Search Results

The Why? And the How?

Gareth Wood

in Javier Marías's Debt to Translation: Sterne, Browne, Nabokov

This chapter sets out to answer two questions: why did Marías begin to work as a translator and how does he translate. To answer the first of these, the chapter examines in detail his lecture ‘Desde ... More

This chapter sets out to answer two questions: why did Marías begin to work as a translator and how does he translate. To answer the first of these, the chapter examines in detail his lecture ‘Desde una novela no necesariamente castiza’, where he sets out the reasons for his initial rejection of his cultural and literary heritage in the early part of his career. Comparisons are made with other members of his generation, notably Antonio Muñoz Molina, to provide a wider picture of the ‘Novísimos’ generation of Spanish writers who came of age in the 1970s. To answer the second question, the chapter looks in detail at Marías's two most substantial essays on Translation Theory, placing them alongside works by George Steiner, José Ortega y Gasset, and Octavio Paz. Above all, Marías's attitudes to naturalization of the foreign culture through translation and to the degree of creativity involved in translation are the focus of discussion.Less

Working with Translators

J. M. Coetzee

in Translation and the Classic: Identity as Change in the History of Culture

Exchanges between the novelist J. M. Coetzee and a number of his translators (including those into German, French, Dutch, and Serbian) illustrate some of the problems typical of literary translation. ... More

Exchanges between the novelist J. M. Coetzee and a number of his translators (including those into German, French, Dutch, and Serbian) illustrate some of the problems typical of literary translation. For instance, choosing among semantically equivalent terms that carry differing cultural connotations, or rendering sentences whose syntactic structure bears part of the semantic load.Less

Words for Translation

Matthew Reynolds

in The Poetry of Translation: From Chaucer & Petrarch to Homer & Logue

Literary translators have always used different words for what they are doing: a translation can be an ‘Englishing’, a ‘rendering’, a ‘traduction’, a ‘gloze’, a ‘crib’, a ‘version’ or a ‘conversion;’ ... More

Literary translators have always used different words for what they are doing: a translation can be an ‘Englishing’, a ‘rendering’, a ‘traduction’, a ‘gloze’, a ‘crib’, a ‘version’ or a ‘conversion;’ to translate can be, not only to ‘paraphrase’ and ‘interpret’, but to ‘turn’, to ‘render’, or ‘reduce.’ These words signal the different moves that can be made in the process of reading‐making‐sense‐translating, the various things that ‘translation’ can be. I explore Browning's translation of Agamemnon, Nabokov's Eugene Onegin and Louis and Celia Zukofsky's Catullus to show what different meanings can be given to the word ‘literal’. I go on to argue that this variety of process and result has not been sufficiently recognized by translation theorists, even the subtlest such as Maria Tymoczko. In fact (I argue) it is impossible to arrive at ‘a theory’ of translation.Less

Finding Catullus in Translation

Elizabeth Marie Young

in Translation as Muse: Poetic Translation in Catullus's Rome

The introduction shows Roman attitudes toward translation to be unlike our own and suggests that modern assumptions about translation have limited our understanding of Roman literature generally and ... More

The introduction shows Roman attitudes toward translation to be unlike our own and suggests that modern assumptions about translation have limited our understanding of Roman literature generally and Catullus’s poetry specifically. It outlines recent developments in Roman translation studies and discusses the distinctive features of Roman translation theory and practice (e.g. concern with control rather than fidelity, disinterest in literal translation). It also contextualizes poetic translation within issues central to Roman culture more broadly, in particular hellenization, bilingualism, colonialism, and Rome’s historical relationship with Greece. It situates Catullus’s own translation of small-scale poetic genres (lyric, epigram, etc.) within the broader context of late Republican translation theory and practice, including the work of Lucretius and Cicero. It ends with a chapter by chapter outline of the book’s argument.Less

Translating the Ethnic Avant-Garde

Steven S. Lee

in The Ethnic Avant-Garde: Minority Cultures and World Revolution

Chapter 1 discusses the futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky as a model for minority writing, then tests this model by examining Langston Hughes' translations of his "Afro-Cuban" poems.

Conclusion: Historicizing Translation

in Translation, Subjectivity, and Culture in France and England, 1600-1800

Since its inception, neoclassical translation is characterized by historical consciousness: an awareness of the historicity of language as well as translation practice. In France and England, the ... More

Since its inception, neoclassical translation is characterized by historical consciousness: an awareness of the historicity of language as well as translation practice. In France and England, the early neoclassical translators declared their endeavor to be new and more noble than past practices, along with the progress and triumph of the national language. As this “new and nobler way” of translating became the standard for all, translation remained bound up in questions of temporality, of the connection between past and present. By the eighteenth century, translation was viewed as having its own history. This chapter explores how the history of translation was presented during the eighteenth century, focusing on three accounts: the preliminary discourse and chapter on the history of translation theory from Claude-Pierre Goujet's Bibliothèque françoise (1740), Samuel Johnson's Idler essays on the history of translation (1759), and Alexander Tytler's Essay on the Principles of Translation (1791).Less

Does Size Matter? Questioning Methods for the Study of ‘Small’

Rhian Atkin

in Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations

This chapter examines the theoretical frameworks within which we discuss the literatures of ‘small’ nations, arguing that there is a need for alternative modes of analysis that move away from a ... More

This chapter examines the theoretical frameworks within which we discuss the literatures of ‘small’ nations, arguing that there is a need for alternative modes of analysis that move away from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model of the communications network and allow for a fuller revelation of the complexities of the processes by which translations do – or indeed do not – come to be published. The theoretical approach is based in sociological and cultural studies approaches to questions of gender, colonialism and power, querying how decolonial thinking may inform our understanding of the relationships between the de facto ‘centre’ of the English-speaking literary marketplace and enable us to hear the alternative voices and alternative ways of reading that are present in the so-called margins of Europe. The chapter presents as case studies a number of Portuguese texts, which are used to demonstrate the multiplicity of narratives present under the visible surface of the network: canonical male authors (José Saramago, Jorge de Sena, Luís de Sttau Monteiro) are placed alongside anti-canonical female authors such as the ‘Three Marias’ to reveal the gendered and colonialist dynamics of power and discrimination inherent in the publishing and translation industries, and in the theoretical frameworks available to scholars.Less

Translating gender between the local and the global1

Samia Mehrez

in Egypt's Culture Wars: Politics and Practice

Both gender and translation permeate, define, and shape people's identities. Just as they are gendered or gendering beings, they are also translated or translating ones: their gestures, poses, ... More

Both gender and translation permeate, define, and shape people's identities. Just as they are gendered or gendering beings, they are also translated or translating ones: their gestures, poses, movements, silences, and language of course. This chapter anchors at the nascent field of gender studies in Egypt and tries to read part of the text that unfolds and to translate it both in local and in global terms. As is the case with its counterparts in the “Third World”, the emerging field of Gender Studies in Egypt is one with a double task. On the one hand, it is informed by and conversant with gender discourses, theories, and activism elsewhere. On the other hand, it has the responsibility of elaborating, developing, and disseminating its local translation of gender issues in Arabic, and within the larger context of the Egyptian cultural field.Less

Shakespeare and Translation

Alexander C. Y. Huang

in The Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare and the Arts

This chapter covers the creativity involved in translating Shakespeare's plays into a variety of media. In terms of its symbolic and cultural capital, literary translations always reflect the global ... More

This chapter covers the creativity involved in translating Shakespeare's plays into a variety of media. In terms of its symbolic and cultural capital, literary translations always reflect the global order of the centre and the peripheral. It considers literary translations in their own right and in relation to one another and other texts. Shakespeare in translation has been used as the proving ground of translation theory, and it is the core of the Shakespeare industry. Translational moments create comic relief and heighten the awareness that communication is not a given. Translation also served as a metaphor for physical transformation or transportation. The three adaptations of King Lear that present the play in monolingual, bilingual and multilingual formats are dealt with in this chapter. Shakespeare transformed a great number of sources that enriched his works, and his plays have been translated into a wide range of languages and genres.Less

Introduction

Sheldon Brammall

in The English Aeneid: Translations of Virgil 1555-1646

The introduction considers the current state of scholarship on Renaissance translations and on the reception of the Aeneid. Incorporating translations of Virgil’s epic into literary history can ... More

The introduction considers the current state of scholarship on Renaissance translations and on the reception of the Aeneid. Incorporating translations of Virgil’s epic into literary history can contribute invaluably to our current understanding of its reception in the early modern period. The introduction further argues that Renaissance theory can be related to the practice of translation in the case of the English Aeneids. In this context, Lawrence Humphrey’s Interpretatio linguarum (1559), the magnum opus of sixteenth-century translation theory, is considered. The content and context of this work are outlined, and two prominent themes from Humphrey’s treatise are explored in relation to the Virgil translators: the roles of utility and emulation in the practice of translation.Less

The Translation of a System in Deconstruction: Jacques Derrida and the War of Language against Itself

Steven Miller

in War after Death: On Violence and Its Limits

This chapter considers Derrida’s thoughts on translation. It argues that the work of Derrida represents perhaps the only attempt to put into practice and to elaborate a theory of translation that ... More

This chapter considers Derrida’s thoughts on translation. It argues that the work of Derrida represents perhaps the only attempt to put into practice and to elaborate a theory of translation that reframes the very problem of the task of the translator. It further argues that for Derrida, war takes place in language, on language, and by language. The act of war takes the form of writing or the mark; it might be nonverbal but it is not external to the symbolic field.Less

Ezra Pound as Noh Student

Carrie J. Preston

in Learning to Kneel: Noh, Modernism, and Journeys in Teaching

The first chapter uses the famous play, Hagoromo (The Feather Mantle), to explore noh dramaturgy and performance technique. Pound received a version of Hagoromo along with other draft translations of ... More

The first chapter uses the famous play, Hagoromo (The Feather Mantle), to explore noh dramaturgy and performance technique. Pound received a version of Hagoromo along with other draft translations of noh plays by Ernest Fenollosa and Hirata Kiichi, and it had a surprising impact on his theories of imagism and The Pisan Cantos.Less

Unknown Languages and Unruly Selves: Thinking through Translation

Claire Davison

in Translation as Collaboration: Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield and S.S. Koteliansky

This chapter begins by looking at how the three writers defined and engaged with translation individually, linking translation with the code-switching games and ‘translational encounters’ inscribed ... More

This chapter begins by looking at how the three writers defined and engaged with translation individually, linking translation with the code-switching games and ‘translational encounters’ inscribed within Woolf and Mansfield’s fiction and non-fictional writings. It then looks briefly at their essays and reviews with a Russian focus, suggesting links between these writings and the translations. This contextual and theoretical framework is followed by a review of the different co-translations in terms of their stylistic and thematic relevance. Intuitive identifications and biographical resonances suggest how their practical, working partnerships evolved as they responded to the imaginative appeal of Russian authors. The performative, directly collaborative nature of their work proves essential. As the translators read through the texts they seemingly project themselves into the borrowed voices, expanding the sense of speaking as and through others.Less

Romanticism and Language

Michael N. Forster

in The Relevance of Romanticism: Essays on German Romantic Philosophy

A common misconception about the German romantics, that they were theoretical lightweights, confronts an especially powerful counterexample in the case of their views about language. Building on ... More

A common misconception about the German romantics, that they were theoretical lightweights, confronts an especially powerful counterexample in the case of their views about language. Building on their Herder’s revolutionary views about language—especially, his principles that thought is essentially dependent on and bounded by language, that meanings/concepts consist in word-usages, and that thoughts, concepts, and language vary profoundly between periods, cultures, and even individuals—the leading romantics Schleiermacher and Friedrich Schlegel made vitally important new contributions to the philosophy of language, linguistics, hermeneutics, and translation theory.Less

Introduction: The Translation History of Virgil: The Elevator Version

Susanna Braund and Zara Martirosova Torlone

in Virgil and his Translators

The introduction describes the broad landscape of translation of Virgil from both the theoretical and the practical perspectives. It then explains the genesis of the volume and indicates how the ... More

The introduction describes the broad landscape of translation of Virgil from both the theoretical and the practical perspectives. It then explains the genesis of the volume and indicates how the individual chapters, each one of which is summarized, fit into the complex tapestry of Virgilian translation activity through the centuries and across the world. The volume editors indicate points of connection between the chapters in order to render the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Braund and Torlone emphasize that a project such as this could look like a (rather large) collection of case studies; they therefore consider it important to extrapolate larger phenomena from the specifics presented hereLess

Islam and the Limits of Translation: Orhan Pamuk and the Ottoman Revival

Karim Mattar

in Specters of World Literature: Orientalism, Modernity, and the Novel in the Middle East

This chapter addresses the carefully (self-)cultivated image of Orhan Pamuk as a worldly, cosmopolitan, and secular-liberal writer. This image, I argue, has come to define the aesthetics and ... More

This chapter addresses the carefully (self-)cultivated image of Orhan Pamuk as a worldly, cosmopolitan, and secular-liberal writer. This image, I argue, has come to define the aesthetics and politics, the ethos, of his novels in their worldly reception, and has functioned to undermine the nature and extent of his engagement with the local (especially his native city, Istanbul, and its Ottoman, Islamic heritage). I trace this argument through a sustained focus on The Black Book as this novel has been translated and read in Britain and the United States. Drawing on translation theory, I show that both English versions of the novel are unable to capture the logic and significance of Pamuk’s culturally-specific use of language, and have influenced its Anglo-American (mis)reading as a postmodernist work. In my counter-reading, I argue that anything but a postmodernist deconstruction of myths of national and religious identity, The Black Book in fact comprises an evocation of Istanbul’s Ottoman, Islamic heritage in the face of a Turkish secular modernity by which this heritage was historically repressed. I detail this argument through close attention to Pamuk’s treatment of Sufism and Hurufism. The Black Book, I conclude, inscribes what I call “cultural neo-Ottomanism” as form.Less

Law and Economic Change in India, 1600–1900

Tirthankar Roy (ed.)

in Law and Long-Term Economic Change: A Eurasian Perspective

This chapter examines a legal regime operating in a political regime in sharp contrast to that of politically centralized China. The precolonial India legal system is essentially community bound with ... More

This chapter examines a legal regime operating in a political regime in sharp contrast to that of politically centralized China. The precolonial India legal system is essentially community bound with some signal characteristics. In the sphere of canon law, the state did not make laws but upheld them with the hierarchy of state courts reflecting the political order rather than the contents of law or the nature of offense. In civil matters outside the sphere of canon law, communities both made and administered laws, but with weak, informal, or highly differentiated procedures and rules. This chapter looks at two influential interpretations of this process. The transmission theory claims that India basically inherited a common law system. On the other hand, the translation theory required the codification of the indigenous laws.Less