Translating Ethnicity: EJES monographic issue

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES

Vol. 18

Please note that the deadline for proposals for all issues is 31 October 2012, with delivery of completed essays by 31 March 2013.

Volume 18 will appear in 2014.

TRANSLATING ETHNICITY

Guest Editors: Silvia Bruti, Roberto Valdeón and Serenella Zanotti

In both written and visual works, racial or ethnic difference is most frequently signalled through the use of language variations.  Signalling ethnicity by means of dialogue involves language manipulation on the part of writers and is subject to the pressure of cultural discourses of race and ethnicity.  This issue will investigate: a) the strategies adopted in representing ethnic varieties of English in written and audio-visual media; b) what happens to the construction of ethnic varieties in the processes of cross-cultural transfer involved in translation. The volume will address, among others, the following questions: how are ethnic varieties handled in Anglophone cultural products? How is linguistic diversity used to construct ethnic identity? What strategies are adopted in the construction of ethnic minorities in works translated from English into other European languages? How does translation respond to the challenges posed by multiethnic and multicultural societies?

Proposals for contributions are welcomed from scholars working in the full range of English literary, media, cultural, and translation studies on topics that might include, but are not restricted to:

·         changes in linguistic and cultural perspectives of Anglophone discourse about ethnicity as reflected in the media and literature;

·         manipulations in the processes of dissemination, translation and reception of English/world literature texts;

·         the analysis  of the construction of ethnicity in film adaptation;

·         the use of subtitling to signal the relation between language variation and the visual construction of ethnic identity;

·         European critical perspectives on Anglo-American/post-colonial constructions of ethnic identities in English;

·         manipulation and censorship in translating ethnic varieties;

·         the impact of the construction and translation of ethnic voices in English/world literatures on translation practice and theory;

·         cross-cultural pragmatics and poetics.

Detailed proposals (500-1,000 words) for articles of c. 5-6,000 words, as well as all inquiries regarding this issue, should be sent to all the guest editors: Silvia Bruti: < s.bruti@angl.unipi.it>, Roberto Valdeón: <valdeon@uniovi.es>, and Serenella Zanotti: <szanotti@uniroma3.it>.