The IATISContinuum Translation Studies Series

Translation as Intervention

Edited by Jeremy Munday

IATIS Yearbook 2006

Jeremy Munday (ed.) (2007) Translation as Intervention. London/New York: Continuum.

ISBN (hardback): 978–08264–9519–8

ISBN (paperback): 978–08264–9520–4

This book examines the role of translation as a politically and socially active phenomenon which moulds and potentially alters the outcome of many types of communicative event. The contributors examine the effect of translation and intervention in a range of situations and case studies including the European Union, marginalized literature in India, Arabic historical texts and interpretation in the South African courtroom. The result is a comprehensive examination of this key question in translation studies: to what extent and in which ways does the translator, and those involved in the translation process, intervene in the discourse he or she translates? Translation as Intervention is a fascinating collection of essays discussing this most central of topics in translation studies. It will be of interest to postgraduates and academics researching in this area. Scroll down for full Table of Contents.

This volume can be downloaded from the IATIS Intranet by currently registered members.

• Non members of IATIS may purchase copies of the volumes listed below. Click here to download the purchasing form.

< Frontmatter

< Contents

< Contributors

< Introduction

Jeremy MUNDAY (The University of Leeds, UK)

1. The translator as an intervenient being

Carol MAIER (Kent State University, USA)

Carol Maier’s wide-ranging contribution revolves around consideration of the translator as an ‘intervenient being’. The translator as an individual or translators as a collective are placed at the centre of investigation and Maier provides numerous examples of their emotional and physical struggles, sites of conflict or instability surrounding the translator(s) which have come to the forefront in translation studies in recent years, most notably the plight of translators and interpreters in Iraq and other areas of violent conflict. Maier points to the ‘increased interest in the translator’ to fill a perceived gap in resources (the relatively small number of accounts by and about translators) but at the same time the fact that ‘much of the material about translators’ experience of intervenience is qualitative and therefore highly subjective ... making it inappropriate, even suspect, for work in certain research frameworks’. Maier is a literary translator herself, of Latin American writing, and she is currently working on the biography of her late friend, the prolific Helen Lane. She comments on the ‘intense, even visceral effect’ of translation on the translators and interpreters, positing the worrying possibility that the intervention in situations of deep ‘abrasion’, such as those witnessed by interpreters in interrogations in the Iraq war, ‘can cause such disease that one’s organism becomes literally (as opposed to metaphorically) diseased’. The translator, or interpreter, even those working in what are openly far more tranquil circumstances, intervenes, participates, affects and is affected physically and mentally by what he or she is doing. Following Maria Tymoczko, Maier suggests that the field of neuroscience will be a fruitful one for future translation research, to understand the function of the brain and the interaction with creativity and spirituality.

2. The translator’s intervention through voice selection

Brian MOSSOP (York University, Canada)

Brian Mossop’s contribution tallies with Maier’s in focusing firmly on the translator’s perspective, most specifically on the ‘voice’ that is selected by the translator to represent the discourse. ‘Voice’ is to be considered here as the lexical–syntactic choices that seek to make the target text conform to a particular discourse. The translator’s voice is therefore a projection of the self, most particularly in the ‘neutralizing’ voice, which, as Mossop says, may be the ‘least deliberate’ (and thus, one might argue, the closest to idiolect). A novel aspect of the chapter is that voice projection enables both a productive alternative to source/target-oriented translation and a reassessment of the role played by the different players in the performance of communication. Voice is independent of such considerations and is a function of the general orientation adopted by the translator to his/her intervention in the communication. It is also ‘hierarchical’. Mossop asserts that ‘[t]he leading actor, so to speak, is the translator-rapporteur. The supporting actor is the reader, whom the translator is addressing. In the wings, off stage, is the writer of the source text’. The existence of a ‘fourth voice’, from the commissioner, can at times be decisive, as those who translate would doubtless agree, but Mossop feels that this control is generally ‘limited’ and that the translator ‘has considerable leeway’. Mossop sees translation theory ‘as an account of the acts of translators, as well as their products and the effects of these products’ (emphasis added); the focus on translation as language-production as intervention from the individual translator, projecting a voice in a hierarchical communication process, is for Mossop more ‘manageable’ than the attempting to juggle simultaneously the multiple viewpoint of translators with other actors in the process.

3. The translation of Dalit literature into English

Rita KOTHARI (MICA, Gujarat)

Rita Kothari discusses the case of the Dalits, traditionally marginalized in the hierarchical caste system of India but who have made use of English to translate their literature and achieve ‘a sense of liberation’ as well as both a pan-Indian and an international readership. This is an interesting consequence of the function of English as an international language: more specifically, it is the internationalism of English as a language of translation and not as a language of colonialism that has served in away to disseminate Dalit literature that would have been impossible had the target language been another Indian language. However, as Kothari points out, there are still limitations on this ‘politics of representation’, since those Dalits who are educated in English ‘are ... already a part of a middle-class bourgeoisie that has broken free of traditional caste constraints’; those from lower castes do not have this opportunity and remain voiceless. Nevertheless, Kothari’s chapter allows an important revision of the role of English in postcolonial sites and will doubtless be taken up by those working in other linguistic traditions.

4. Towards 'representational justice' in translation practice

Liu YAMENG (Fujian Normal University, China)

Liu Yameng’s chapter also considers the question of representation, but from a less positive perspective. He examines critically the way in which translation and translation studies itself have been intervening negatively in non-Western contexts: ‘[T]ranslation has not been intervening in a way we like or even find acceptable. The gap between the global haves and have-nots has been widening ... [T]here is no denying translation’s crucial role in bringing about and sustaining this sorry state of affairs’. Liu claims that translation practice and study has maintained a ‘Northward’ orientation, creating a ‘drastic imbalance in translator-mediated cultural exchanges’. The particular case he examines is that of China, where the study of translation has boomed in recent years. Yet China has opted for the wholesale importation and application of Western theories rather than for selective adoption and remodelling or for the advancement of their own models. Liu calls for ‘representational justice’ for the South and a special effort to counter the homogenization of the North. As an example, he challenges the view within translation studies that foreignization is an appropriate strategy for the translation of minority literature, arguing that this maintains the alienation of the marginal group. Liu’s chapter calls for greater efforts to make the South a ‘fundamental point of reference for translation in our time’. Interestingly, the past few years in Europe have seen a surge in interest in non-Western translation theories and studies, although it is as yet unclear how far these will intervene in mainstream practice and theory. It will be just as crucial to see how far Western theories are displaced in countries such as China and India.

5. The interventionist role of (re)contextualization in translation

Jef VERSCHUEREN (University of Antwerp, Belgium)

Jef Verscheuren brings a pragmatician’s perspective to the field of translation. He starts from the perspective that ‘everyone is somehow involved in translation when using language in an ordinary sense’ and that the interpretation and negotiation of meaning is a form of intervention inherent in the communication process. Verscheuren also focuses on the variability of language use, which means that each language user, including translator, has his or her own idiolect. This again means that each choice, conscious or unconscious, reflected upon or not, represents an intervention. Verscheuren’s interest is in the recontextualization of texts that affects their meaning, function and reception: a translated text not only involves linguistic displacement but also contextual/cultural dislocation which can dramatically affect meaning. He concludes by emphasizing the importance of a dynamic view of context for translation.

*Juliane House's response to Jef Verschueren

6. Intervention at text and discourse levels in the translation of 'orate' languages

Basil HATIM (American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates)

Basil Hatim’s chapter examines intervention at the level of text and discourse and emphasizes the need for the translator to be aware of diverging functions of language in different linguistic cultures. His discussion of Arabic and English sheds light on the conventions of ‘hortatory’ language that, while appropriate for the Arabic context, are inadequate and misleading (if not risible) in ‘analytical’ writing in English. Hatim explains these differences, claiming that Arabic is a ‘residually orate’ language which does not differentiate registers, texts, discourses and genres in the same way. It is the translator’s role to intervene in the process, adapting the English target text according to the function of the hortatory language as appropriate to target-language conventions, and importantly linking those discourse-level choices with foreignization and domestication orientations. Most interesting, however, is the assertion of difference in conventions between different languages, which would seem to call both for more contrastive stylistic studies in multiple languages and for a more delicate examination of the dominant role of English as it enters into translatorial contact with other languages in certain domains such as scientific and historical writing.

7. Intervention in court interpreting: South Africa

Rosemary M. H. MOEKETSI (University of South Africa)

Rosemary Moeketsi describes the problems encountered by court interpreters, using a case study of multilingual South Africa where there are eleven official languages. She claims that ‘the social and institutional contexts in which the South African court interpreter operates are themselves the major contributor to the interpreter’s underperformance’ and gives examples of the ambivalent role of the interpreters and their often poor treatment by the judicial system. The lack of training, resources and understanding of the problem is jeopardizing the very workings of the legal system in the country and the fair dispensation justice. There is also the vexed question of the status of the different languages, a crucial factor in translation. Despite multilingual legislation, Moeketsi considers that the status of English and Afrikaans has, if anything, increased and the African languages remain marginalized.

8. Intervention through computer-assisted translation: the case of the EU

Joanna DRUGAN (The University of Leeds, UK)

Joanna Drugan discusses intervention at the level of translation technology and the management of work practices in the context of the European Union’s translation services.With the new accessions in 2004, long-standing work practices had to be rethought if the translation services were to cope with the workload of nine additional languages. Like Moeketsi in South Africa, Drugan had exceptional access to study in-house translators and managers and produces a detailed picture of the recruitment and training of new staff, the redeployment of some existing staff, and the use of electronic resources, particularly computer-assisted translation tools such as translation memories, to make work practices more efficient.

9. Renewing a literary culture through translation: poetry in post-war Italy

Francesca BILLIANI (The University of Manchester, UK)

The intervention in Francesca Billiani’s chapter is in the field of poetry translation, specifically the translation of foreign poetry into Italian from the end of the Second World War until the 1970s. Billiani herself emphasizes that this is an unusual example of ideological intervention by publishers, editors and academics in renovating a literary canon that had become tainted by its association with the Fascist regime. Her access to the correspondence housed in the archives of the Mondadori and Einaudi publishing houses allows dramatic eavesdropping on the deliberate way in which foreign texts were selected and the translation strategies that were adopted.

< Index

This volume can be downloaded from the IATIS Intranet by currently registered members.

• Non members of IATIS may purchase copies of the volumes listed below. Click here to download the purchasing form.