History Of Translation Studies Research Articles

Translation Theory: A Historical-Thematic Account

The main function of Translation Studies is to study issues of translation production and propose solutions for translation problems. Today, Translation Studies is an academic discipline that is gaining more recognition in the academic community. More than that many scholars of different backgrounds and fields of study like literature, history, anthropology, semiotics, and philosophy have been attracted by translation studies. This article is divided into three sections. The first section presents a brief history of Translation Studies. The second section discusses definitions and meanings of the word 'translation'. The third section analyses different theories of translation.

Translating Literary Texts Between Cultural Aspect and the Recipient’s Importance

This research paper is based on the translation of the literary text between the cultural dimension and the importance of the recipient. Since the history of translation studies has witnessed the three prominent turns, the cultural and social dimension has become the pillar of each translational activity, as the translator cannot proceed without returning to these two dimensions in order to obtain a translation that balances the basic elements of both the source text and the target text, including the linguistic and cultural elements. Through this intervention, we aim to highlight some of the concepts that are relevant to the field of our research, such as receiving translations in the target social culture and the difference between taking this element into account and ignoring it.That is why our study is divided as follows: The theoretical aspect of its concepts and everything related to it in order to avoid any form of wrong practice on the reality of the cultural and social dimension for the target recipient, especially since the translation of a literary text is one of the most difficult types of translation that requires the translator’s high skills. As for the practical aspect of the study, it relies on the comparative descriptive approach of literary texts translation reality under the sociological turn of translation studies. We will highlight the examples that we will extract from Mohamed Dib’s novel and analyze them to reach the results of this recent shift in the translation field and answer its main problem: What is the element of receiving translations in the target social culture? What are the difficulties of translating the literary text between the cultural dimension and the target recipient?

Translation Studies Quadrant-Petal Map: An Analytical Retrospect on Intellectual Translation Turns

Abstract
 The history of translation studies is swarming with tenth of categorizations of the hierarchal epochs of translation studies since the arousal of early translation views in the 16th century and till the 21st century. This study opens a window on the significant translation turns in the history of translation studies; it historically categories significant translation theories conducted across the above-mentioned period under four translation turns, namely: Early views on Translation, The Linguistic-Equivalence turn, The Cultural-Purpose turn and The Interdisciplinarity turn. Such categorization provides a better understanding for the most significant translation theories and models in the history of translation studies and their eminent impact on the translation field in specific and the society in general—generally represented in the recipients of the translation service. Translation Theories under each turn accomplish a major translation aim namely the Nationalistic translation aim*. This nationalistic translation aim represents the translation requirements in its functional, ethical, and social sense as generally required by translation service receivers, labeled in the current study as a Translation Petal; it is further implicitly addressed to the society to positively improve the society’s opinion towards translation. The current study fulfills a threefold aim: First, it sheds light on the significant translation turns across the history of translation studies and highlights the main features of each translation turn. Second, it renames the reviewed translation turns according to the translation function of the significant translation theories under each turn. Third, it elucidates the link between each translation turn and the nationalistic translation aim (i.e. translation petal) it urges for through a precise mind-map entitled as the Translation Studies Quadrant Petal Map [TSQPM] that presents the new naming of the four reviewed turns and clarifies the nationalistic translation aim (i.e. translation petal) implemented under each intellectual translation turn.

A Comparative Study of the Translation Activities in the Western Renaissance Period and the Scientific and Technological Translation in the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties

In the history of the development of Europe, the Renaissance is a key stage of development of the awakening of humanism spirit. During it, national languages were widely promoted, and in the hope of promoting social change, the key proponents of the Renaissance carried out a large number of literary translation activities, forming a climax in the history of western translation. In China, the translation history has been recorded since the Zhou Dynasty, and the translation activities have been developing continuously since then. This paper compares the translation activities of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties with the Renaissance period. By means of comparative research, the author discovers the differences in translation background, purpose, essence and content of the two translation upsurge of the Western Renaissance and the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, which will not only help to sort out and study the history of translation and the history of translation studies, but also help to promote the emergence of new translation thoughts and theories.

Suomalaisen käännöstieteen näkyvyys maailmalla

The history of Translation Studies in Finland is still largely unstudied. Particularly little research has so far been done on scholarly publishing. The well-known exception to the rule is Gideon Toury (2009), who when studying the statistics of the prestigious journal Target from its first twenty years (1989–2008), observed that Finland was among the major contributing countries and thus a central country on the map of Translation Studies. This paper investigates what happened to Finland’s centrality in Target during 2009–2020, albeit with different methods. Furthermore, the analysis has been extended to five other well-known journals: Meta, Perspectives, The Translator, trans-kom and Translation Studies, in order to study Finland’s visibility in Translation Studies on a larger scale. The analysis shows changes in the proportions of contributing countries in Target. Scholars with a Finnish affiliation represented only 3 percent of all (co-)authors 2009–2020. However, when multiple appearances are calculated the proportions are slightly different, and Finland ranks ninth with Canada among the ten most contributing countries to Target. As to the other journals, Finnish scholars have a visible position (8 per cent of all authors) only in trans-kom, whereas in the four other journals, they represent 1–3 per cent of all contributors.

The place of the 1958 edition of Andrei Fedorov’s “Introduction to Translation Theory” in the history of translation studies

The place of the 1958 edition of Andrei Fedorov’s “Introduction to Translation Theory” in the history of translation studies

A Psycholinguistic Analysis of the First Ukrainian Syllabi on General and Special Methodology of Translation by Mykhailo Kalynovych and Mykola Zerov

The article studies and discusses the programs of interrelated lecture courses on General and Special Methodology of Translation, developed for the Ukrainian Institute of Linguistic Education by its professors Mykhailo Kalynovych and Mykola Zerov in September 1932. This material is analyzed from the perspective of psycholinguistic text theory, according to which the text is the basic unit of discourse that, in turn, is a component of communicative action, along with the situation. The study focuses on the micro- and macrotext structure of the above programs and highlights the peculiarities of their communicative intentions in the political and social reality of early Stalinism. It features the unique, innovative elements in them, but also those that were typical of the early Soviet theory of translation. For the first time not only in Ukrainian but also in the All-Union thought on translation, Kalynovych and Zerov presented in their integrated courses the ramified structure of Translation Studies as a multifaceted discipline. They introduced into the discipline novel methodology and new research directions, particularly by creating such areas as the history of translation studies and translation management. The material of Zerov's syllabus on Special Methodology of Translation is first published and discussed in this article. The typewritten text of the syllabus remained unknown until the author of the article found and identified it in the Archives of the Literary Museum of Hryhoriy Kochur, who had been a student of Zerov at the Kyiv Institute of Public Education and further remained his faithful follower. During the Khrushchev thaw, Kochur made many efforts to rehabilitate the name of Zerov – a distinguished literary scholar, lecturer, and poet-translator. The syllabus on General Methodology of Translation outlined by professor Kalynovych was found earlier in the same Archives and published in 2015. However, this article pioneers its presentation and analysis in mutual complementarity with the syllabus by Zerov.

Çeviri(sel) Dönüş için Bir Araç olarak Yeniden Yazma Üzerine Kavramsal Bir Tartışma

This article problematizes the strictly literary use of Andre Lefevere’s conceptualization of rewriting solely in the analysis of translated texts. It aims to discuss how the concept of rewriting can be deployed in the areas of research in social sciences and humanities outside literature and translation studies. To this end, the review first situates the concept of rewriting within the history of translation studies, and especially the emergence of the cultural turn. Subsequently, it delineates the defining aspects of Lefevere’s conceptualization of translation as a form of rewriting. While highlighting his contribution to a renewed understanding of the dynamics involved in the production of translated literature, this overview allows for elucidating the links between the notions of translation and adaptation through the frame of rewriting. In doing so, the article elaborates on the relevance of rewriting to the translation(al) turn by demonstrating its affinity with and divergence from the cultural turn. The Discussion and Conclusion section provides certain specific examples of how patronage can be applied to discuss the restraining or facilitating impact of a given political context on the production of film adaptations. Overall, this review proposes to consider the process of film production as one of rewriting in terms of the possible economic, ideological and status components involved therein. This conceptual discussion thus revisits the potential of rewriting as a methodological tool for a translation(al) turn in social sciences and humanities, which may develop avenues of collaboration between translation studies and other areas of interdisciplinary research.

Cultural translation, universality and emancipation

In a way, the history of Translation Studies, at least for the last decades, has been that of a continuous broadening of the field of study. If the 1990s witnessed the “cultural turn” famously heralded by Mary Snell-Hornby, more recently scholars have turned towards the role that translation plays in cultural dominance and cultural resistance, in what has been referred to as the power turn. At the same time, a converging movement could be observed from outside the field of Translation Studies: Some thinkers, in their quest for new intellectual paradigms to tackle the challenges faced by emancipatory projects, have veered towards translation as a way to overcome particularism and nationalism, while at the same time avoiding the risks of a monocultural universalism that is seen to lead inevitably to imperialism. Translation, by necessarily reaching out to the Other and creating hybridity, offers a unique chance to “square the circle” and find “equivalence in difference.” In this paper, we discuss the ideas about translation of four such thinkers, coming from very different backgrounds and traditions: Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Étienne Balibar, Judith Butler and Boaventura de Sousa Santos.

СТИЛИСТИЧЕСКИЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ ПЕРЕВОДА ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННОГО ТЕКСТА (НА ПРИМЕРЕ РОМАНОВ ДЖ. ЛОНДОНА «МАРТИН ИДЕН» И М. А. БУЛГАКОВА «МАСТЕР И МАРГАРИТА»)

The article deals with the peculiarities of lexical units translation in the novels “The Master and Margarita” by M. A. Bulgakov and “Martin Eden” by Jack London from Russian into English and from English into Russian. The history of translation studies, theoretical questions, key conceptions and factors influencing the adequacy of the translation are touched upon. In the work the authors analyze the examples of constructing phrases in different-system languages and ways of translating them. The examples from novels and their analysis are given. The paper considers comparison as a means of figurativeness and expressiveness, its types and functions.

Kafka in der Türkei: Rezeption von Kafkas Werken in der Türkei und ihre Einflüsse auf die moderne türkische Literatur by Süreyya İlkılıç

Reviewed by: Kafka in der Türkei: Rezeption von Kafkas Werken in der Türkei und ihre Einflüsse auf die moderne türkische Literatur by Süreyya İlkılıç Mine Eren Süreyya İlkılıç, Kafka in der Türkei: Rezeption von Kafkas Werken in der Türkei und ihre Einflüsse auf die moderne türkische Literatur. Epistemata Literaturwissenschaft 860. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2016. 342 pp. Süreyya İlkılıç’s study presents an intentionally nonargumentative overview of Kafka’s reception in Turkey and the influence that his work has had on Turkish authors, intellectuals, and scholars since the mid-twentieth century. According to İlkılıç, Turkish readers were first introduced to Kafka in 1951 with the translation of his short story “A Message from the Emperor” (1919). A year later his novella The Metamorphosis came out, followed by In the Penal Colony in 1954, whereas Kafka’s 1925 novel The Trial was published in 1960, premiering for the stage in Ankara three years later. While the first Turkish translations were produced via the English or French translations, from the 1960s onward a steady stream of new translations were completed and published, all based on the original German texts. It is striking that Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, first translated into Turkish in 1955 by Vedat Günyol, went through a significant period of retranslations. The newest version was published in 1986 by Ahmet Cemal. İlkılıç reveals that the work of earlier translations were essential for the reception of Kafka in Turkey but also had an influenced on a new style of modern Turkish literature. She highlights the subtle differences in the work of the various translators such as Kâmuran Şipal, Ahmet Cemal, and Evrim Tevfik Güney to shed light on the ways in which their translations have shaped, rearranged, expanded, and at times limited Turkish readers’ understanding of Kafka’s literary work. Despite the criticism by a newer group of Turkish Kafka scholars and translators, the first generation of translators, such as Necip Aslan, Vedat Günyol, and Adalet Çimcoz, were instrumental in introducing Kafka to the Turkish-speaking world. [End Page 122] The volume is divided into nine parts. In the first half of the book, İlkılıç sketches out the traditional Kafka scholarship that established itself in Turkey, drawing attention to the main interpretative approaches to Kafka’s texts, the search for an ultimate meaning behind his writings, and also the challenges in transcribing the author’s puzzling figurative and metaphorical meanings into the Turkish language. In this respect, her volume presents a brief history of translation studies and its evolution in Turkey, referring to some methods used in classical Ottoman literature and the modern era. Simultaneously, İlkılıç discusses the idiosyncrasies of the Turkish language, referring to linguistic features such as phonology, morphology, and syntax. Her structural analysis then draws attention to the history of Turkish literary production and to what extent Kafka’s oeuvre has influenced the writings of renowned Turkish authors, such as Sait Faik, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Bilge Karasu, Ferit Edgü, Yusuf Atılgan, and Hasan Ali Toptaş. The book lays before us a few dates and facts about Turkish literature as well as the sociocultural and ideological changes since the foundation of the republic in 1923. Additionally, it offers comparative readings of how Kafka is approached from various points of view by Turkish critics. The second half of the book deals with Kafka’s characteristic narrative techniques. The following chapter presents excerpts of Kafka’s Metamorphosis in Turkish and the various perspectives of Turkish translators. İlkılıç’s analysis has been tempered by an understanding of linguistics and grammar; it is further enhanced her grasp of the significant number of loanwords from Arabic, Persian, Ottoman as well as colloquial Turkish have found their way into Kafka’s stories. The book includes also a pilot study on Kafka that the author conducted with seventeen Turkish authors and scholars. While some answers are short, many participants responded in detail to İlkılıç’s questionnaire and spoke about their fascination with Kafka. One will find in this section information on why Kafka’s works are relevant to the...

Strategies Used in Translation of Scientific Texts to Cope with Lexical Gaps (Case of Biomass Gasification and Pyrolysis Book)

Lexical gap in translation is deeply debated during the history of translation studies. Many theories have been put forward to explain the possible strategies of filling lexical gaps. This descriptive study aims to investigate some of these strategies used in the translation of a special technical book, Biomass Gasification & Pyrolysis (Practical Design and Theory), this book was a suitable option, since it has modern topics, some of which have not been discussed or even existed in the target language (Persian). In this study, seventy new terms which have not been employed in Persian (in that field) were selected and examined, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the words indicated that loan word, loan translation, loanblend were the most prominent strategies to cope with new lexicons; in addition, it also showed that loan translation had the highest rate of usage (68.5%) among other techniques and in scientific contexts it is widely preferred.

A History of Translation Studies in Korea: Prerequisites and Preliminary Remarks

A History of Translation Studies in Korea: Prerequisites and Preliminary Remarks

De Berman à Venuti

Postcolonial theory, widening the horizons of translation research, has played a significant role in the history of translation studies. But this interdisciplinary field was often neglected. This paper analyses two major authors of translation studies, Berman, French translator and theorist and Venuti, American theorist inspired by Berman, and examines their similarities and differences. It compares their theoretical frames, ‘traduction de la lettre’ of Berman and ‘resistant translation’ of Venuti and finally reaches the conclusion that, for a better understanding of the peculiarities of each situation of translational acts, a third paradigm, proposed by Deleuze, can be useful.