On Institutional Translation in a Fictional Context: Interdisciplinary Remarks on the Structure and Hierarchy of the Royal Institute of Translation in R. F. Kuang’s Babel

Introduction: Cross-Cultural Reading

By nature a transdisciplinary area of inquiry, translation lends itself to being investigated at its intersection with other fields of study. Translation and Literary Studies seeks to highlight the manifold connections between translation and notions of gender, dialectics, agency, philosophy and power. The volume also offers a timely homage to renowned translation theorist Marilyn Gaddis Rose, who was at the forefront of the group of scholars who initiated and helped to institutionalize translation studies. Inspired by Gaddis Rose’s work, and particularly by her concept of stereoscopic reading, the volume is dynamically complementary to the burgeoning contemporary field of global comparative literature, underscoring the diversity of critical literary thought and theory worldwide. Arranged thematically around questions of translation as literary and cultural criticism, as epistemology, and as poetics and politics, and dealing with works within and beyond the Western tradition, the essays in the volume illustrate the multi-voiced spectrum of literary translation studies today.

Translation studies in both China and the West seems to suffer from a literary obsession, as shown in a statistical analysis of articles published in Chinese Translators Journal and Babel over the time span of 1987–2016. Translations of literary works and translation studies based on literary theories have attracted too much attention from translation scholars. Translation studies scholars on the whole seem to be obsessed with studies on literary translations. The dominance of literary translation studies seems to have been easing in China while remaining obvious in the West. Such an obsession may be attributed to such factors as the tradition of translation studies in China, the importation of modern western translation theories and the academic background of translation scholars in China. The obsession is detrimental to the discipline of translation studies, blocks the development of new theories and methodologies in translation studies and undermines the influence of translation studies as a discipline. To offset these negative side effects, translation scholars should shift more attention to non-literary translation, taking more translations of non-literary texts and interpreting as study objects and employing more theories and methodologies from disciplines other than literary studies.

Modern comparative literature with globalization phenomenon extends linguistic and political boundaries, even for conserving and revitalizing languages particularly minor languages with cultural and ethnic exchanges. Such this emergence of comparative literature might return from contemporary translational and cultural studies as crucial and effective factors in the study of comparative literature. The role, relationship, and impact of translation and cultural studies on modern comparative literature are explored via a descriptive analysis. Translational and cultural studies in current comparative literature studies facilitate the relevant studies and they play a supplementary role for literary study. This study confirms a significant relationship exists among contemporary translational, cultural, and literary works intangibly and inevitably that helps to study comparative literary works. The findings report cultural and translational studies can be fruity informing literary studies, new writing styles besides intercultural conversation; nevertheless, scholars of comparative literature have argued that their discipline has been significantly subsumed and substituted by translation studies. The results indicate contemporary translation and cultural studies have paved the way for comparative literature researchers to achieve cultural knowledge and to strengthen the culture with developing national literature.

Translation Studies had in its beginnings, a complex relationship with Comparative Literature, marked by conflict and complementarity, as many of its founders came from literary studies, and some of Comparative Literature itself. Over the past four decades, we can distinguish two main trends occurring unevenly in both disciplines. On the one hand, Translation Studies experienced a robust growth, with expansion of its research objects and certain detachment of literary studies. On the other hand, Comparative Literature has been gradually opening to the translation phenomenon and the very discipline of Translation Studies. The initial conflict disappeared and the dialogue was restricted to a portion of Translation Studies, which we might call the Literary Translation Studies and Comparative Literature. This is particularly true in Brazil, where literary translation studies occupy an important space in graduate programs, particularly in the specific programs of translation studies.

Translation Studies had in its beginnings, a complex relationship with Comparative Literature, marked by conflict and complementarity, as many of its founders came from literary studies, and some of Comparative Literature itself. Over the past four decades, we can distinguish two main trends occurring unevenly in both disciplines. On the one hand, Translation Studies experienced a robust growth, with expansion of its research objects and certain detachment of literary studies. On the other hand, Comparative Literature has been gradually opening to the translation phenomenon and the very discipline of Translation Studies. The initial conflict disappeared and the dialogue was restricted to a portion of Translation Studies, which we might call the Literary Translation Studies and Comparative Literature. This is particularly true in Brazil, where literary translation studies occupy an important space in graduate programs, particularly in the specific programs of translation studies.

Reviewed by: Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application Nicolae Harsanyi Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application. Amsterdam, Atlanta GA: Rodopi, 1998. 298 pp. In writing this book, Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek intends to enrich the field of comparative literature with a hitherto “lesser known theoretical framework and methodology that . . . represents to date one of the most advanced possibilities for the study of literature and culture” (260). The author’s motivation in his innovative stance lies in his awareness of the “problematic situation” (14) arising from the two contradictory developments noticeable in the discipline of comparative literature nowadays: a certain stagnation, if not recession, in its established centers in the US, France, and Germany, on the one hand, and a robust expansion in vast, non-traditional geographical areas such as the Far East, Latin America, and the Southern tier of European countries. At the same time, realizing that “it is the neglect and lack of rational inclusive, methodologically precise attention in operationality and functionality that results in flaws which in turn create—over several turns and twists—the marginalization of the study of literature” (21), Tötösy sets out to propose “The Systemic and Empirical Approach to Literature and Culture,” which he puts forth in an appropriately called Manifesto (Chapter One). The author then proceeds to offer several sets of applications of the proposed framework and method for a New Comparative Literature. Discussion focuses on a wide variety of literary and cultural areas of inquiry such as literary readership and the question of the literary canon in a context of cultural participation (Chapter Two). Interdisciplinarity, “taxonomically imprecise” (79), is debated in Chapter Three; Tötösy considers it as an integral part of a New Comparative Literature (82) and brings up as supportive arguments examples from literature and cinema. A very interesting Chapter Four focuses on the literatures of East Central Europe, the author proposing that their study follow the parameters of “inbetween peripherality” (135). This term acknowledges the peripherality of these literatures and cultures in relation to traditional cultural European “centers,” but, at the same time, does not lose from sight that East Central European literatures and cultures have long histories of their own, enjoying a certain degree of cultural sovereignty and self-referentiality. For a while Steven Tötösy lingers in the East Central European space in Chapter Five (“Women’s Literature and Men Writing About Women”) as well: when he considers the work of Hungarian fiction writer Margit Kaffka and its critical reception in Hungary Tötösy rightly emphasizes that the omission of feminist issues from evaluations of Kaffka’s prose is due to the patriarchal thinking deeply entrenched in the Hungarian critical practice. The last two chapters of the book deal with topics that have an ever closer bearing on the study of literature: the study of translation and the impact of new electronic technologies on literary and cultural studies. This book is useful not only for all those who are primarily interested in theoretical debates concerning the renewal of the study of comparative literature in the contemporary world, but also for all readers concerned with cultural studies dealing with East Central Europe. The author’s ubiquitous voice, alert pace of argumentation, subtle humor and irony enhance his persuasiveness. Nicolae Harsanyi University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Copyright © 1999 symploke

A Cultural Ambassador East and West: J. Hillis Miller’s <i>Lectures in China</i>

This study examines the interplay between linguistic theories and their application in literary and translation studies. Employing a qualitative methodology, the research analyzes existing studies through coding and thematic analysis, classifying them based on the degree of integration observed among linguistics, literary, and translation. The results indicate a more pronounced influence of linguistic frameworks within translation studies than literary studies. This disparity can be attributed to the intrinsic link between translation and linguistic principles, necessitating translators' engagement with grammar, syntax, semantics, context, and morphology. This suggests that the practical application of linguistic theories is more readily apparent in translation, where linguistic structures are actively manipulated and adapted. Further research is warranted to explore the potential impact of linguistic perspectives on diverse fields beyond literature and translation, such as management and medicine. This could involve investigating how linguistic analysis can inform communication strategies, cross-cultural understanding, and the interpretation of complex texts within these domains. Such interdisciplinary investigations could reveal valuable insights into the pervasive influence of language across various fields of study.

The study of English is a vast subject area. English literature has explicitly a rich history that goes back centuries to Anglo-Saxon times. Within literary studies, literary criticism and literary theory are considered very important. This article traces the trends in literary criticism and theory fromits origins to date. It, then, contextualizes this history in contemporary times. Finally, this article aims to analyze the current scene in literary criticism. Based on the developments analyzed in the field over the centuries, the article presents a systematic breakdown of historical trends and commentary on the current scenario. It is concluded that literary studies can be broadly classified into four distinct periods or stages based on the evolutionary markers of critical studies: non- disciplinary phase, disciplinary era, interdisciplinary period, and the most recent and ongoing transitory stage. These distinct divisions clarify the significant forces within literary and critical studies within each period. They are also helpful in grasping the current trend in the field and predicting the future of English studies.

The Journal of Contemporary Trends in Linguistic and Literary Studies (JCTLLS) is an open-access, peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of Lahore, Pakistan. JCTLLS is dedicated to advancing scholarship in classical and modern literature, translation studies, literary theory, linguistics, applied linguistics, and language teaching at both national and international levels. We publish original research articles, review articles, and critical book reviews relevant to literary and linguistic studies. This international journal provides a platform for scholars to engage with and challenge contemporary academic paradigms, shaping the future of literary and linguistic research. By facilitating the exchange of innovative ideas and research, JCTLLS aims to make a significant impact on the global academic community.

Iberian and Translation Studies: Literary Contact Zones offers fertile reflection on the dynamics of linguistic diversity and multifaceted literary translation flows taking place across the Iberian Peninsula. Drawing on cutting-edge theoretical perspectives from a comparative standpoint and on a historically diverse body of case studies, the volume’s sixteen chapters explore the key role of translation in shaping interliterary relations and cultural identities within Iberia. Mary Louise Pratt’s contact zone metaphor is used as an overarching concept to approach Iberia as a translation(al) space where languages and cultural systems (Basque, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish) set up relationships either of conflict, coercion, and resistance or of collaboration, hospitality, and solidarity. In bringing together a variety of essays by multilingual scholars whose conceptual and empirical research places itself at the intersection of translation and literary Iberian studies, the book opens up a new interdisciplinary field of enquiry: Iberian translation studies. This allows for a renewed study of canonical authors such as Joan Maragall, Fernando Pessoa, Camilo José Cela, and Bernardo Atxaga, and calls attention to emerging bilingual contemporary voices. In addition to addressing understudied genres (the entremez and the picaresque novel) and the specific phenomena of self-translation, indirect translation, and collaborative translation, the book provides fresh insights into Iberian cultural agents, mediators, and institutions such as publishing houses and theatre companies. Iberian and Translation Studies: Literary Contact Zones is indispensable reading for those interested in Iberian studies, translation studies, in particular the history of translation in the Iberian Peninsula, and comparative literature.

Translation studies (TS) has undergone remarkable disciplinary expansion since the 1990s. However, this can be argued to question the identity of TS as an autonomous discipline due to the deviation from the ontology of TS. Interactions between TS and other disciplines have indeed generated new academic paradigms and research methodologies. In this regard, Professor José Lambert elaborates on the interdisciplinarity of TS from a global perspective and illustrates the intricate relationships among TS, comparative literature (CL), literary studies, sociology as well as world literature (WL). How TS has functioned in constructing a certain culture or cultural phenomena is also discussed in this interview. Concepts such as ubiquity and invisibility are explored in connection with the mobility of languages. These may contribute to a redefinition of the concept of translation in the context of globalization or “mass media age”. José Lambert also suggests that collective research can be an effective solution for scholars in TS to conduct their research in an efficient way.

Introduction: The Interactive Relations Between Science and Technology and Literary Studies

Acknowledgements. F. Elizabeth DAHAB: Toward a New Comparative Literature: A Preface. CHAPTER ONE A New Comparative Literature as Theory and Method. CHAPTER TWO Literature and Cultural Participation. CHAPTER THREE Comparative Literature as/and Interdisciplinarity. CHAPTER FOUR Cultures, Peripheralities, and Comparative Literature. CHAPTER FIVE Women's Literature and Men Writing about Women. CHAPTER SIX The Study of Translation and Comparative Literature. CHAPTER SEVEN The Study of Literature and the Electronic Age. Conclusion. Works Cited. Index.