IATIS News

The Editors Johan Franzon is Associate Professor of Swedish Translation and Scandinavian Languages at the University of Helsinki (Finland). Annjo K. Greenall is Professor of English Language and Translation Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (Norway). Sigmund Kvam is Professor of German Linguistics and Translation Studies at the Østfold University College in Halden (Norway). Anastasia Parianou is Professor of Translation Studies at the Ionian University in Corfu (Greece). Song Translation: Lyrics in Contexts grew out of a project dedicated to the translation of song lyrics. The book aligns itself with the tradition of descriptive translation studies. Its authors, scholars from Finland, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Norway and Sweden, all deal with the translation of song lyrics in a great variety of different contexts, including music and performance settings, (inter)cultural perspectives, and historical backgrounds. On the one hand, the analyses demonstrate the breadth and diversity of the concept of translation itself, on the other they show how different contexts set up conditions that shape translational practices and products in different ways. The book is intended for translation studies scholars as well as for musicologists, students of language and/or music and practicing translators; in short, anybody interested in this creative and fascinating field of translational practice. For more information, click here

This book presents a thoughtful and thorough account of diverse studies on Chinese translation and interpreting (TI). It introduces readers to a plurality of scholarly voices focusing on different aspects of Chinese TI from an interdisciplinary and international perspective.     The book brings together eighteen essays by scholars at different stages of their careers with different relationships to translation and interpreting studies. Readers will approach Chinese TI studies from different standpoints, namely socio-historical, literary, policy-related, interpreting, and contemporary translation practice. Given its focus, the book benefits researchers and students who are interested in a global scholarly approach to Chinese TI. The book offers a unique window on topical issues in Chinese TI theory and practice. It is hoped that this book encourages a multilateral, dynamic, and international approach in a scholarly discussion where, more often than not, approaches tend to get dichotomized. This book aims at bringing together international leading scholars with the same passion, that is delving into the theoretical and practical aspects of Chinese TI.   For more information, click here

The publication of the latest JoSTrans thematic issue is always something to be celebrated. But to do so at the close of one of the most difficult years many of us will have known, represents all the more significant an achievement. 2020 has been a year of unprecedented challenge, but it has also been a year in which we have witnessed the emergence of new ways of working and new ways of thinking, and this is evident in the fresh and forward-looking content we commit to you in this latest round of publications. This thematic issue, edited by Francis Mus and Sarah Neelsen, and entitled ‘Translation and plurisemiotic practices’ is both a salient appraisal of what has come before, but also an important glimpse into the future of the field. In these times of unprecedented difficulty, the production of this special issue is testament to the continued commitment of colleagues to the field. Together with detailed introductions from editors Francis Mus and Sarah Neelsen, this issue engages with translation in its widest understanding, and across eight articles includes contributions on translation and its multiple connections with art and visual culture, performance art, and live performance in its various forms. Articles from Yves Gambier, Saulė Juzelėnienė and Saulé Petroniené, and from Ayelet Kohn and Rachel Weissbrod, investigate translational manifestations in visual culture, with case studies of mural painting and modern art respectively, while articles by Kerstin Hausbei and Vanessa Montesi consider translation and its relationship with adaptation. Hausbei explores the movement from Viennese popular theatre to mimodrama, and Vanessa Montesi investigates the translation of a sixteenth-century painting into modern day performance art. The remainder of the issue’s contributions coalesce around the question of live performance. Lucile Desblache considers the relationship between translation and live music on stage, while Nina Reviers, Hanne Roofthooft, and Aline Remael address the role of audio introductions in the context of contemporary stage performance, and Thora Tenbrink and Kate Lawrence examine translation processes at work in a multimodal stage adaptation of children’s drawings. A final contribution from Hao Lin sheds important light on the plurisemiotic practice of signed Chinese poetry. The issue concludes with seven book reviews, and two interviews, one with Lucile Desblache and the other with Julie Chateauvert For more information, click here

Editor-in-chief: Aleksandra Matulewska Guest editor: Anne Wagner & Aleksandra Matulewska Co-editor: Paula Trzaskawka 'Our rationale skillfully critiques the interdisciplinary fields of culture, law and legal translation with the help of well-established researchers. This work brings together innovative research themes in order to unveil topics that are still under explora tion internationally, but whose complementarities seem highly necessary to discuss the idea of The Evil Twins and their Silent Otherness in Law and Legal Translation. Our research fields cover the foundation of law meaning and law making in legal translation providing an even more solid bedrock when it comes to analyzing specific spaces and their translation issues, either in China or within the Court of Justice of the European Union.' For more information, click here

Translation and Accessibility for All in the Creative Industries - Digital Spaces and Cultural Contexts (edited by Alessandra Rizzo) 'The scope of this special issue is to investigate the latest increasing interest in the accessibility of the culturaland creative industries (henceforth CCI) in contemporary societies by means of translation and interpreting activities. In the last decades, such attention has proven to be pivotal to the functioning and survival of the arts and cultures among larger societies and/or smaller ethniccommunities, especially in the recent periodofthe Covid-19 pandemic. A vast promotion of physical and virtual cultural events, e.g., festivals, film screenings,onlineand face-to-face artistic tours, etc., is revealing how such enthusiasm is crucial to the growth and development of the accessibility of (audio)visual and artistic forms across the boundaries of national and international projects and associations (e.g., Sole Luna Doc Festival, MeMADin this issue)within political frameworks that supportcultural mushrooming. Against this backdrop, therole of translationin a wide-ranging perspectivehas become significantly revolutionary and collaborative, and also socially constructed,thus encouragingtheactivation ofintercultural and interlingual, as well as transnational and transcultural networks that govern the CCI. These networksinclude the spheresof the visual and performing arts (i.e., theatre, opera, dance, museums, galleries, and installations, drawing, sculpture, etc.) and of audiovisual products (i.e., TV, cinema, documentary film festivals, etc.).'

Captioning and Subtitling for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences is a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of captioning and subtitling, a discipline that has evolved quickly in recent years. This guide is of a practical nature and contains examples and exercises at the end of each chapter. Some of the tasks stimulate reflection on the practice and reception, while others focus on particular captioning and SDH areas, such as paralinguistic features, music and sound effects. The requirements of d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences are analysed in detail and are accompanied by linguistic and technical considerations. These considerations, though shared with generic subtitling parameters, are discussed specifically with d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences in mind. The reader will become familiar with the characteristics of d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences, and the diversity – including cultural and linguistic differences – within this group of people. Based on first-hand experience in the field, the book also provides a step-by-step guide to making live performances accessible to d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences. As well as exploring all linguistic and technical matters related to the creation of captions, aspects related to the overall set up of the captioned performance are discussed. The guide will be valuable reading to students of audiovisual translation at undergraduate and postgraduate level, to professional subtitlers and captioners, and to any organisation or venue that engages with d/Deaf and hard of hearing people. For more information, click here

This is an edited collection of essays drawn from collaborative events organized jointly by The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The book focuses on how literary and cultural perspectives from different humanities academic environs in Asia and Europe might contribute to our understanding of the "transferability of concepts." Exploring ways in which these traditions may enter into new and productive collaborations, the book presents readings of a wide range of Western and Eastern writers, including Shakespeare, J.M. Coetzee, Yu Dafu. The book contains a virtual round table followed by four thematic sections – "Travels and Storytelling," "Translation and Transferability," "Historical Contexts and Transferability," and "Aesthetic Contexts and Transferability." For more information, click here

Informed by the anthropological research of Professor Donald E. Brown on human universals, this book compiles 10 articles exploring the representation of common human cultural practices and concerns in literature, cinema and language. The book as a whole demonstrates not only that Brown’s human universals are shared by different cultures, but most importantly that they have the potential to form a basis for inter- and intra-cultural communication and consolidation, bridging gaps of misinformation and miscommunication, both spatial and temporal. The contributors are Egyptian scholars who cross temporal and spatial boundaries and borders from Africa and the Middle East to Asia, Europe and the Americas, and dive deep into the heart of the shared human universals of myth, folklore and rituals, dreams, trauma, cultural beliefs, search for identity, language, translation and communication. They bring their own unique perspectives to the investigation of how shared human practices and concerns seep through the porous boundaries of different cultures and into a variety of creative and practical genres of fiction, drama, autobiography, cinema and media translation. Their research is interdisciplinary, informed by anthropological, social, psychological, linguistic and cultural theory, and thus offers a multi-faceted and multi-layered view of the human experience. For more information, click here

The goal of the book is to investigate mediating practices used in translation of children’s and young adults’ fiction, focusing on transfer of contents considered controversial or unsuitable for young audiences. It shows how the macabre and cruelty, swear words and bioethical issues have been affected in translation across cultures and times. Analysing selected key texts from Grimms’ tales and Hoffmann’s Struwwelpeter to Roald Dahl’s fiction, it shows that mediating approaches, sometimes infringing upon the integrity of source texts, are still part of contemporary translation practices. The volume includes contributions of renowned TS scholars and practitioners, working with a variety of approaches from descriptive translation studies and literary criticism to translation pedagogy and museum studies. "The angle of looking into the topics is fresh and acute and I whole-heartedly recommend the book for readers from scholars to parents and school-teachers, for all adults taking a special interest in and cherishing children and their literature". For more information, click here

This paper analyses the conceptual, social and ethical dimensions of online collaborative translation and particularly one of its major subtypes, translation crowdsourcing. Since online collaborative translation is still a rather young field of research there are still conceptual uncertainties, particularly surrounding the selection of the meta- or top-level concept for recent forms of online translation (such as translation crowdsourcing), unsolicited and self-managed forms of online translation (like Wikipedia translation), and the various forms of online fan translation. This paper argues for using online collaborative translation as the meta-concept, based on a painstaking analysis and justification of the concept against its competitors. The paper focuses on translation crowdsourcing for profit-oriented companies like Facebook and its social and ethical consequences. It concludes by investigating whether this kind of translation is exploitative despite the seemingly mutually beneficial transaction between the volunteer translators and the profit-oriented companies employing them, usually unpaid. For more information, click here

The President and Executive Board of IATIS have joined Red T and many other international translator and interpreter associations  advocating for translators and interpreters at risk. An Open Letter was sent to the Canadian Migration Minister which you can read in full:  

“Language is (not) a barrier”: Towards effective translation policies and practices for official communication with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Melbourne This joint PhD project will be based at The University of Melbourne with a minimum 12 month stay at KU Leuven Metropolises like Brussels or Melbourne are sites of unprecedented cultural and linguistic diversity. This creates pressing challenges for multilingual official communication with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, as seen in the Covid-19 pandemic. Addressing those challenges will require change in translation policies and practices, with close attention to their real-world effects. Project descriptionThe doctoral project that is to be carried out with the University of Melbourne as the host institution will analyze the policies, practices and effects of official translations carried out for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Melbourne. It will ascertain the provision of translation in public services in terms of numbers of translations, types of translations, target languages and types of administrations involved. It will identify the levels at which translation policies, both overt and covert, are formulated and enacted, how translations reach the various language communities, and the role of volunteer translation practices from NGOs and grassroots citizens’ initiatives in public services, particularly with respect to the reworking, re-narration and interpreting of information. The candidate will select one or two language communities for detailed analysis of the reception processes, with particular attention to instances of trust and distrust in official behavior-change communication. The nature and topic of the communication will correspond to the issues of importance at the time of the study. The research should lead to an evaluation of the way translation policies are formulated and enacted, with an assessment of their success in achieving trust relationships and influencing changes in behavior. At each stage of the research, comparison will be made with the same policies and practices in the city of Brussels, with one year of the research being carried out at KU Leuven. For more information, click here