IATIS News

Through close readings of select stories and novels by well-known writers from different literary traditions, Fictional Translators invites readers to rethink the main clichés associated with translations. Rosemary Arrojo shines a light on the transformative character of the translator’s role and the relationships that can be established between originals and their reproductions, building her arguments on the basis of texts such as the following: Cortázar’s "Letter to a Young Lady in Paris" Walsh’s "Footnote" Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Poe’s "The Oval Portrait" Borges’s "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote," "Funes, His Memory," and "Death and the Compass" Kafka’s "The Burrow" and Kosztolányi’s Kornél Esti Saramago’s The History of the Siege of Lisbon and Babel’s "Guy de Maupassant" Scliar’s "Footnotes" and Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler Cervantes’s Don Quixote Fictional Translators provides stimulating material for reflection not only on the processes associated with translation as an activity that inevitably transforms meaning, but, also, on the common prejudices that have underestimated its productive role in the shaping of identities. This book is key reading for students and researchers of literary translation, comparative literature and translation theory. https://www.routledge.com/Fictional-Translators-Rethinking-Translation-through-Literature/Arrojo/p/book/9781138827141?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=170808099

From fansubbing, fan-generated translation, to user-generated translation, from amateur translation to social translation, non-professional subtitling has come a long way since its humble beginning in the 1980s. The prevailing technological affordance enables and mobilises the digital generation to turn subtitling into a method of self-expression and mediation, and their activities have made translation a more social and visible activity than ever before. This volume provides a comprehensive review of the current state of play of this user-generated subtitling phenomenon. It includes projects and research focusing on various aspects of non-professional subtitling, including the communities at work, the agents at play, the production conditions and the products. The perspectives in the book explore the role played by the agents involved in the emerging subtitling networks worldwide, and their impact on the communities is also discussed, based on empirical data generated from observations on active fansubbing communities. The collection demonstrates, from various viewpoints, the ways in which non-professional subtitling connects languages, cultures and communities in a global setting. Further details: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/non-professional-subtitling

Scholars have long highlighted the links between translating and (re)writing, increasingly blurring the line between translations and so-called 'original' works. Less emphasis has been placed on the work of writers who translate, and the ways in which they conceptualize, or even fictionalize, the task of translation. This book fills that gap and thus will be of interest to scholars in linguistics, translation studies and literary studies. Scrutinizing translation through a new lens, Judith Woodsworth reveals the sometimes problematic relations between author and translator, along with the evolution of the translator's voice and visibility. The book investigates the uses (and abuses) of translation at the hands of George Bernard Shaw, Gertrude Stein and Paul Auster, prominent writers who bring into play assorted fictions as they tell their stories of translations. Each case is interesting in itself because of the new material analysed and the conclusions reached. Translation is seen not only as an exercise and fruitful starting point, it is also a way of paying tribute, repaying a debt and cementing a friendship. Taken together, the case studies point the way to a teleology of translation and raise the question: what is translation for? Shaw, Stein and Auster adopt an authorial posture that distinguishes them from other translators. They stretch the boundaries of the translation proper, their words spilling over into the liminal space of the text; in some cases they hijack the act of translation to serve their own ends. Through their tales of loss, counterfeit and hard labour, they cast an occasionally bleak glance at what it means to be a translator. Yet they also pay homage to translation and provide fresh insights that continue to manifest themselves in current works of literature. By engaging with translation as a literary act in its own right, these eminent writers confer greater prestige on what has traditionally been viewed as a subservient art. https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/telling-the-story-of-translation-9781474277082/

This book explores two strands of Audiovisual Translation referred to as "research" and "use". As their points of convergence and divergence are brought to light, the contributors show that the two tend to overlap and cross-pollinate. The volume’s inquiries of linguistic, cultural, sociological, computational, educational and historical nature give a comprehensive up-to-date account of AVT as an expanding and heterogeneous, yet internally coherent, field of scientific and professional endeavour. "The book offers a good balance of chapters dealing with new topics and chapters dealing with more established AVT topics from new angles. It is a must read for TS students and academics but also for practitioners and for translators from other domains, given the increased prominence and diversity of AVT modes both in TS research and translation practice." Professor Aline Remael University of Antwerp Chair of the Department of Applied Linguistics, Translators and Interpreters https://www.peterlang.com/view/product/80659

Translating for performance is a difficult – and hotly contested – activity. Adapting Translation for the Stage presents a sustained dialogue between scholars, actors, directors, writers, and those working across these boundaries, exploring common themes and issues encountered when writing, staging, and researching translated works. It is organised into four parts, each reflecting on a theatrical genre where translation is regularly practised: The Role of Translation in Rewriting Naturalist Theatre Adapting Classical Drama at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century Translocating Political Activism in Contemporary Theatre Modernist Narratives of Translation in Performance A range of case studies from the National Theatre’s Medea to The Gate Theatre’s Dances of Deathand Emily Mann’s The House of Bernarda Alba shed new light on the creative processes inherent in translating for the theatre, destabilising the literal/performable binary to suggest that adaptation and translation can – and do – coexist on stage. Chronicling the many possible intersections between translation theory and practice, Adapting Translation for the Stage offers a unique exploration of the processes of translating, adapting, and relocating work for the theatre. https://www.routledge.com/Adapting-Translation-for-the-Stage/Brodie-Cole/p/book/9781138218871

This book focuses on the problematic issues arising when translating and interpreting classical Arabic texts, which represent a challenging business for many scholars, especially with regards to religious texts. Additionally, the reception of these interpretations and translations not only informs the perception of Muslims and their awareness of the outside world, but also impacts the vision and perception of non-Muslims of Islam and the Muslim world. Consequently, this book reconsiders the concepts of understanding and interpretation, and their nexus in the mechanism of translation, and proposes a novel, hermeneutic method of translating, interpreting, and understanding traditional and classical Arab texts. Handling the issues of understanding from a hermeneutical perspective is shown here to remove the possibility of translation and interpretation rendering a distorted translated text. Drawing on the powerful interpretive theories of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Martin Heidegger, the hermeneutic method of translation starts from a premise that the meaning of a classical text cannot be deduced solely by linguistic analysis of its words, but requires in-depth investigation of the invisible, contextual elements that control and shape its meaning. Traditional texts are seen in this model as ‘travelling texts’ whose meaning is transformed across time and space. The hermeneutic method of translation allows the translator to identify those elements from the real-world that informed a classical text at the time of its writing, so that it can be adapted and made relevant to its contemporary context. Traditional texts can enlighten our minds and cultivate our souls; religious texts can elevate our behavior and thinking, and help refine our confused contemporary lives. When texts become isolated from their world, they lose this lofty goal of enlightenment and elevation

Besides providing a thorough overview of advances in the concept of identity in Translation Studies, the book brings together a variety of approaches to identity as seen through the prism of translation. Individual chapters are united by the topic and their predominantly cultural approach, but they also supply dynamic impulses for the reader, since their methodologies, level of abstraction, and subject matter differ. The theoretical impulses brought together here include a call for the ecology of translational attention, a proposal of transcultural and farcical translation and a rethinking of Bourdieu’s habitus in terms of František Miko’s experiential complex. The book also offers first-hand insights into such topics as post-communist translation practices, provides sociological insights into the role politics played during state socialism in the creation of fields of translated fiction and the way imported fiction was able to subvert the intentions of the state, gives evidence of the struggles of small locales trying to be recognised though their literature, and draws links between local theory and more widely-known concepts. For further details, please visit http://www.cambridgescholars.com/identity-and-translation-trouble

The event was organized by Prof Monika Krein-Kühle (Course Director for the MA in Specialized Translation and IATIS Training Committee Chair) and Prof Ralph Krüger (Deputy Course Director for the MA in Specialized Translation and IATIS Training Committee Member) in cooperation with IATIS. The speakers, Bettina Moegelin, Moegelin Translations, Berlin, Christine Hofmeister, Eurotext AG, and Janet Carter-Sigglow, Head of Language Services, Forschungszentrum Jülich, provided enlightening insights into their daily job routines and highlighted and updated aspects of the translation profession that are of relevance for novice translators and practitioners alike. These aspects included – in addition to sound translational and cultural competencies: professional conduct, domain knowledge, copy editing and proofreading services, knowledge of CAT-Tools, and of content and terminology management software, technical writing, and interpersonal skills when liaising with customers and authors. The multi-layered aspects of translation-relevant domain knowledge and technical writing skills, involving copy editing and proofreading, are aspects that could be discussed in greater detail with the profession in order to establish what is needed by practitioners, using examples of good practice. Such input could be further didacticized and integrated into syllabus modules. These two aspects could also be two potential topics for further IATIS training events. Ultimately, the event demonstrated that input from competent professional practitioners can help improve syllabus design, adapt syllabuses to meet relevant trends in the profession and bridge the gap between training and the profession in order to facilitate and boost graduates’ career opportunities. Translation theory and teaching, meanwhile, can provide valuable insights for the applied branches of translation, so that the relationship between training and practice is optimally one of cooperation, trust and cross-fertilization. The next online IATIS training event will be held in autumn this year and will be organized by IATIS training committee member Prof. Said Faiq from the American University of Sharjah. The subject will be “Community Translation and Interpreting” and information about the event will be made available later this year. For further details about the Training Event in Cologne and to watch two of the day's talks along with the event's intro and wrap-up, please visit https://www.th-koeln.de/hochschule/summary-of-the-iatis-training-event-in-cologne_44943.php  

In Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, African American character Mookie throws a rubbish bin through the window of the pizzeria he works for, which is owned by an Italian American family. Translators often find themselves in a position of moral ambiguity similar to that of Mookie: at the nexus between cultures, translators have to make clear statements through their choices, with sometimes dramatic consequences. Drawing on the fields of translation studies, sociolinguistics and film studies, this book analyses the French subtitling of African American English in a corpus of films from the United States. After describing African American English and analysing how this variety is often portrayed in films, the book explores the implications of resorting to the use of non-standard forms in the French subtitles to portray linguistic variation, paying special attention to the consequences of juxtaposing two linguistic varieties on screen. This book goes beyond the mere case study and examines the relevance of the concepts of domestication and foreignization in the context of subtitling. https://www.peterlang.com/view/product/47023#.WUotw-2RQ6o.facebook

We have been informed of the passing away of Professor Albrecht Neubert on 1 June 2017. He died at the age of 87, following a decline of his health over the last few years. Albrecht Neubert has played a significant role in the development of the discipline of Translation Studies, and in particular in the creation of translator training programmes at Leipzig University in Germany where he had worked from the late 1950s until his retirement in 1995. He is one of the most prominent representatives of the ‘Leipzig School’ of Translation Studies, and from the mid-1980s he also had close links with Kent State University, Ohio. His research focused on pragmatic and textual aspects of translation (an excellent illustration of this is the 1992 book Translation as Text, co-authored with Gregory M. Shreve, and widely used in training programmes), but he also addressed wider aspects of translation. His contribution to translation theory and practice was acknowledged by the German Professional Association of Interpreters and Translators (BDŰ) with the publication of two volumes of selected papers. In 1992, Albrecht Neubert was CETRA (then CERA) Professor. The participants of that year will remember his lectures and his valuable feedback to their projects during tutorials. He has always been very supportive of doctoral students, his colleagues, and cared about the development of Translation Studies. We are deeply saddened by this loss. He will be much missed. Christina SchaeffnerProfessor EmeritaAston University

This volume provides a critical examination of quality in the interpreting profession by deconstructing the complex relationship between professional norms and ethical considerations in a variety of sociocultural contexts. Over the past two decades the profession has compelled scholars and practitioners to take into account numerous factors concerning the provision and fulfilment of interpreting. Building on ideas that began to take shape during an international conference on interpreter-mediated interactions, commemorating Miriam Shlesinger, held in Rome in 2013, the book explores some of these issues by looking at the notion of quality through interpreters’ self-awareness of norms at work across a variety of professional settings, contextualising norms and quality in relation to ethical behaviour in everyday practice. Contributions from top researchers in the field create a comprehensive picture of the dynamic role of the interpreter as it has evolved, with key topics revisited by the addition of new contributions from established scholars in the field, fostering discussion and further reflection on important issues in the field of interpreting. This volume will be key reading for scholars, researchers, and graduate students in interpreting and translation studies, pragmatics, discourse analysis, and multilingualism. Further details: http://208.254.74.112/books/details/9781138657069/

The present volume is devoted to the study of language use in translated texts as a function of various linguistic, contextual and cognitive factors. It contributes to the recent trend in empirical translation studies towards more methodological sophistication, including mixed methodology designs and multivariate statistical analyses, ultimately leading to a more accurate understanding of language use in translations. For further details, please visit https://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/16128