February 2008
(The
short notes and comments associated with the items presented here are personal
attempts to contribute useful information. In some cases, I have reproduced
partly an abstract or presentation provided by the author or publisher. In others,
the comments were made by me after reading the items. I acknowledge the
subjective nature of my comments, take responsibility for errors and will
gladly insert corrections at the request of authors. D. Gile)
DOCTORAL DISSERTATION
Thomson-Wohlgemuth,
Gaby. 2007. Translation under State
Control: The Production and Rewriting of Books for Young People in the German
Democratic Republic (1961-1989). Doctoral dissertation,
Department of Culture, Media and Communication,
Abstract:
All
societies apply some sort of selection to their literary production, none more
so than totalitarian states. This thesis explores the effects of ideology in
the particular instance of the translation of children’s literature from
English into German under the socialist regime of the former German Democratic
Republic. The main premise is that only by a broader study of the full
sociological context in which the production of literature takes place will a
comprehensive picture of translational processes and strategies become
apparent.
The
procedure of appropriating texts to become compatible with the prevalent
ideology is evidence of a climate hostile to any notion of Otherness.
Literature for young readers during the German Democratic Republic was
considered to be a vehicle for the promotion of socialist culture, creating in
them a love for socialist beliefs and shaping them to be loyal citizens of the
future. Precisely because of this high pedagogical value of books, a literature
cam to the fore that had a high status in society and that found itself at the
centre of attention.
The fact
that the study gives prominence to extra-textual factors makes possible a close
investigation of the East German censorship machinery. Indeed, one of the key
findings has revealed that censorship of translated books for a younger
audience was not mainly centered on text
manipulation. Whereas it is true that expressions not convergent with state
ideology were removed from texts, the predominant part of the censorship
process had already taken place during the earlier stages of book production.
Drawing on Lefevere’s theoey (see e.g. 1982,
1985 or 1992) of patronage, poetics and rewriting, it is demonstrated that all
book production was subjected to the ideological and poetological
norms prevalent in East German society. The thesis comprises two parts. The
first part provides a cultural political background and sheds light on the
institutional apparatus. It gives evidence that there was a multi-level
censorship at work and that it was, in fact, the Party as the patron which
propagated certain cultural and literary policies and monitored closely their
execution. It is further shown that that it was publishers who, in the process
of self-censorship, selected suitable texts for translation and publication,
texts which in their opinion would not cause problems and could be guided
smoothly through the procedure of obtaining a print permit.
In view of
this selection process, the second part of the thesis analyses the contents of
the print permit files, in which publishers justified their choice of book to
the censors, and the afterwords found in a significant
proportion of books. It is shown that there was a close correlation between the
socialist ideology propagated by the regime and the selection process itself.
While, however, the literature was
rewritten in the print permit files in a way only intended to be seen by the
censorship authority, ideology leaks into the printed word in the form afterwords, addressing the readers directly.
ARTICLES
From Across Languages and Cultures 8:1(2007)
Chesterman, Andrew.
2007. On the idea of a theory. Across Languages and Cultures 8:1.
1-16
* The written form of a lecture given a number
of times and in a number of places to doctoral students by the author on what concepts
the word ‘theory’ may name, including myth, metaphor, model, hypothesis and
structured research programme. Chesterman also says
that in a way, translations are also theories. Interesting, but perhaps
puzzling for research students, especially those who engage in empirical
research and who
would find it useful to have clear definitions of models as tools, theories as
conceptual constructs to be tested and hypotheses as more specific assumptions
to be tested as representing the theory.
Konšalová, Petra. 2007. Explicitation as a universal in syntactic
de/condensation. Across Languages and Cultures 8 :1.
17-32.
* A corpus-based empirical comparison of
grammatical features in German-Czech and Czech-German translations of popular
texts on history. Interestingly, the author looks at grammatical de-condensation
as a form of explicitation. This seems to be quite
remote from the original definition of explicitation
in translation as coined by Vinay and Darblenet in
Jawad, Hisham A. 2007. Arabic lexical doublets: translation
strategies. Across
Languages and Cultures 8:1. 33-54.
* A description of various ways in which
translators of Arabic deal with lexical doublets, i.e. pairs of words very
close to each other in meaning. Many examples.
Wong, Laurence. 2007. Centripetality
and centrifugality in translation: with reference to
European languages and Chinese. Across Languages and Cultures 8:1. 55-80.
* This author, who “[has] translated texts in a
number of directions..English-Chinese,
Chinese-English, Italian-Chinese, French-Chinese, German-Chinese,
Spanish-Chinese, and Italian-English” says that most often, there are no “readily
identifiable semantic, syntactic or grammatical equivalences” (when there are,
she talks about centripetality, when there are not,
she talks about centrifugality) between Chinese and
European languages, while there are between European languages, and that in
translating between any of the languages English, French, German, Italian and
Spanish, “the translator has only so say “open sesame” and his task is
instantly accomplished” (p.65, referring to a particular sentence). No comments.
Valero-Garcés, Carmen. 2007. Challenges in the
multilingual societies. The myth of the invisible interpreter
and translator. Across
Languages and Cultures 8:1. 81-101.
* As many others, in particular in the
sign-language interpreting literature, the author challenges the neutral
conduit model of interpreters and translators.
Horváth, Ildikó. 2007. Autonomous learning: what makes it work
in postgraduate interpreter training? Across Languages and Cultures 8:1. 103-122.
* This
paper can also be seen as part of a recent trend to focus on learning
processes. The author reports on the results of beginning-of-the-year and
end-of-the-year questionnaires filled out by students and of interviews with
head teachers.
From Forum 5:2( 2007) – Articles on conference interpreting will be reviewed in the CIRIN Bulletin (www.cirinandgile.com)
Pavlović, Nataša. 2007. Directionality in Translation and
Interpreting Practice: Report on q questionnaire survey in
* A questionnaire-based study with 193
respondents in
Shao, Wei. 2007. La traduction en tant que parcours cognitif – l’application à la traduction spécialisée. Forum 5:2. 125-146.
* The title of the paper refers to the
cognitive process of translation as applied to specialized translation is
somewhat misleading, as this essay refers to translation in general. The
author, who completed her PhD at ESIT, offers reflections on the nature of
texts in a communication-oriented perspective close to functionalistic ideas,
focusing on the intentions behind the text. As to the cognitive element in the
paper, it is discussed in a very general way, insisting on the need to analyze
and understand the text in the communication context so as to go beyond the
words and translate the intended meaning at the service of a communication
situation.
Shlesinger, Miriam. 2007.
Making the Most of Settling for Less. Forum 5:2.147-170.
* The
author notes that community interpreting is mostly practiced without training. She
then describes a 30-week, 60 hours training course in community interpreting
offered at an Israeli university. The course was divided more or less equally
between theory and practice. Theory addressed the significance of language rights,
an introduction to community interpreting, challenges faced by the interpreter
including role ethics and stress, and an introduction to the settings in which
community interpreters work. Practical components
included role-plays, note-taking and domain-specific terminology. 47 students
completed the course, only 6 of whom were translation students. The others were
enrolled in other departments. The primary aim of the course was to foster a
closer link between the university and the community, and the students were
asked where they wished to volunteer to help as community interpreters. Each
student was required to fill in a weekly report. Some of their comments are
discussed in the paper. Interesting and positive in more than
one way. Recommended reading.
Zhang, Xiangyun. 2007. La traduction du théâtre français en
Chine. Forum 5:2.171-194.
* A list of French plays translated into Chinese, a list of French
plays actually played in
Blondy-Mauchand,
Geneviève. 2007. Evaluer la
traduction professionnelle – le modèle de l’ESIT. Forum 5:2. 195-205.
* A
brief, but systematic and clear presentation of ESIT’s
present policy in terms of student assessment. At each step of training, there
are specific objectives, with criteria and indicators. A table shows how to
interpret marks as assessment of a given assignment against the quality
criteria and indicators.