes, 2000) in Brazilian Portuguese and its translation, A dog's will (Magrath, Videolar, 2000). The difficulty that cultural markers generate during various translation processes is evident and is accentuated in audiovisual works, in which different elements converge (text, image, sound design, soundtrack, body language, among others). To contribute to its analysis in this context, we used the concept of cultural marks and markers (Reichmann and Zavaglia, 2014), translational modalities (Aubert, 2006b), and considered translation techniques (Nunes, n.d.) to arrive at the typology presented here, followed by examples and illustrations.

„Szekspir uważał, że należałoby ich wszystkich powiesić…” — czyli o tym, jak wielka sztuka służy morderstwu. Cykl powieściowy Alana Bradleya wobec twórczości Williama Szekspira

The series of crime novels by the Canadian writer Alan Bradley can be perceived as a series about England and Englishness. William Shakespeare and his works constitute an extremely significant part among the cultural markers of Englishness. Thus, it is not surprising that in the world of literature there is a great number of references to the texts of the great playwright; and these references serve various functions and appear on different textual levels. The aim of this article is a thorough and multifaceted presentation of these references, as well as a demonstration of the literary character of the series about Flavia de Luce in the light of these references.

CULTURE IS A PROCESS!

Cultures change and are not static, so culture can be regarded as a process, not a state. Change can be produced by either internal or external factors, or a combination of both, so assumptions about cultures being in equilibrium are probably unrealistic. This paper considers ways in which ethnicity is commonly defined in terms of cultural markers: these overlap with one another within a culture or else, over time, can diverge from one another to such an extent that a new culture can be born.

Boys at their Best Cultural Values and Self-Presentation on Social Networks

Especially on social media, people represent their identity with photographs that are meant to communicate something about the person. In this context, unspecialized dating platforms likek Tinder receive special attention, since a very large quantity of photos is conceivable and the goal of success with potential partners suggests the consideration of socio-cultural values. The article explores the question of which values are communicated through photographs on Tinder and whether Tinder promotes or rather prevents the representation of diversity among heterosexual men. It becomes apparent that the photographs categorised by means of content analysis revolve around three areas of tension: nature, body, and casualness, each of which appears to be associated with certain values, including dominance, authenticity, and coolness. Men present themselves very similarly, there are few (sub)cultural markers in the pictures, which suggests that they place more emphasis on corresponding to socio-cultural values than on expressing their identity

Boys at their Best Cultural Values and Self-Presentation on Social Networks

Especially on social media, people represent their identity with photographs that are meant to communicate something about the person. In this context, unspecialized dating platforms likek Tinder receive special attention, since a very large quantity of photos is conceivable and the goal of success with potential partners suggests the consideration of socio-cultural values. The article explores the question of which values are communicated through photographs on Tinder and whether Tinder promotes or rather prevents the representation of diversity among heterosexual men. It becomes apparent that the photographs categorised by means of content analysis revolve around three areas of tension: nature, body, and casualness, each of which appears to be associated with certain values, including dominance, authenticity, and coolness. Men present themselves very similarly, there are few (sub)cultural markers in the pictures, which suggests that they place more emphasis on corresponding to socio-cultural values than on expressing their identity

Shtrayml

This chapter highlights the Hasidic fur hats spodik, kolpik, and shtrayml, which are worn by married men and are reserved for the sabbath, festivals, and other significant days, such as the wedding of a son or daughter. It refers to groups of Hasidim that have adopted particular types of headwear that distinguish individual communities and are used as cultural markers of identity. Hasidic groups that trace their roots to Poland sport spodik, which is made from pieces of black or dyed-black animal fur, while Hasidic groups that originate in Ukraine, Galicia, Hungary, or Romania don the shtrayml, which is traditionally made from animal tails. The kolpik is worn by Hasidic masters on noteworthy non-festival days, such as the commemoration of the death of a saintly ancestor. The chapter traces how shtrayml fashions have changed over the last century as it made way for the meticulously groomed shtraymlekh.

Does Culture Influence the Website Design of Schools? A Cross-cultural Comparative Study in the Indian, Chinese and American Context

Decades of globalization had led website designers to focus more on functionality and standardization catering to the global village. Nevertheless, do cultural dimensions matter in website design. Extant literature in the domain of e-commerce has explored cultural parameters in website design in limited contexts. In the current era, globalization is not just restricted to trade and commerce but subsumes other important categories such as education. This article examines the influence of culture on the design and layout of websites of schools, which has not been explored otherwise. Most prominent developed and developing economies have international schools with international course curriculum and content. It is thus becoming increasingly important to understand whether the schools are following a generic design of websites without considering the individual cultural values or giving more emphasis to local cultural values in developing websites. This study has sampled websites of schools from India, China and the USA and conducted a comparative analysis to get a comprehensive understanding of whether culture influences the website design of schools. For theorizing and initializing cultural parameters, the study refers to the seminal work of Hofstede and uses cultural markers to score websites using an instrument developed for the study. Subsequently, the article uses the well-accepted technique of support vector machine (SVM) to segregate the websites of schools of India, China and the USA based on cultural dimensions. The presence of a large number of misclassified cases indicates that perhaps an emic approach is needed for a better understanding of the design of websites of schools rather than an etic approach wherein we compare the schools using cultural dimensions. The study contributes to the academic literature by developing an instrument and a methodology for analysing cultural markers in website design for schools and may be useful for school administrators and designers to integrate cultural dimensions in website design.