TRANSST, Materials for No. 36



AN INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER OF TRANSLATION STUDIES -- NEW SERIES
NUMBER THIRTY SIX / APRIL 2001 -- ISSN 0792-058X


TRANSST, an international newsletter of translation studies, is published by the M. Bernstein Chair of Translation Theory and the Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel Aviv University (Israel). It isedited by Gideon Toury.
Editorial and administrative address: The M. Bernstein Chair of Translation Theory, Tel Aviv University, Faculty of Humanities, Tel Aviv, Israel. e-mail: toury@spinoza.tau.ac.il; tel.: +972-3-6407022; fax: +972-3-6408980.


UPCOMING CONFERENCES

  • The Department of Modern Philology at the University of Alcalá (Spain) is organizing the 5th International Conference on Translation and the 1st Conference on Interpreting and Translating in Public Services (also known as Community Interpreting), to be held in Alcalá, Madrid, on February, 22-23, 2002. The aim is to provide a debate forum for intellectuals and professional interpreters/translators as well as for students and anyone interested in the new socio-cultural reality that is developing in most of the UE countries.

    The rapid increase of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers opens new questions on intercultural communication and suggests the need to develop some initiatives to overcome linguistic and cultural barriers. These initiatives show a great variety of solutions to the different settings in which interpreters and/or translators are needed. Such a variety of possibilities also leads to question the ethics of translation and interpreting in public services, the acceptance of the varied forms of professionalism, the importance of the role that culture plays, the standardisation of interpreting training and recruitment, and the consideration of the different attitudes from society and its institutions. Questions such as these will be the main focus of the Conference.

    The official languages will be Spanish and English.

    200-word abstracts and ten-line speaker's biodata should be sent by September 15, 2001 using one of these options:

    1. Hard copy plus corresponding word processor file (Word 6.0 for PC) to the address:

    5th International Conference on Translation
    University of Alcalá
    Department of Modern Philology
    C/ Trinidad, 5
    E-28801 Alcalá de de Henares, Madrid
    SPAIN
    Fax: + 34-91-885 44 45

    2. Electronic copy through e-mail (as a message, not as an attachment) to:
    mcarmen.valero@uah.es or guzman.mancho@uah.es


  • The First I nternational Conference on Language Teaching for Translators will be held on November 30, 2001, at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain).

    While there is a copious literature on Language Teaching, very little attention has been paid to the teaching of languages to would-be translators. This conference aims to explore language teaching specifically for translators. We welcome 20-minute papers on this topic.

    Send abstract as attached file (WP or Word for Windows) by July 1, 2001 to: maribel.andreu@uab.es or hard copies to:

    Dr Maribel Andreu
    Facultat de Traducció i d'Interpretació
    Edifici-K
    Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
    E-08193 Bellaterra
    SPAIN


    NEW BOOK

    Sherry Simon and Paul St-Pierre, eds. Changing the Terms: Translating in the Postcolonial Era. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2000. 305 pp. ISBN 0-7766-0524-0. $29.95. [Perspectives on Translation.]

    This volume explores the theoretical foundations and undercurrents of postcolonial translation in settings as diverse as Malaysia, Ireland, India and South America. Changing the Terms examines stimulating links that are currently being forged between linguistics, literary studies and cultural theory. In doing so, the authors probe complex sequences of intercultural contact, fusion and breach. The impact that history and politics have had on the role of translation in the evolution of literary and cultural relations is investigated in detail. Changing the Terms draws on many perspectives from current research in translation studies to challenge commonly held views on postcolonial theory.

    For information and ordering, contact: press@uottawa.ca


    SPECIAL THEMATIC EDITION OF LANGUAGE MATTERS

    Language Matters is published by the Linguistics Department of the University of South Africa. Our editorial policy is to promote the dissemination of ideas, points of view, teaching strategies and research on different aspects of all the languages of Southern Africa. Our primary focus is on issues related to multilingualism in the southern African context and we aim to provide a forum for discussion on the whole spectrum of language usage and debate in Southern Africa. The permanent editorial board consists of a number of national and international linguists, sociolinguists, applied linguists and translation and interpreting scholars.

    Volume 31 of 2000 is a special thematic edition on Translation and Interpreting in South Africa, with Dr Alet Kruger as guest editor. Price: R50,- ($20) (VAT and postage/airmail included).

    Contents
    - "Translation Studies in South Africa at the turn of the 21st Century" (Alet Kruger, U. of South Africa)
    - "Forgive us our translations: crossing intercontinental cultural and religious boundaries" (Ella Wehrmeyer, U. of South Africa)
    - "Applying a DTS model to the analysis of individual dramatic texts: two case studies" (Judith Inggs, U. of the Witwatersrand)
    - "The palm-oil with which Igbo words are eaten: an analysis of the Zulu translation of Igbo idioms in Things Fall Apart" (Dumisile Mkhize, U. of South Africa)
    - "Translating aspects of culture in Cry, the Beloved Country into Zulu" (Victor Ndlovu, U. of South
    - "The transfer and ‘rehabilitation’ of culture in the Zulu translation of H. Rider Haggard’s Nada the Lily" (Rachélle Gauton, U. of Pretoria)
    - "Power relations in the Portuguese translation of Alan Paton’s Life for a Life" (Dee Pinto, U. of the Witwatersrand)
    - "The production of culture: a case study in South African literature" (Elizabeth Meintjes, U. of the Witwatersrand)
    - "A pilot study towards a corpus-based approach to investigate universal features of translation in Xhosa" (Koliswa Moropa, U. of South Africa)
    - "Examining simultaneous interpreting norms and strategies in a South African legislative context: a pilot corpus analysis" (Kim Wallmach, U. of South Africa)
    - "The do's and don'ts in court interpreting: a functional approach to a professional code" (Rosemary Moeketsi, U. of South Africa)
    - "Towards a code of ethics for text editors" (Johan Blaauw & Els Boets, U. of Potchefstroom)

    Order from:

    The Business Section: UNISA Press
    PO Box 392, Pretoria 0003
    South Africa


    AUTHOR’S STATEMENT

    Alberto Álvarez Lugrís. Estilística comparada da traducción. Proposta metodolóxica e aplicación práctica ó estudio do corpus TECTRA de traduccións do inglés ó galego. [Translation Comparative Stylistics. Methodological Basis and Application to the Study of TECTRA, a Corpus of English-Galician Translations.] Vigo: Servicio de Publicacións da Universidade de Vigo, 2001. 340 pp. ISBN 84-8158-180-1. 3.000 PTA (circa $17). [Monografías da Universidade de Vigo, Humanidades e Ciencias Xurídico-sociais, nº 34.]
    This book is an invitation to reflect on a new perspective on the academic study of translation, namely on the empirico-descriptive branch of Translation Studies. In the first section, we aim at accounting for the inclusion of Comparative Stylistics within the set of auxiliary disciplines to which the theoretical component of Translation Studies may resort to for the evaluation of translations. Nevertheless, the incoherences and wrong results of stylistic studies in the past – due to the lack of a purely translatological basis and to the use of incorrect methodologies – leads us to acknowledge a need to reformulate the aims, methods and tools of the discipline in order to make them meet the requirements of Translation Studies. The seond section presents the object of study: the corpus TECTRA (Textos para Estilística Comparada e TRAducción, Texts for Comparative Stylistics and Translation), which contains 13 novels written in English and their translations into Galician. The third section is devoted to the implementation of the stylistic methodology for the study of microstructural phenomena; the repercussions of these microanalyses in the general theory of Translation are also considered.

    Orders:

    Servicio de Publicacións da Universidade de Vigo
    Edificio Fundición
    Lagoas - Marcosende
    E-36200 Vigo
    SPAIN


    A DOCTORAL DISSERTATION

    Mareike Jendis. Mumins wundersame Deutschlandabenteuer: Zur Rezeption von Tove Janssons Muminbüchern. Umeå: Umeå universitet, 2001. 217 S. ISSN 1650-304X; ISBN 91-7191-970-8. [Skrifter från moderna språk, 1.]
    Unlike in Scandinavia and Great Britain, where Tove Jansson’s Moomin books have gained great popularity, their success in Germany has been only moderate. This thesis analyses the reasons for that, applying a system-theoretical model of explanation. A review of the exchange of children’s literature between Sweden and Germany and the position of Jansson’s books in the Swedish literary polysystem is followed by a study of the reception of the Moomin books in Germany. It is shown that there Tove Jansson is almost exclusively regarded as a writer of children’s literature, as the majority of her books for adults have not even been translated into German.

    This study also points out that as a consequence of the adaptation for young readers, the ambivalence of the Moomin books which appeals to both adults and children is considerably reduced in the early German translations. Furthermore, all the Moomin books translated into German were presented purely as children’s books and are interpreted in most reviews simply as entertaining and uncomplicated stories. In the 1990s, however, the emphasis on their complexity became stronger. At the same time, at the textual level the German translations have retained many of their complex modernity features. It is these factors that signal the appeal of the Moomin books to both children and adults, a circumstance that rendered their integration into the German literary polysystem, with its strict dividing lines between the two categories, more difficult.


    BIBLIOTECA DE TRADUCCIÓ I INTERPRETACIÓ

    The University of Vic's publishing house Eumo Editorial is committed to promoting high-quality research and publication in areas of academic studies. In 1995 a series on translation was constituted under the title of "biblioteca de traducció i interpretació" under the editorship of Pilar Godayol. The series is to promote the development of translation studies and other disciplines concerned with intercultural communication in Catalunya and Spain, and to help to create an environment in which the work of young Catalan scholars can reach the research community.

    Till now we have had six books in the series:

    1. Lingüística per a la traducció by Ricardo Muñoz Martín
    2. Traducció i literatura: Homenatge a Ángel Crespo, edited by Soledad González and Francisco Lafarga
    3. Cent anys de traducció al català (1891-1990): Antologia, ed. by Montserrat Bacardí, Joan Fontcuberta and Francesc Parcerisas
    4. L'art de traduir: Reflexions sobre la traducció al llarg de la història by Enric Gallén et al.
    5. Espais de frontera: Gèere i traducció by Pilar Godayol
    6. La traducció dalt de l'escenari by Eva Espasa


    A SPECIAL TRANSLATION STUDIES ISSUE

    Helsinki English Studies, the new Electronic Journal of the Department of English at the University of Helsinki (ISSN 1457-9960), has just come out with its first "volume" (2001). This volume, wholly devoted to Translation Studies, was edited by Ritva Leppihalme. It brings together 11 articles:

    Ritva Leppihalme / Introduction
    Seija Paddon / Lander in Translation, or Casting A Long Shadow of Replenishment
    Alice Martin / A Translator's View of Translation Norms
    Kristian Hursti / An Insider's View on Transformation and Transfer in International News Communication: An English-Finnish Perspective
    Petra Kaseva / Phantom Hunting: Tracking Down the Initiator of Translations
    Kersti Juva / Translating Tristram Shandy
    Susanna Jaskanen / 'A Fine Kettle of Fish': Exploring Textual Norms in Finnish Subtitles
    Irma Hagfors / A Journey to Another Time and Place: How a Victorian Children's Classic was Translated in Postwar Finland
    Laura Routti / Norms and Storms: Pentti Saarikoski's Translation of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
    Anne-Marie Lindfors / Respect or Ridicule: Translation Strategies and the Images of A Foreign Culture
    Marja Suominen / Heteroglot Soldiers
    Ljuba Tarvi / Graphic Equivalence in Translated Texts: A Statistical Approach

    direct access: www.eng.helsinki.fi/hes/Translation


    CTIS OCCASIONAL PAPERS

    CTIS Occasional Papers is a new series of published by the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at UMIST (Manchester) under the General Editorship of Maeve Olohan. It will bring research reports and working papers, in particular from guest speakers at CTIS seminars and lectures and other scholars connected to CTIS.

    The first volume of CTIS Occasional Papers (2001) contains the Annual Translation Studies Lecture 2001 (by Sherry Simon), and papers by Scholars from abroad who have given seminars as part of the TS seminar series (Robin Setton, Dorothy Kenny, Anthony Pym), the Director of the Centre (Mona Baker) and former students who achieved distinction for their Masters (Stefan Baumgarten, Charlotte Bosseaxux, Yukino Semizu).

    For more details contact:

    Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies
    UMIST
    PO Box 88
    Manchester M60 1QD, England
    Fax: +44-161-200 3099
    www.umist.ac.uk/ctis


    NEW BOOKS

    Emer O'Sullivan. Kinderliterarische Komparatistik. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter, 2000. ii + 549 S. ISBN 8-253-1039-6. DM 112.-.

    In diesem Buch werden erstmals grundlegende Fragestellungen und Konzepte der Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft unter kinderliteraturspezifischen Aspekten weiterentwickelt. Gleichzeitig erfährt die Kinderliteraturforschung einen Aufriß ihrer komparatistischen Arbeitsfelder: der allgemeinen Kinderliteraturtheorie, der kinderliterarischen Kontakt- und Transferforschung, der vergleichenden Poetik der Kinderliteratur, der Intertextualitätsforschung, der Imagologie, der vergleichenden kinderliterarischen Gattungsforschung, der vergleichenden Geschichtsschreibung der Kinderliteratur, und der vergleichenden Wissenschaftsgeschichte.

    Das kinderliterarische Übersetzen erfährt spezielle Aufmerksamkeit durch eine Weiterentwicklung die die narratologische Instanz des impliziten Übersetzers neu einführt und seine Manifestation in der Stimme des Erzählers des übersetzten Textes aufgezeigt. Die Tauglichkeit dieser Weiterentwicklung tritt bei der Diskussion der spezifischen Probleme der Übersetzung von Bilder- und illustrierten Kinderbüchern ebenso zu Tage wie bei der umfangreichen Analyse der 31 vollständigen deutscsprachigen Übersetzungen von Lewis Carrols Alice in Wonderland.


    Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Luise von Flotow and Daniel Russell, eds. The Politics of Translation in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press and Arizona: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001. 222 pp. ISBN 0-86698-275-2.
    The articles in this collection focus on politics in the widest sense and its influence and visibility in translations from the early Middle Ages to the late Renaissance. Written by medievalists and Renaissance scholars, they are part of the recent "cultural turn" in Translation Studies which approaches translation as an activity that is powerfully affected by its socio-political context and the demands of the translating culture. The links made between culture, politics and translation in these texts highlight the impact of ideological and political forces on cultural transfer in early European thought.


    Mechtild Krüger. Übersetzungskompetenz: modale Semantik. Eine Studie am Sprachenpaar Dänisch--Deutsch. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 2001. viii + 181 S. ISBN 3-484-30445-6. DM 96.-. [Linguistische Arbeiten, 445.]
    The study examines ways of improving the learning progress made by students in dealing with the problems posed by modal semantics in translation from Danish into German. Major concerns are translation theory and didactics, classification models for modal verb systems, and neurolinguistic aspects. The analysis of two text corpora shows that better results were achieved by a test group working with a teaching scheme based on a broader range of didactic variation.


    Gyu Chang Kim. Vermittlungs- und Übersetzungsgeschichte Goethes in Korea. Frankfurt/M. etc.: Peter Lang, 2001. 207 S. ISBN 3-631-37251-5. DM 69.-. [Tübinger Studien zur deutschen Literatur, 17.]
    Ziel dieser Rezeptionsgeschichte is es, Differenzen sichtbar zu machen: Zum einen zwischen gegenwärtigen Goetheverständnis (vor allem in Deutschland) und "historischen" Goethe-Interpretationen der jeweiligen koreanischen Vermittler und Übersetzer, zum anderen zwischen einflußreichen deutschen Interpretationen und den von ihnen beeinflußten koreanischen.

    Die sich zeigenden Differenzen sollen nicht einfach als falsches Verständnis abgetan, sondern als positive wie negative Wirkung Goethes im Kontext der politischen und gesellschaftlichen Verhältnisse Koreas verständlich werden. Darüber hinaus zeigt sich, daß diese Art von Rezeptionsforschung nichr nur den Rezeptionsvorgang selbst durchsichtig machen, sondern auch zum interkulturellen Verständnis insgesamt beitragen kann.


    TRANSLATION COMPETITION

    The British Comparative Literature Association (BCLA) and the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) announce the 2002 Translation Competition. Prizes will be awarded for the best unpublished literary translations (poetry, fiction or prose from any period) from any language into English. Entries may be up to 25 pages in length. The closing date is 31 January 2002. Winning entries will be published in the annual journal Comparative Criticism (Cambridge University Press).

    For details and an entry form, please see the BCLA website www.bcla.org or write (marking your envelope "Translation Competition") to:

    Mrs Mary Fox
    School of Language, Linguistics and Translation Studies
    University of East Anglia
    Norwich, NR4 7TJ, England

    or contact us by e-mail: transcomp@uea.ac.uk. Entry forms are also available from the BCLT on c.fuller@uea.ac.uk.


    UPCOMING CONFERENCES

  • An International Conference on

    Corpus-Based Translation: Research and Applications

    will be held at Pretoria, South Africa, on 23-25 July 2003. The conference will be hosted jointly by the Department of Linguistics (Translation Studies), University of South Africa and the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, UMIST (University of Science and Technology in Manchester).

    The three-day conference will host plenary lectures, papers, one panel discussion and three hands-on workshops. Papers of 30 minutes each (excluding discussion time) are invited on any aspect of corpus-based translation research, particularly with respect to the following issues:

    * conceptual tools and theoretical frameworks
    * categories and methods of analysis
    * corpus design, compilation and maintenance
    * corpora and stylistic analyses of translations
    * corpora and translation into a foreign language
    * corpora and sub-disciplines of translation studies: interpreting, audiovisual translation, Bible and religious translation
    * translation corpora and adjacent disciplines: lexicography, terminology, contrastive linguistics, comparative literature

    Abstracts of 500 words should be sent by 31 May 2002, preferably in electronic format, to:

    Alet Kruger or Kim Wallmach
    Department of Linguistics (Translation Studies)
    University of South Africa
    P O Box 392, UNISA 0003,
    Fax: +27 12-429-3400
    e-mail: krugea@unisa.ac.za / wallmak@unisa.ac.za

    To receive the second circular, send your name and mailing details to Alet Kruger or Kim Wallmach at the above address.

    Websites: http://www.umist.ac.uk/ctis / http://www.unisa.ac.za/


  • The 15th Annual Congress of the Canadian Association for Translation Studies (CATS) will be held during the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities from May 25 to 27, 2002 in Toronto. The Congress will have as its theme

    Translation and (Im)migration

    Proposals (200-250 words) should be sent to the Programme Committee Chair:

    Anne Malena
    University of Alberta
    Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
    200 Arts Building
    Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E6
    CANADA
    Fax: (780) 492-9106
    e-mail: amalena@ualberta.ca
    (note: You have to be a CATS member in good standing to read your paper in the Congress.)


    !!! TO BE CONTINUED !!!