This thesis seeks to advance a new hypothesis for addressing retranslations, namely that the traditional explanation according to which translations become outdated and must be renewed can no longer account for all the aspects of the retranslation phenomenon. I propose to view retranslation as a means of transforming documents into monuments, of unearthing the mass of elements they contain and of making them relevant to the present and to the future. Retranslations become a source of inspiration for original philosophical texts, hence new philosophical trends or schools of thought, and for commentaries on the translation and its agents, all of which reflect the place and time where they emerge, thus shaping symbols of self-representation, collective consciousness, memory, and identity. I test this hypothesis through the exploration of 20th century Modern Greek retranslations of Plato’s Republic and through the examination of the diachronic and synchronic values of key political and philosophical elements of Plato’s system within the retranslations. These retranslations reflect not only how Plato’s philosophy is perceived by the modern Greek philosophical and political environment, but also whether they represent and prolong the canonical discourse on classical philosophy or introduce a more critical turn. I explore a case of a philosophical text whereby key elements of the Republic become a source of inspiration to answer basic questions of justice and polity from a modern point of view. I conclude that retranslations project the aspirations, fears, and values of the time and space in which they emerge while using the openness of the text to add extra layers of interpretation and meaning. Almost all retranslations and their corresponding paratext maintain a consistent referential relationship with one another and with other political and philosophical texts produced during the same period. The link that ties these texts together is not necessarily chronological. It also depends on the discursive approach adopted; the translator’s political or philosophical affiliation; the degree of canonicity of each translation and translator, and the prevailing ideologies of the society in which retranslations emerge. A classical work can become either a vibrant document used to promote, sustain, and revive dominant discourses on politics, national identity or philosophy or, alternately, a reactionary document that voices concerns over the relevance of the canonical or traditional discourse with which the original is equated.

It is widely acknowledged that mass media play a central role in circulating and disseminating ideas. Particularly in this globalised era, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the role and impact of news media in shaping public opinion worldwide. During the attacks on New York in September 2001, for instance, CNN - the American cable news network - broadcast across the world twenty-four hours, and most of its reports were translated, or interpreted, into other languages, to be aired in other countries in real time. Most people are thus exposed to extensive reporting every day, but they are not necessarily aware that each news institution promotes, or, at least tries to construct, a particular media discourse according to its political or social orientation. Because of the complexity of mass media discourses, however, it is difficult to demonstrate how the language used participates in constructing and disseminating certain ideologies, or to challenge stereotypes and power relationships. This explains why media, news, political and institutional texts are preferred genres for critical discourse analysts. The extensive body of literature on news media discourses and their impact which draws on critical discourse analysis includes Van Dijk (1988), Fairclough (1995b), Al-Hejin (2007), Kim S (2008), among many others. Translation is a major variable that influences the circulation of ideas and ideologies, and translational choices can participate in provoking (or diffusing) political conflict. At the same time, translation may also challenge dominant discourses. Baker (1996: 14) acknowledges the power of translation, arguing that translation and the study of translation have been used as a "weapon in fighting colonialism, sexism, racism, and so on". And yet, most research on news discourse has so far tended to examine monolingual texts, rather than multilingual texts, including translations, despite the fact that numerous news reports are translated from one language into another on a regular basis. Critical approaches to language study have occasionally been used to investigate translation, in order "to reveal how translation is shaped by ideologies and in this way contributes to the perpetuation or subversion of particular discourses" (Olk 2002: 101), but such studies have remained restricted in scope. Drawing on corpus-based methodology and critical discourse analysis, this study examines US and South Korean news stories published in mainstream media with a view to identifying specific discursive practices relating to North Korea and how they are mediated in translation. The study attempts to analyse the relationship between textual features and practices specific to each news outlet. The corpus for this study consists of two separate sub-corpora, designed and compiled according to the same criteria and specifications: one made up of news texts originally written in English, and the other consisting of translated texts which include English source texts and the target texts translated from English into Korean. The texts are drawn from Newsweek/Newsweek Hangukpan and CNN/CNN Hanguel News. It is hoped that this study will enhance our understanding of some of the ways in which particular media discourses are constructed, disseminated and mediated via translation.

Partindo do princípio de que as concepções de tradução dependam do modo como se concebe a linguagem, e de que a dinâmica histórica das teorias sobre tradução corresponda à alternância sucessiva entre propostas universalistas e relativistas, revê-se o momento de ingresso do tema na pesquisa acadêmica, época de domínio do universalismo, tipificado pela abordagem estruturalista. Mostra-se como as limitações próprias a essa abordagem levam ao abandono do universalismo em prol de um pensamento relativista radical que acaba também não dando conta do objeto. Nesse contexto, os estudos da tradução, enquanto tendência específica da pesquisa na área, aparecem como solução conciliatória, e ganham força como a abordagem mais próxima de descrever a experiência prática com o objeto. Faltam-lhe, todavia, aprofundar seus fundamentos teóricos, o que pode ser alcançado mediante o contato com a pragmática de Wittgenstein e a praxiologia de Bourdieu. As noções desenvolvidas por esses dois pensadores abrem espaço e contribuem para o desenvolvimento de uma teoria voltada para a prática, favorecendo a compreensão da tradução como o trabalho do tradutor. / Assuming that translation concepts depend upon the way language is conceived, and also that the history of translation theories alternates between universalists and relativists points of view, this work reviews the moment when translation theory is appropriated by academic research, a time in which the spread and supremacy of Universalism is represented by the dominant structuralist approach. The inner limitations of that approach imply however the abandon of Universalists ideas and the adoption of the opposite perspective, that of an extreme Relativism, which due exactly to its extremism limits itself to criticizing the presuppositions of the former Universalist paradigm. In that context, Translation Studies, considered a specific approach to the theme, arise as a conciliatory solution and seem to be closer to the translation praxis in describing its object. But Translation Studies also lack a deeper theoretical background and that can be achieved, supposedly, through an interdisciplinary contact with Wittgensteins pragmatics and Bourdieus praxeology. The chief notions elaborated by these two scholars may help the development of a theory that defines translation as the translators work.

As variantes dialetais de cada idioma possuem características geográficas, sociais, situacionais e culturais muito próprias e que podem vir a ser diferentes das encontradas em qualquer outra língua. Portanto, a tradução dessas variantes estaria diante de problemas para os quais seria necessário empregar uma variedade de técnicas tradutórias que, a nosso ver, merecem uma investigação mais detalhada. Assim, esta pesquisa tem como tema o estudo da tradução da representação literária do dialeto rural no romance Don Segundo Sombra (1926) do escritor argentino Ricardo Güiraldes para o português. A necessidade de um trabalho que vise analisar a tradução da representação literária do dialeto deve-se à falta de pesquisas sobre traduções de variantes dialetais que tenham como corpus original uma obra literária de língua espanhola e se baseie numa metodologia que exponha os dados de maneira qualitativa. A pesquisa fornece respostas às problemáticas que envolvem a tradução de dialeto e se beneficiarão dela todos os interessados nos aspectos da tradução de romances regionalistas, tal como aqueles que buscam amostras para os estudos dialetológicos na área de tradução. Analisamos a tradução com o auxílio do modelo de avaliação de qualidade de tradução de Juliane House (1997), baseado em quatro níveis de análise: função do texto individual, gênero, registro e linguagem/texto. Concluímos que o tradutor realiza um trabalho bastante satisfatório ao se aproveitar do contínuo dialetal existente entre o português brasileiro e espanhol, mais especificamente o português do Rio Grande do Sul e o espanhol do Rio da Prata, para marcar a linguagem da tradução como regional e estrangeirizadora. Por meio disso, ele consegue transmitir ao leitor a noção de que as personagens produzem uma variante marcada dialetalmente como não padrão/neutra, sem descaracterizá-las. / The dialect variants of each language have geographical, social, cultural and situational features very unique and that may be different from those found in any other language. Therefore, the translation of these variants would face problems for which it would be necessary to employ a variety of translation techniques that, in our view, deserve a more detailed investigation. Thus, this research theme is the study of translation of literary representation of rural dialect in the novel Don Segundo Sombra (1926) by Argentine writer Ricardo Güiraldes into Portuguese. The need for a work aimed to analyze the translation of literary representation of dialect is due to the lack of research on translations of dialect variants that have as source corpus a literary piece written in Spanish language and based on a methodology that expose data in a qualitative way. The research provides answers to problems involving the translation of dialect and it will benefit all interested in aspects of translation of regionalist novels, as well as those seeking dialect samples for studies in the field of translation. We analyzed the translation with the help of Juliane Houses model of translation quality assessment (1997), based on four levels of analysis: individual textual function, genre, register and language / text. We conclude that the translator performs a quite satisfying work as he takes advantage of the dialect continuum between Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish, more specifically the Portuguese from Rio Grande do Sul and Spanish from Rio de la Plata, to mark the language of translation as regional and foreignizing. By this, he manages to convey to the reader the notion that the characters produce a variant marked as dialectally nonstandard / neutral without uncharacterize them.

This thesis seeks to advance a new hypothesis for addressing retranslations, namely that the traditional explanation according to which translations become outdated and must be renewed can no longer account for all the aspects of the retranslation phenomenon. I propose to view retranslation as a means of transforming documents into monuments, of unearthing the mass of elements they contain and of making them relevant to the present and to the future. Retranslations become a source of inspiration for original philosophical texts, hence new philosophical trends or schools of thought, and for commentaries on the translation and its agents, all of which reflect the place and time where they emerge, thus shaping symbols of self-representation, collective consciousness, memory, and identity. I test this hypothesis through the exploration of 20th century Modern Greek retranslations of Plato’s Republic and through the examination of the diachronic and synchronic values of key political and philosophical elements of Plato’s system within the retranslations. These retranslations reflect not only how Plato’s philosophy is perceived by the modern Greek philosophical and political environment, but also whether they represent and prolong the canonical discourse on classical philosophy or introduce a more critical turn. I explore a case of a philosophical text whereby key elements of the Republic become a source of inspiration to answer basic questions of justice and polity from a modern point of view. I conclude that retranslations project the aspirations, fears, and values of the time and space in which they emerge while using the openness of the text to add extra layers of interpretation and meaning. Almost all retranslations and their corresponding paratext maintain a consistent referential relationship with one another and with other political and philosophical texts produced during the same period. The link that ties these texts together is not necessarily chronological. It also depends on the discursive approach adopted; the translator’s political or philosophical affiliation; the degree of canonicity of each translation and translator, and the prevailing ideologies of the society in which retranslations emerge. A classical work can become either a vibrant document used to promote, sustain, and revive dominant discourses on politics, national identity or philosophy or, alternately, a reactionary document that voices concerns over the relevance of the canonical or traditional discourse with which the original is equated.

Metaphors have long shaped the way pure translation studies describe and justify the translation phenomenon by discovering and consolidating underlying principles. Ultimately, by means of metaphor, something that dwells on the interaction of two seemingly distinct things, translation theorists have obtained a better understanding of the category of translation. Human beings are gregarious, and disputes are inevitable in every society, ancient or modern, primitive or civilized. In fact, conflict is one iron law of life that mankind has had to improvise ways of resolving, from such formal ones as litigation to private ones such as self-help. We may not be able to eliminate dispute altogether, but we can, however, resolve it through creative and civilized means. Translation can be approached in a similar context, except it concerns a metaphorical dispute between cultures and/or languages—and probably on a more intangible and subtle platform. Disparate cultures, religions and languages in a clash can be brought closer to each other with skillful translation, and hence, translation is a variation of dispute resolution. That never went totally unnoticed. Over the years, countless translation metaphors have been constructed and exploited with very different results, which indicates how interdisciplinary a subject translation studies really is. Yet, apparently, translation is most often metaphorized as mediation and negotiation but rarely as arbitration or litigation, and one cannot but wonder whether this happened out of sheer coincidence or because of some misunderstanding. Thus, much as I appreciate what theorists have accomplished with translation metaphors, in regard to didactics and heuristics, my primitive observation is that translation theorists and practitioners have never made full use of metaphorization in that they might have had an incomplete idea of dispute resolution theory in general. After all, a metaphor is, ideally, meant to facilitate active learning and full integration of new knowledge, but there still remains a missing piece that is part and parcel of our metaphorization of translation. Specifically, translators have always embraced the amicable terms of negotiation and mediation, distancing themselves from non-mainstream ones such as arbitration and litigation. To that end, in my thesis, I will explore and examine translation through slightly renewed lenses, demonstrating how and why our metaphor schema and mapping should originate in dispute resolution, and why litigation, and perhaps even arbitration as dispute resolution mechanisms, would serve as good a metaphor—if not a better one—for translation. It is my resolute belief that the translator is more qualified as a judge, a respectable professional vested with immense judicial power, than as a mediator, who is but a third-party neutral facilitating dialogue between two disputants. Only in this way can metaphors do translation theory a great service by furnishing it with a renewed and objective description of translation.

Three different English translations of Lao She’s (老舍) Luotuo Xiangzi (骆驼祥子) were marketed in the USA from 1945 to 2005. What are the major historical occurrences and trends from the late 19th to the early 21st century that define the contexts of these translations? Beginning with an analysis of the stylistic features of each translation, the present study explores how each of the three translators and the corresponding historical context impacted on the production of the translated text, its marketing orientation and its reception in the USA. With a comparison of the three translated texts and their meta-textual features, the study seeks to reveal the attitude of each translator and their translation strategies, which are, to a large extent, decreed by their historical times. The first translation Rickshaw Boy (1945) was a market success because it met the requirement of popular fiction and echoed the prevailing preconception about China immediately after the WWII. The second translation Rickshaw (1979) was an academic production associated with the revival of Sino-US diplomacy in the 1970s. The third translation Camel Xiangzi (1981), which was produced in China but published in both China and the USA, originated from China’s wish to be better known by the world; while the reprint of Camel Xiangzi in 2005 by a Hong Kong publisher represented a new era when Chinese cultural products were turned into profitable commodities in the global cultural market. The production and circulation of the three translations can be studied as historical texts themselves. The three translations, which are connected to all the great events since WWII, show the change of the Chinese image in the American media. They also shed light on the evolution of Chinese literary studies in American academia, which has gradually become an independent discipline during the same period.

This thesis seeks to examine the translation of selected foreign film-titles in Hong Kong and Taiwan from 1990 to 2002. Lawrence Venuti’s theory on “domesticating translation” and “foreignizing translation” will be taken as the conceptual framework for the study. Building on Friedrich Schleiermacher’s perspective on translation and on his observations about the Anglo-American publishing industry, Venuti asserts that “foreignizing translation”, being a strategy to bring the target-text audience toward the original text, should be preferred over “domesticating translation” as the former would guarantee difference by introducing foreign elements to the text recipients. By doing so, people will have more chances to be exposed to cultures other than their own and thus a heterogeneous society will be formed and maintained. Since Venuti’s study has not touched upon the Asian region situated in the periphery of global culture as opposed to the Anglo-American one, his suggestion for “foreignizing translation” might not be feasible globally. Selected film-titles will be examined in this thesis. Data show that most of the translated titles in Hong Kong are domesticated. The same can be said of Taiwan in recent years, though to a lesser extent. Unlike other text types, film-titles are normally translated or adapted by the local film distributors rather than professionally or academically trained translators. With box-office sales as the major concern of the movie business, the adoption of the domesticating strategy can easily be rationalized, if not justified. Equally notable is the fact that, as recent trend in Taiwan demonstrates, domesticating strategy also reflects a stronger sense of local identity.

This thesis is a textual and contextual study of English renditions of poetry in Luo Guanzhong’s Sanguo zhi yanyi, in terms of their artistic approach and their bearing on the artistic functions which poetry fulfills in the novel. There are several English renditions of the Sanguo zhi yanyi in full or in part, including two full translations by Charles H. Brewit-Taylor and Moss Roberts. While the two full translations form the focus of the study, Roberts’s abridged version is also included. Published fifteen years before the full rendition by the same translator, the abridged version serves every now and then as a reference point showing how an individual’s interpretive perception may change over time and bear on choices made in a literary translation. Insertion of poetry in a novel is basically unique to Chinese fiction, often contributing to its overall artistic effects as an organic element. A Western reader coming from a different cultural background may employ different standards in evaluating the artistic role and appeal of poetry in a Chinese classical novel. In an attempt to be as flexible and open-minded as possible, this thesis does not adopt any particular theoretical perspective, but makes use of literary concepts to facilitate the analysis as appropriate. To assess the literary translations, concrete analysis of selected original poems in semantic, syntactic, auditory, imagistic, symbolic and stylistic terms is made before the strategies adopted by the translated versions, along with their merits and limitations, are discussed. Detailed discussions of textual features and contextual elements offer an evidence-based appraisal of the renditions. artistic approaches, which are significant in shedding light on the translators’ attempts to re-create and revitalize the artistic appeal of the source text within the multidimensional context of the target language and culture. It is also hoped that the thesis help shed light on some general as well as language- and culture-specific issues in the translation of classical Chinese poetry.

The aim of this thesis is to develop a theoretical framework that could account for the problems arising in the translation of oral history interviews. While focusing on literary, economic and technical texts, Translation Studies has neglected the examination of Oral History. In order to fill in this major lacuna in the research literature, I ask two fundamental questions: Which are the linguistic problems and challenges (if any) of such texts in translation? How do these translated oral history interviews articulate the communist experience? I do so to call attention to the mutual benefits that can be gained from such an intersectional approach. To instantiate the case, I translate from Romanian into English transcribed interviews given by three categories of people: those involved in the anti-communist armed resistance in the Carpathian Mountains (extracted from the book Memorialul Durerii: Întuneric şi Lumină, by Lucia Hossu-Longin), political prisoners (Supravieţuitorii: Mărturii din temniţele comuniste ale României, by Raul and Anca Ştef) and King Michael I of Romania (Convorbiri cu Mihai I al României, by Mircea Ciobanu). Importing Portelli’s theoretical framework from the field of Oral History allows me to identify the features of historical interviews (orality, narrative, subjectivity, performativity) and account for their difficulties in translation. However, since the Italian researcher negates the orality of transcribed interviews, I manage to solve this problem by proposing the term ‘fictive orality’ (Koch&Osterreicher) and the triad ‘vividness (repetitions/imagery), immediacy (direct speech), fragmentation (ambiguity/ellipsis)’. Defining thus the orality of my written data, I map out the translational problematics of oral testimonies on communism and contend that fragmentation presents the most difficult challenges in translation. Additionally, my results point at the copious use of repetitions, visual/kinaesthetic/organic images, and direct speech. The findings also confirm the effectiveness of a literal translation given the emphatic role acquired by the linguistic strategies previously mentioned. Conclusively, recommendations are made for proximity to the source text as the translational processs assumes the form of a ‘dialogue’ that the translator has to establish with the original, so that he/she could hear all the participants talking. Hence, I rely on foreignization as an over-arching method, demonstrating its compatibility with Oral History on communism. On the one hand, this strategy captures the cognitive and emotive dimensions of the interviewees’ language of suffering and trauma. On the other hand, it preserves the foreignness of the original, by bringing into focus the distinctively Romanian communist experiences. / Doctorat en Langues, lettres et traductologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished