August 2006

 

 

MONOGRAPH

 

Walton, Michael J. Found in Translation: Greek Drama in English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

In considering the practice and theory of translating plays into English from Classical Greek from a theatrical perspective, Found in Translation also addresses wider issues of transferring any piece of theatre from a source into a target language. The history of translating classical tragedy and comedy, here fully investigated for the first time,
demonstrates how through the ages translators have, wittingly or unwittingly, appropriated Greek plays and made them reflect socio-political concerns of their own era.

Chapters are devoted to topics including verse and prose, mask and non-verbal language, stage directions and subtext and translating the comic. Among the plays discussed as 'case studies' are Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus and Euripides' Medea and Alcestis. The book concludes with a consideration of the boundaries between 'translation' and 'adaptation', followed by an Appendix of every translation of Greek tragedy and comedy into English from the 1550s to the present day.

 

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COLLECTIVE VOLUMES

 

 

Samh Fekry Hanna (ed). CTIS Occasional Papers, Volume 3, 2006. University of Manchester.

 

- Introduction, pp. 1-6

Sameh Fekry Hanna, Centre for Translation & Intercultural Studies, University of Manchester, UK

 

- The Translator as Theôros: Thoughts on Cogitation, Figuration, and Current Creative Writing, pp. 7-28

Carol Maier, Kent State University, Ohio

                                                                                                                                                           

Translation and translators have long been present in creative writing, as readers of Cervantes well know. It is as if countless writers were preoccupied with poet and translator Lynn Hejinian’s suggestion that every piece of writing is a work of translation, and they wanted to probe her suggestion as they wrote. That statement seems to be particularly true with respect to the last several decades, when translator protagonists and uncertain, even missing originals have been appearing so frequently that one is tempted to speculate that these figurations tend toward the formation of a sort of genre that includes reflection, at times deep cogitation, as well as figuration. One of the most intriguing aspects of this phenomenon is the attention focused on the effect of translation on the translator, who often undergoes some degree of transformation, whether physical, emotional, or intellectual, or a mix of the three. The interest here is to explore that transformation in several novels with translator protagonists; in commentary about translation by creative writers; and in the current author’s own work as the translator of a novel that has a translator protagonist and whose author was also a translator.

 

- The Line or the Gag: Translating Classical Comedy, pp. 29-46

J Michael Walton, University of Hull

 

Peculiar conditions relate to the transmission of classical drama, its translation and performance, tied to the sheer difference of cultural reference and perspective created by the timescale. It is clear, though, that the leeway offered to translators of comedy for page or stage, while still claiming some ‘faithfulness’ to the source text, is very different to that accorded to tragedy. This is the substance of the current paper. The differing genres of classical comedy are identified, satyr play, Greek old comedy (Aristophanes), Greek new comedy (Menander) and Roman comedy (Plautus and Terence), with the individual issues raised in translating each. Specific examples highlight broader issues relating to the translation of all comedy, ancient or modern.

What do we do in versions of ancient comedy for the contemporary stage about questions of anachronism, parochialism and what simply will not travel over the centuries? Should translations differ according to the audience they are being prepared for and the actors who will be acting in them? Everything comes down, it would seem, to context and to brief.

 

- Humanism and Orientalism in the Translations from Arabic into Latin in the Middle Ages, pp. 47-58

Charles Burnett, Warburg Institute, London, UK

 

This article considers the tendency on the part of certain translators to parade the Arabic origins of their translations, but of others to disguise them. The author calls the latter ‘humanists’ because the strategy that they employ to disguise the origin is to use Classical Latin language, and a liberal dose of Greek. He calls the former ‘Orientalists’ because they are proud to boast of the Oriental, if not exotic, origin of their knowledge. Earlier translations, made in Italy in the eleventh century, try to give the impression of being translated directly from Greek. Those made by scholars associated with the ‘School of Chartres’ — the centre of humanism in the early twelfth century — while acknowledging their Arabic source, are written in a fine literary style. Towards the middle of the twelfth century, when Toledo becomes the main centre for the transmission of Arabic science and philosophy, the literary translation becomes the norm, and Arabic origins are no longer disguised.

 

- Identity and Otherness: Translation Policies in Fascist Italy, pp. 59-77

Francesca Billiani, Department of Italian, University of Manchester, UK

 

This article discusses the editorial policies concerning the publication of translation of foreign literary texts in 1920s and 1930s Italy. These issues are discussed in relation both to translation policy and the formation and construction of the Italian cultural identity as postulated by fascist cultural policy. Indeed, the vast publication in inter-war Italy of translation of foreign narrative fiction in general, and American and English narrative fiction in particular, was permitted, provided that it could be formally justified according to fascist debates on popular culture and the construction of a national cultural identity. In view of this, the main question the author asks is how, despite its notorious autarchic attitude towards the foreign, did the fascist regime allow the extensive publication of foreign texts? Her hypothesis is that, because of both the growing popularity of translations and the economic benefit which publishing houses, such as Mondadori, could derive from them, until 1938 the regime

allowed translations to be published in order to exercise control over the construction of a popular culture, which was seen as a true expression of ‘the fascist italianità’.

 

- Translation as a Means of Resistance: Paratexts in Translations of Brecht’s Works during the Greek Junta (1967-1974), pp. 79-103

Dimitris Asimakoulas, Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, University of Manchester, UK

 

This paper places the published translations of Brecht’s works within the socio-political context of the Greek junta (1967-1974). After pre-publication censorship was lifted in 1969, a massive import of Brecht’s works occurred. Brecht was immediately incorporated in the newly established problem books tradition. The category entailed works of various genres addressing important social issues, which ultimately aimed at bringing the reader closer to modern thought, awakening Greek society and kindling the desire for democracy. The paper demonstrates that two influential publishers that launched Brecht’s works actively participated in this discursive practice. It concludes by showing that the paratextual elements of the books they launched were instantiations of the discursive motif of dark times, and as such, were mini-summaries of contemporaneous or already established trends of defiance against the regime in the publishing industry.

 

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Whitfield, Agnes (ed). 2006. Writing between the Lines. Portraits of Canadian Anglophone Translators. Waterloo (Ontario) : Laurier Press.

      Introduction Agnes Whitfield

  1. William Hume Blake, or the Translator as Amateur Ethnologist Sherry Simon
  2. Glassco Virtuoso Patricia Godbout
  3. Joyce Marshall, or the Accidental Translator Jane Everett
  4. Philip Stratford: The Comparatist as Smuggler Gillian Lane-Mercier
  5. On D.G. Jones and Translating Outside Stephanie Nutting
  6. Patricia Claxton: A Civil Translator Agnes Whitfield
  7. Sheila Fischman: The Consummate Professional Pamela Grant
  8. Transformations of Barbara Godard Kathy Mezei
  9. Ray Ellenwood: The Translator as Activist Barbara Kerslake
  10. Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood: Totally Between Agnès Conacher
  11. John Van Burek: Bringing Tremblay to Toronto Jane Koustas
  12. Linda Gaboriau: Playing with Performance Robert Wallace List of Contributors

 

 

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THESES

 

Graduation theses defended over the past 6 years at Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Germersheim.

This information was kindly provided to us by Doerte Andres, along with information on theses on conference interpreting, reported on the CIRIN site http://cirinandgile.com 

 

 

Allaoui, Raoua. 2004. Dolmetschen im Krankenhaus : Rollenerwartungen gegenüber Dolmetschen une deren eigene Rollenauffassungen. (On roles in interpreting in hospitals). Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit. Fachbereich Angewandte Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft (FASK), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Germersheim/Mainz.

 

Djoudi, Nadira. 2000. Evaluierung des automatischen Dolmetschers „Talk and Translate“. (Assessment of an automatic interpreting system). Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit. Fachbereich Angewandte Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft (FASK), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Germersheim/Mainz.

 

McGinley, Marie. 2004. Gerichtsdolmetschen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: eine empirische Untersuchung. (An empirical study on court interpreting in Germany). Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit. Fachbereich Angewandte Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft (FASK), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Germersheim/Mainz.

 

Naeb, Arzo. 2005. Suki Kim, The Interpreter: Gerichtsdolmetschen in den USA, Fiktion und Realität. (On the literary representation of court interpreting in Suki Kim’s The Interpreter) Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit. Fachbereich Angewandte Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft (FASK), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Germersheim/Mainz.

 

Rivera Montes, Angelica. 2000. Gebärdensprache und Gebärdensprachdolmetschen. (On sign-language interpreting). Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit. Fachbereich Angewandte Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft (FASK), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Germersheim/Mainz.

 

Rodriguez-Dick, Lourdes Maria. 2004. Künstliche Neuronale Netze une ihre Andwendung im Dolmetschersystem Verbmobil. (On neural networks and their use in Verbmobil). Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit. Fachbereich Angewandte Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft (FASK), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Germersheim/Mainz.

 

Rofrano, Simona. 2000. Community interpreting im psychotherapeutischen Bereich. Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit. Fachbereich Angewandte Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft (FASK), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Germersheim/Mainz.

 

Weber,  Marion Ulla. 2005. Community Interpreting in Deutschland – eine empirische Untersuchung unter besonderer Berücksichtingung von städtlicher und ländlicher Struktur.