Cultural Translation Studies Research Articles

A CULTURA JUDAICA NA LITERATURA DE ESCRITORES SEFARDITAS: glossários, festas e cerimônias

In this, we studied elements of Jewish culture in “Um pedaço de lua caía na mata” by Paulo Jacob and “Cabelos de fogo” by Marcos Serruya. “Um pedaço de lua caía na mata”, tells the story of Solomon and his family, who seek to remain Jewish in a culturally rich environment, fighting not to abandon their beliefs. “Cabelos de fogo” tells the story of Hana, a Jewish woman who was brought to the Amazon to become prostitutes. In addition to prostitution, Hana had to adapt to an unfamiliar culture. In them we find different aspects of Jewish culture such as: festivities, expressions and customs. Described in a contextualized way, building on a translation between Jewish and Amazonian cultures. We investigated how this process of cultural translation took place. For the theoretical-historical basis we used the works of Samuel Benchimol (2008), Reginaldo Heller (2010), Regina Igel (1997), among others. For cultural translation studies, we will use Peter Burke (2000).

All Colours Of Translation Matthew Reynolds (ed.), 2019. Prismatic Translation, Cambridge: Legenda

This article discusses the volume of essays Prismatic Translation, edited by Matthew Reynolds (Cambridge: Legenda, 2019) in light of the history of optical metaphors for translation and recent modernist studies. Tracing the conceptual genealogy of the term and the subtleties of its theoretical usage, the author argues that “prismatic translation” remains an impressive though still excessively ambiguous translation studies metaphor that has not yet solidified into a precise and operative theoretical tool. Notwithstanding these objections, Prismatic Translation can be considered an excellent reference volume for professionals and students engaged in literary and cultural translation studies, as well as comparative modernist studies.

Rewriting of Text and Paratext

Bushido: The Soul of Japan is an influential sociology work for the world to study Japan. Drawing primarily upon cultural translation studies and Gerard Genette's paratext theory, this article investigates how the 10 Chinese translations of Bushido: The Soul of Japan make meaning through rewriting of both text and paratext. The authoress contends that the cultural self-complacency, typical of “Escape from Asia” mentality in the wake of the Meiji Restoration, has been filtered by the dominant nationalist ideology in the target setting. Specifically, the affirmation of Chinese culture in the texts tends to be over-translated, while those paratexts that run contrary to the interest of the Chinese nation are either omitted or rewritten in conformity to Chinese nationalist thinking. As a result of the ideological rewriting of both text and paratext, Bushido has acquired a new meaning of war machine of modern Japanese militarism, which is a far cry from those intended by Inazo Nitobe in the wake of the first Sino-Japanese War.

Wszystkie kolory przekładu. Matthew Reynolds (ed.), 2019. Prismatic Translation, Cambridge: Legenda.

All Colours of Translation The article discusses the collective book Prismatic Translation edited by Matthew Reynolds (Cambridge: Legenda, 2019) in the light of the history of optical metaphors for translation and recent modernism studies. Tracing the conceptual genealogy of the term and the subtleties of its theoretical usage, the reviewer argues that “prismatic translation” remains an impressive though still excessively ambiguous translation studies metaphor that has not yet solidified into a precise and operative theoretical tool. Notwithstanding these objections, Prismatic Translation can be considered an excellent reference for professionals and students engaged in literary and cultural translation studies as well as comparative modernism studies.

A Study of Cultural Translation from the Perspective of Cultural Fax

Language is the carrier of culture. Translation is not only a shift between two languages, in fact, between two cultures. The process of collision and communication is the way of two different cultural exchanges and dialogues. Therefore, “cultural fax” should be the basic source of translation. The so-called cultural fax requires the target language to be culturally oriented and accurately reproduce the meaning, form and style that the original language is intended to convey. It is to convey the cultural connotation of the original language to the greatest extent. It is handed to the target readers so that they can fully understand the original culture. It can produce cultural feelings similar to the original readers so as to enrich the translation culture while exporting the original culture. However, it is not easy to achieve this goal in the process of translation. The paper mainly studies the theoretical basis of cultural translation through the analysis of the relationship among culture, language and translation. Cultural translation is explored through the study of different meanings of culture in a context. It mainly includes the analysis of the structure between culture and language, and the verification of the internal connection between culture and translation. Cultural fax refers to the translation of basic standards, which requires the translation of the meaning, form and style of the text to be accurately expressed from the perspective of culture.

Cultural Transfer as New Methodology of Comparative Research on Cooperation of Cultures

A theory of cultural transfer was the branch of comparative literary criticism, although this theory declared its sharp opposition against the mentioned tradition of study. The comparative studies in humanities are based on the ideas of specificity of every culture, even when one deals with the influence of one culture on another. Instead of this approach, the theory of cultural transfer promotes not only a simultaneous study of several cultural and national spaces but also a research on disseminations and transformations that appear at any rapprochement between cultures both in an influential culture and in a perceiving one. Consequently, it is not the binary opposition that must be taken into account in cultural transfer but two cultures, one of which is necessarily comprehended as a culture-recipient, although the whole scheme is much more complicated. Any transition from one cultural space into another easily may cause some transformation.
 Other ‘new element’ in the theory of cultural transfer is positioning the study of a cultural space periphery, i. e. connections with alien cultural space that every culture necessarily supports, in a center. This approach demonstrates that any phenomenon, no matter how specifically national it may be, actually is a complicated alloy of different cultures and influences.
 The objects of cultural transfer include the history of translation. Another priority direction is a comparative study of the national forms of comparativism related to the history of intellectual and spiritual relations between different countries and nations. During the transfer from one cultural situation into another any object gets into another context and acquires a new meaning.
 As focus of attention of a theory and studies of translation was shifting to the context of creation, operation and perception of translations, the research on the translated texts increasingly crossed the boundaries of the related disciplines that enabled learning this context – sociology, comparative studies, economics, history, cultural studies. The scholars aim to indicate the ways of manipulating the readers via translation, to explicate interests and values brought with every translation, to show how it forms the culture-receiver and values of society. The most attention is paid to the issues of ideology, economy and politics, the problems of ethnic responsibility of the translator. The object of cultural translation studies is the text in the system of literary and extra-literary meanings within the initial and receiving cultures. Cultural theory of translation raises the question of cultural prestige of the selected texts and determines the basis of this selection, the principles of forming and changing their status. One may focus also on the role of the commentator as an intermediary between the translator of the text and the readers to whom the translator wants to make his way through.

Translating tragedy: Molora and Yaël Farber’s adaption of Aeschylus’ Oresteia for the South African community

The article takes the case of Yaël Farber’s performance Molora (an adaption of the ancient Greek tragedy Oresteia to the specific historical South African moment of transition to democracy and the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission) as a departing point to delve into the question of the translatability of tragedy. With such a proposition in mind, the argument is informed by the relatively new field of cultural translation studies. Against this background, the translatability of the epistemological conditions of the Aristotelian concept of tragedy and its Western legacy will be considered. By proposing to translate the traditional notion of tragedy as literary dramatic genre to conceive of tragedy as event the article will delve into ethical questions concerning the human condition in relation to fate, which enhance guilt, judgement, the collision of force and law and the quest for justice. To connect these questions to tragedy, a distinction has to be made between the ethos of tragedy as an artistic form and the pathos (the grief) of those who experience a disaster or ruin in a situation of everyday life.

Tradaptation of Dramatic Texts

Abstract This article deals with the feasibility of applying cultural translation studies approaches to intra-lingual adaptation of dramatic texts through the discussion of adaptation terminology, the interchangeability of adaptation and translation, and the relevance of combining both into “tradaptation”. The purpose is to study loose adaptations of dramatic texts, especially those of Shakespeare, following cultural translation studies principles. The study has shown that it is satisfactorily feasible to use inter-lingual translation principles, across the spectrum from strictly literal to loose free, and apply them to the intra-lingual adaptation of dramatic texts, with the example of The Al-Hamlet Summit as a main reference. Further studies can help attain substantial progress in the analysis of the concept of adaptation. Keywords: adaptation, drama, intra-lingual translation, Shakespeare, tradaptation

“Are we talking about the same Jin Ping Mei?” Examining the reception of the novel in Vietnam from a cultural translation studies perspective

This paper is a case study showing how a literary classic like Jin Ping Mei (JPM) has been modified not only in its country of origin, but also in another receiving country through its translation due to various sociocultural, and political circumstances (especially censorship). The unawareness of textual transformations/modifications of the source text in the receiving nation will seriously entail the misunderstanding/misinterpretation of the classic over there where readers have access only to the sole translation of the work. The paper starts off with a brief survey on the circulation of JPM in Vietnam before the twentieth century, tracking its traces left in pre-modern Vietnam’s texts. It will mainly deal with the 1969 modern Vietnamese translation of the novel (JPM had never ever been translated into Vietnamese until that time). Since a translation can be both an adaptation and criticism of the source text, the paper will try to relocate the Vietnamese translation back into its reconstructed sociocultural settings, and scrutinize how its translator dealt with censorship of the time. Leaving the source text unidentified remained a common practice in Vietnam for a long time. Hence, in addition to identifying the source text of the translation, the paper also examines how the translator mystifies his source text and “retells” his JPM appropriately within his restrictively censored sociopolitical and cultural contexts. Examining the reception of JPM from a cultural translation studies perspective will reveal specific sociocultural circumstances that condition the translation.

Tradaptation of Dramatic Texts

This article deals with the feasibility of applying cultural translation studies approaches to intra-lingual adaptation of dramatic texts through the discussion of adaptation terminology, the interchangeability of adaptation and translation, and the relevance of combining both into “tradaptation”. The purpose is to study loose adaptations of dramatic texts, especially those of Shakespeare, following cultural translation studies principles. The study has shown that it is satisfactorily feasible to use inter-lingual translation principles, across the spectrum from strictly literal to loose free, and apply them to the intra-lingual adaptation of dramatic texts, with the example of The Al-Hamlet Summit as a main reference. Further studies can help attain substantial progress in the analysis of the concept of adaptation.

The Other in Subtitled Documentary Films and Making History: A Multidisciplinary Perspective to Arabic/English Translation

What is the relation between translation and history? A simple question as it may seem, but it gave the motive for this study to explore academically this relationship. It aimed to investigate the role of subtitling translation of documentary films from Arabic into English and the use of supplementary visual images in making the history of the Other, the Arab other generally and Egyptian Other particularly. It hypothesized that the West has constructed a deformed image of the Egyptian 'Other' and used translation and visual images as a tool to make the latter's history. To test the authenticity or the inauthenticity of the hypothesis, it set the following objectives: to analyse and compare English TTs to their original Arabic STs to infer the translator's strategy; to analyse visual images and discuss the image of the Other as delineated in both the TTs and STs; to present counter stories to reveal the other side of the story and who makes history; to explore how subtitling translation and visual images are utilized to help in making the Other's history; and to devise a future role for translators in this respect.The sample data was collected from the BBC documentary 'Egypt's Stolen Billions' (2012) and it consists of original Arabic utterances and their subtitling translation from Arabic into English, and some visual images. The study applied a qualitative, theoretical method of research using content analysis and comparison between TTs and STs as tools of analysis. An interdisciplinary approach deriving its key concepts from cultural translation studies and international relations theories was employed. The study found out that whatever the translator' modes of negotiating the Other are, translation is an operative political decision to make the history of this Other and that subtitling translation and visual images can be used as political tools to achieve certain agendas

A figura do imigrante no filme M. Lazhar: uma tradução do mito do estrangeiro

Resumo: O artigo apresenta um breve estudo sobre a representação do imigrante na narrativa fílmica M. Lazhar, dirigida pelo cineasta canadense Philippe Falardeau e lançada no Québec em 2011, às luzes da tradução cultural. Nesse artigo, busca-se analisar a figura do imigrante lida como uma tradução do mito do estrangeiro, que constitui uma figura literária das Américas e também um lugar de memória para a cultura quebequense. O aporte teórico empregado responde à premente necessidade de se rever o conceito de “identidade quebequense” como sendo o único lugar de representação para o sujeito da nação do Québec, contribuindo, portanto, para uma ampliação do conceito de identidade aplicado às produções artístico-culturais dessa comunidade. Palavras-chave: Identidade quebequense. Mito do estrangeiro. Tradução. Cinema canadense.