Thesis (doctoral)--University of Göteborg, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 272-294).

La traduction est une affaire culturelle. De prime abord, elle se présente comme la recherche d’équivalents lors du passage d’une langue à l’autre. Mais si on se penche sur le travail qu’effectuent les traducteurs, on se rend compte rapidement que traduire exige des opérations bien plus complexes. Ainsi, un texte littéraire rédigé en une langue ne peut pas être traduit vers une autre langue sans que le traducteur ou la traductrice fasse attention au contenu culturel que véhicule la langue. Un même message est communiqué de deux manières différentes par deux peuples issus de cultures distinctes. Ainsi opère un système très complexe qui déborde le champ de la linguistique et s’enracine dans la culture qu’exprime chaque langue. Toutes les actions humaines, la communication, les sentiments, les réactions, la compréhension, l’interprétation (pour en nommer quelques-unes) ont la culture pour fondement.Intitulée « L’épreuve de l’étranger : traductions françaises d’écrivains sri lankais contemporains de langue anglaise », notre thèse a pour mots-clés : « culture », « sri lankais » et « traduction ». Elle a pour point de départ une question formulée en quelques mots simples : comment transmettre en français la culture sri lankaise ? Ces deux cultures sont distantes sur le plan géographique mais aussi pour ce qui concerne leurs pratiques et leurs valeurs. C’est donc une rencontre entre l’Orient et l’Occident que permet la traduction par le truchement de la langue anglaise.Les deux œuvres que nous avons choisies pour notre corpus, Funny Boy de Shyam Selvadurai (1994) et Running in the Family de Michael Ondaatje (1982), sont imprégnées de culture sri lankaise. Nous avons tenté de mettre en évidence systématiquement les stratégies utilisées par les traducteurs pour préserver l’identité de la culture source. La tâche du traducteur n’est pas de dissimuler ou de minimiser les éléments culturels sri lankais mais de les rendre visibles dans ses textes. Par les stratégies qu’il utilise, le traducteur parvient à préserver la culture sri lankaise dans le texte d’arrivée, du moins dans des limites qu’il nous faudra également définir. Lawrence Venuti (2004 : 20) propose un système binaire, la traduction ethnocentrique ou domesticating (naturalisation) et la traduction éthique qui laisse place à l’étrangeté qu’il qualifie de foreignizing (dépaysement). Conserver les traces de l’œuvre originale est considéré comme la chose la plus importante. Nous nous plaçons ainsi entre les stratégies de naturalisation et de dépaysement. Traduire, c’est effectuer un travail qui « est ouverture, dialogue, métissage et décentrement » comme l’écrit Berman (1984 : 16), c’est aussi négocier un autre type de produit final.Dans un premier temps, nous verrons comment opère le dépaysement en tant que stratégie de traduction dans Drôle de garçon (Frédéric Limare et Susan Fox-Limare, 1998) de Shyam Selvadurai et Un air de famille (Marie-Odile Fortier-Masek, 1991) de Michael Ondaatje. Dans un deuxième temps, nous prêterons attention à la stratégie de la naturalisation qui rend la lecture plus fluide, en atténuant les différences trop importantes entre cultures. Dans un troisième temps, nous verrons de quelle manière certaines faits culturels restent intraduits dans les traductions pour diverses raisons que nous identifierons au cours de l’analyse, tout en repérant également les ellipses qui modifient le message d’origine. Notre analyse tentera de démontrer que la traduction est une rencontre entre les cultures : une rencontre qui se fait de manière fructueuse pour enrichir la littérature d’une culture nouvelle en permettant au lecteur un voyage vers une destination lointaine.Mots clés : culture, dépaysement, Funny Boy, Michael Ondaatje, naturalisation, Running in the Family, Shyam Selvadurai, Sri Lanka, traduction / Translation is a cultural matter. At first sight, it may appear as a search for equivalents in the transfer from one language to another. However, in depth translation analysis reveals much more than meets the eye. A literary text written in one language cannot be translated into another language without paying attention to its associated cultural background. It has become a truism today to say that individuals belonging to different cultures do not communicate in the same way; while the linguistic dimension is important, so is the cultural one, since cultural habits are at the root of all human actions.The title of this thesis, “The Trials of the Foreign: French Translations of Contemporary Sri Lankan Writers in English”, combines three key words: “culture”, “Sri Lanka” and “translation”. The broad research question we started out with is: how is it possible to convey Sri Lankan culture in French literary translation? The two countries are distant not only geographically but also in terms of practices and values. Therefore, a true encounter between East and West is at stake here, mediated by the English language, which the authors of the two Sri Lankan novels we study here chose as a medium of expression.In his or her attempt to identify viable equivalents of different cultural realities, the translator is confronted with decisions about whether differences should be mitigated or, on the contrary, preserved, in order to maintain the local colour. When cultural differences are smoothed over in translation and the target text contains very few traces, if any, of the source culture, the reader may have the impression of reading an original. On the other hand, when the source culture is given prominence, the translation has the potential to make the reader travel abroad, and gain new experience.The two literary works which make the object of our research, Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family (1982) and Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy (1994), are imbued with Sri Lankan culture and pose significant challenges to translation. We draw on Lawrence Venuti’s (1995/2004) distinction between ethnocentric or domesticating translation (naturalisation) and foreignizing translation (dépaysement), while at the same time recognizing the importance of not taking this dichotomy for granted. And we assume, as Antoine Berman did, that translation is “openness, dialogue, blending and decentring” (1984: 16).We start by outlining a number of theoretical considerations about translation strategy, culture, and translating culture. We then carry out fine-grained analyses of the texts and endeavour to show how foreignization operates in Drôle de garçon (1998), the French translation by Frédéric Limare and Susan Fox-Limare of Selvadurai’s novel Funny Boy, and in Un air de famille (1991), the translation of Ondaatje’s Running in the Family by Marie-Odile Fortier-Masek. In the second part of our analysis, we focus on the strategy of domestication, which makes reading more fluent due to the mitigation of differences between cultures. Finally, we discuss some of the ways in which certain cultural facts remain untranslated, with implications for the integrity of the message, and the target readers’ experience of the text. We conclude that translation is indeed an encounter between cultures: a meeting that is fruitful and has the potential to enrich the literature of a new country, by allowing the reader to embark on a journey to a distant destination.Key words: culture, domestication, foreignization, Funny Boy, Michael Ondaatje, Running in the Family, Shyam Selvadurai, Sri Lanka, translation

Purpose– The assumption that microcredit alone can contribute to worldwide povertyalleviation is debated, the opponents voicing the need of non-credit services in addition togive the poor access to capital. Social intermediation services are argued to be essential inmaking a difference in a time where the impact of microfinance itself has been reappraised inseveral studies. Simultaneously, the shift to commercialization of the industry due to pressureto accomplish self–sustainability is inescapable; concerns over its benefits for the poor ispronounced. Some are suggesting positive effects, others argue there being negative effectsdue to the change in focus. The purpose of this study is to generate knowledge about theinfluence MFIs have in enabling individuals to be microentrepreneurs in Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approach– This will be accomplished through investigating theconditions and terminology used by MFIs in relation to entrepreneurship and theirrequirements of training. The findings may be used as guidance to other MFIs andstakeholders, both nationally and globally, who wish to engage in this field. The study relieson qualitative methodology where multiple case studies were analyzed and the findings basedon primary data conducted from nine semi-structured interviews. The cases have beenselected according to theoretical sampling.Findings– Based on the findings and theories applied, it can be stated that the ambition of theMFIs in Sri Lanka is to contribute to the microentrepreneurs development. This isaccomplished by giving them microcredit, training and motivation to start a sustainablebusiness and thus rise out of poverty. The findings suggest that the MFIs have an importantrole, but that the responsibility following as a result of their influence is compromised. Theconclusion is that the MFIs do not acknowledge everyone to be entrepreneurs, and are lackingin providing the most optimal training and supply of microfinance services for theirmicroentrepreneurs to succeed. This is limiting the microentrepreneurs progress and excludesan unknown part of potential microentrepreneurs.Originality/value– The findings of this study can help us to understand how MFIs in SriLanka enable or restrict the microentrepreneur because of their expectations and otherconsequences due to the market of microfinance and the fundamental assumptions whichmicrofinance is based on. Our contribution provides context on what conditions andlimitations MFIs create for microentrepreneurs in rising out of poverty with the assistance ofmicrofinance. The findings may be used as guidance to other MFIs and stakeholders, bothnationally and globally, who wish to engage in this field. / Syfte– Antagandet att enbart mikrokredit kan bidra till världsomfattande fattigdomsbekämpningär omdiskuterat. Motståndarna uttrycker behovet av icke-kredittjänster utöver attge tillgång till kapital. Icke-kredittjänster hävdas vara avgörande för att göra skillnad i en tiddå mikrofinansens inverkan har blivit omprövad i flera studier. Samtidigt är övergången tillkommersialisering av mikrofinansindustrin, på grund av påtryckningarna att uppnå finansiellhållbarhet, oundviklig; oro över konsekvenserna av detta för de fattiga är debatterad. Någraredogör för de positiva effekter kommersialisering innebär och andra poängterar de negativakonsekvenserna av att förändra fokus. Syftet med denna studie är att skapa kunskap om detinflytande som mikrofinansinstitut (MFIs) har för att möjliggöra för individer att vara mikroentreprenöreri Sri Lanka.Design/metod/tillvägagångssätt– Detta kommer att åstadkommas genom att undersökavillkoren och terminologin i förhållande till entreprenörskap och MFIs krav på träning förderas mikrolåntagare. Studien bygger på en kvalitativ metod där flera fallstudier haranalyserats och resultaten är baserade på primära data utifrån nio semistrukturerade intervjuer.Fallen har valts ändamålsenligt enligt ett teoretiskt urval.Slutsatser– Utifrån studiens resultat och teorier kan det konstateras att MFIs ambition i SriLanka är att bidra till utvecklingen av mikroentreprenörer. Det görs genom att ge demmikrokredit, utbildning och motivation för att starta en hållbar inkomstgenererande aktivitetför att ta sig ut ur fattigdom. Resultatet visar på att mikrofinansinstituten har en viktig rollmen att det ansvar som MFIs har som följd av deras inflytande är försummat. Slutsatsen är attmikrofinansinstituten begränsar mikroentreprenörernas framgång och exkluderar en okänd delav potentiella entreprenörer då de inte erkänner alla som entreprenörer. De saknar även denoptimala träningen och utbud av mikrofinanstjänster för att få sina mikroentreprenörer attlyckas.Originalitet/värde– Resultatet av denna studie skapar förståelse för hur MFIs i Sri Lankamöjliggör eller begränsar mikroentreprenörer på grund av deras förväntningar och andraförutsättningar på grund av mikrofinansmarknaden och grundläggande antaganden sommikrofinanskonceptet bygger på. Vårt resultat bidrar till att tydliggöra vilka villkor ochbegränsningar mikrofinansinstituten skapar för mikroentreprenörer i att ta sig ut ur fattigdommed hjälp av mikrokredit. Resultaten kan användas som vägledning till andra MFIs ochintressenter, både nationellt och globalt, som vill engagera sig i detta område.Uppsatsen kommer fortsättningsvis att presenteras på engelska.

Multivariate statistical methods, including recent computing-intensive techniques, are explained and applied in a medical sociology context to study infant death in relation to socioeconomic risk factors of households in Sri Lankan villages. The data analyzed were collected by a team of social scientists who interviewed households in Sri Lanka during 1980-81. Researchers would like to identify characteristics (risk factors) distinguishing those households at relatively high or low risk of experiencing an infant death. Furthermore, they would like to model temporal and structural relationships among important risk factors. Similar statistical issues and analyses are relevant to many sociological and epidemiological studies. Results from such studies may be useful to health promotion or preventive medicine program planning. With respect to an outcome such as infant death, risk groups and discriminating factors or variables can be identified using a variety of statistical discriminant methods, including Fisher's parametric (normal) linear discriminant, logistic linear discrimination, and recursive partitioning (CART). The usefulness of a particular discriminant methodology may depend on distributional properties of the data (whether the variables are dichotomous, ordinal, normal, etc.,) and also on the context and objectives of the analysis. There are at least three conceptual approaches to statistical studies of risk factors. An epidemiological perspective uses the notion of relative risk. A second approach, generally referred to as classification or discriminant analysis, is to predict a dichotomous outcome, or class membership. A third approach is to estimate the probability of each outcome, or of belonging to each class. These three approaches are discussed and compared; and appropriate methods are applied to the Sri Lankan household data. Path analysis is a standard method used to investigate causal relationships among variables in the social sciences. However, the normal multiple regression assumptions under which this method is developed are very restrictive. In this thesis, limitations of path analysis are explored, and alternative loglinear techniques are considered. / Science, Faculty of / Statistics, Department of / Graduate

In 1988, Galle Fort in Sri Lanka was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. The new historic-preservation regulatory setup that came with this designation displaced its inhabitants in their own homes. This thesis examines on how these inhabitants negotiate preservation regulations and the government’s effort to maintain a “world heritage” status based on their view. It focuses on how people adapt to the newly regulated environment and create spaces for their own daily practices. This study identifies that there are people who follow the government rules and transform themselves into subjects, while others break government rules and create the lived spaces they want. In-between are the majority of people who both become subjects of the space and also negotiate with the government rules to create their (negotiated) living environments. Although the government has more power, the people with less power have been transforming the space to meet their own needs and create a sense of place. / Department of Urban Planning

The potential for aquaculture to be integrated within a large-scale irrigation system taking a poverty-focused approach was investigated in the Mahaweli System H irrigation system of North Western Province, Sri Lanka. Using a livelihoods approach an initial situation appraisal identified the potential for aquaculture to be integrated within existing livelihoods activities. The appraisal revealed that decreasing returns from farming and fishing seasonality were major sources of household vulnerability. Using fish caught from the tank fishery, small-scale cage-based fattening of tilapia was developed with participants in an attempt to mitigate seasonal vulnerability caused by fishing seasonality. Participatory technology development was conducted with members of two communities within Mahaweli System H. Upon identifying resources and formulating a research agenda with participants, pilot trials were conducted by fisher-farmers in USG village and by a group of female cage operators in RAJ village. The study identified several constraints to sustainability of the culture system such as variable and low availability of small tilapia with which to stock cages, poor feed quality and latterly, competition for feed inputs. Despite their initial enthusiasm, women were particularly disadvantaged in this process as they were unable to catch their own fish with which to stock their cages and became dependent on men to assist them. The study showed that the cage-based fattening system was able to help meet emergency household expenses, although it was not efficient enough nor practiced on a large enough scale to contribute greatly to household security. In this manner, holding and fattening smaller tilapia is comparable with livestock holdings. Further development of cage design and feed administration improvements are needed to reduce production costs and improve the economic viability of the system.

Bibliography: leaves 318-325 / iv, 325 leaves : maps ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Discipline of Anthropology, 1991

Despite ecological, anthropological, and archaeological debate surrounding their desirability as habitats for human occupation, tropical rainforests have received relatively little attention in discussions of Homo sapiens' Pleistocene dispersal. Sri Lanka has yielded some of the earliest dated fossil and material culture evidence (c. 38-35,000 cal. years BP) for our species in a modern rainforest context beyond Africa. Nevertheless, assertions in Sri Lanka, and elsewhere, regarding early human rainforest reliance have been largely based on coarse or 'off-site' palaeoenvironmental records, and the overall role of these environments in human subsistence strategies has remained uncertain. This study applies stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis to Sri Lankan human fossil, and associated faunal, tooth enamel dated to between 36-29,000 and 3,000 cal. years BP, in order to directly test human rainforest resource reliance, reconstruct a stable isotope ecology, and develop 'on-site' palaeoenvironmental records for Late Pleistocene-Holocene Sri Lankan rainforest foragers. Stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of modern Sri Lankan primates, and stable carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen isotope analysis of modern plant samples from the Polonnaruwa Nature Sanctuary, are also performed to investigate the ecology of Sri Lankan primates on which Late Pleistocene-Holocene forager subsistence strategies were focused. The results demonstrate that Homo sapiens relied on rainforest resources in Sri Lanka from c. 36-29,000 cal. years BP until the Iron Age c. 3 cal. years BP, even when open environments, and their corresponding resources, were available. This remains the case through periods of evident environmental change at the Last Glacial Maximum and even upon the arrival of agriculture in the island's tropical forests. The primate stable isotope data prove difficult to interpret as ecological niche separation in the absence of observation data. Nonetheless, humans were evidently able to not only use but also rapidly specialise in the exploitation of South Asia's rainforests.

The thesis is a study of Ceylon's only hill-station, Nuwara Eliya. Nuwara Eliya was established in 1829 as a military sanitarium and gradually assumed the role of a seasonal resort in the second half of the century. Located at 6,280 feet elevation in the temperate hill region, Nuwara Eliya came to have an important role in the social and recreational life of the British in Ceylon. The landscape resembled that of the English countryside, which inspired the British to shape the landscape in the image of their homeland. This thesis explores the sentimental attachment that British expatriates formed for Nuwara Eliya. Based on evidence from the nineteenth century writings of expatriates arid travellers who visited the hill-station, it suggests that the Romanticism prevalent during the period had a significant influence on the manner in which expatriates perceived and interpreted the landscape of Nuwara Eliya. Romanticism alone did not account for the emergence of Nuwara Eliya as an English village. It argues that romanticism, in conjunction with the following factors, contributed to the development of the English landscape of the Nuwara Eliya. The hill-station provided an accessible locale with a temperate climate and vegetation that offered an alternative to the heat of the lowlands. The British possessed a set of ethno-medical beliefs which held that such an environment was the one to which Europeans were best suited. In addition, the recreational preferences of the British and the specific recreational and social needs of the expatriate community contributed to the development of the recreational infrastructure of Nuwara Eliya. The development of the plantation economy was a further prerequisite for the growth of the hill-station. Perhaps the most important consideration, though, was the longing British expatriates experienced for their homeland which made them desire a viable substitute for England. The study was conducted through a survey of nineteenth century travel writings of individuals who visited or resided at Nuwara Eliya. A content analysis was performed on the travel literature to determine the attributes of Nuwara Eliya that were noted in the writings and which indicated the expatriate's and traveller's perceptions of the hill-station. Subsequent to the literature analysis, fieldwork was undertaken in Sri Lanka for a three month period in 1987. Archival research, conducted at the National Archives, Colombo, involved an examination of the diaries of the Assistant Government Agent of the Nuwara Eliya District, as well as nineteenth century English-language newspapers to assess the role of the hill-station in the social life of colonial. Ceylon. Fieldwork also entailed a period of time at Nuwara Eliya to compile photographic evidence and to permit observation of the landscape and the built environment. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study is to investigate how local and foreign newspapers used the war journalism and peace journalism frames when covering the Sri Lankan civil war, and to uncover subframes specific to the conflict. The first part of the thesis provides an in- depth literature review that addresses the history of the conflict and media freedom in Sri Lanka. The newspaper articles for the textual analysis were selected from mainstream Sri Lankan and U.S newspapers: the Daily News (a state sponsored newspaper) and Daily Mirror from Sri Lanka, and the New York Times and Washington Post from the U.S. A total of 185 articles were analyzed and categorized into war journalism and peace journalism. Next, subframes specific to the Sri Lankan conflict were identified. The overall coverage is dominated by the peace journalism frame, and the strongest war journalism frame is visible in local newspaper articles. Furthermore, two subframes specific to the Sri Lanka conflict were identified: war justification subframe and humanitarian crisis subframe. In conclusion, the study reveals that in the selected newspapers, the peace journalism frame dominated the coverage of the Sri Lankan civil war. All in all, while adding to the growing scholarship of media framing in international conflicts, the study will benefit newspaper editors and decision-makers by providing textual analysis of content produced from the coverage of war and conflict during a dangerous time period for both journalists and the victims of war.