Kaidan is a genre of supernatural tales that became popular during Japan’s Edo period. In 1627, Hayashi Razan translated numerous supernatural tales from China and collected them in five volumes in a work known as Kaidan zensho, the “Complete Collection of Strange Works.” Hayashi Razan was an influential Neo-Confucian scholar and was instrumental in establishing Neo-Confucianism as a dominant ideological force in Tokugawa Japan. As his teachings and stories reached a wide audience, and the government was supportive of Neo-Confucian ideas in Japan, his Kaidan tales, which contained subtle didactic elements, enjoyed success. However, Kaidan zensho was never translated into English. Many of the tales within the Kaidan zensho expressed didactic messages by using supernatural depictions of animals as narrative devices. The animals usually were caricatures of a person or group, and were furthermore depicted in a negative fashion. These animals were shown to be unable to act in a moral manner, so their purpose in these tales was to highlight the moral decisions made on the part of the stories’ protagonists. Chapter one of this thesis introduces the kaidan genre, provides context for 17th century Japan, and how Neo-Confucianism influenced Tokugawa government and culture. Chapter two analyzes the Kaidan zensho tales for their use of animals, grouping the stories by theme – benevolence, ingratitude, fear of women, and impermanence. It explains what the animals represent and how they highlight the moral of the story. Chapter three is my original translation of fifteen tales focusing on animals found in Kaidan zensho, with notes to provide context to the stories.

This paper looks at the practice and history of video game translation, with the goal of expanding the definition of translation. Video game translation is a complex process that incorporates a number of aspects from other types of translation, such as literary, audiovisual, and software translation, to form a dynamic whole. As a new medium, video games also present their own challenges to translation in the form of interactivity, technology, non-textual and extra-textual elements, audience involvement, and new business practices. Even though video games are a relatively new medium, the practice of translating them has undergone drastic transformations over the years. A case study of the various official translations of Final Fantasy IV provides a brief overview of this development to help the reader get a complete understanding of the video game translation process. The paper concludes by arguing that the different sign systems present in video games are integral to the player’s understanding of the game, and should be considered as aspects that can be translated. Parallels are also drawn between the translation process and the medium of the video game, to show that different approaches to translation can provide the audience with a more holistic view of a work.

This small-scale study examines the translation of a text about perfumes, focusing on how hyphenated premodifiers in the English source text were translated into Swedish. A quantitative analysis was carried out, where the various premodifying structures present in the source text were identified and categorized according to their individual constituents and frequencies of the various categories were calculated. A similar analysis was also performed regarding the corresponding structures found in the Swedish target text. The results were then compared to and contrasted with other recent studies. In the qualitative analysis, individual examples from the text were analysed more in depth, and the consequences of the translation choices made were discussed. The results demonstrated that English hyphenated premodifiers showed a great deal of structural variety. The most frequent structures were nouns occurring in the left-hand position and ed-participles occurring the right-hand position. A large majority of the hyphenated premodifiers were short, with only 5.5% consisting of three words or more. The results also showed that the most frequent corresponding structure in the Swedish target text were compound adjectives, which comprised 48.1% of all examples. The results of the qualitative analysis pointed at a tendency towards explication, especially when hyphenated premodifiers were restructured to postmodifying phrases and clauses. Furthermore, a tendency to simplify the hyphenated modifiers during the translation process was noted, especially when translating longer, phrasal modifiers. It was noted that many hyphenated premodifiers in the ST were metaphorical in nature. This was sometimes, but not always, also the case in the corresponding TT phrases.

This thesis constitutes a first large-scale study of literary self-translators and self-translations in Canada, with self-translation understood as interlinguistic and intertextual transfer where the same legal person is responsible for writing the antecedent and subsequent texts. Three main questions guide this investigation: To what extent is Canada fertile ground for self-translation? What does it mean to self-translate in Canada? Why does self-translation in Canada matter? After situating Canada-based research within broader self-translation scholarship, I engage in a critical analysis of the definition and implications of self-translation and contextualize the theoretical, sociopolitical and methodological rationale for studying Canada and adopting a macroscopic approach to examining self-translations and their writers in this country. The thesis predominantly revolves around self-translation artefacts produced by three groups of writers who self-translated in Canada at least once between 1971 and 2016: 1) those self-translating exclusively between English and French; and those self-translating into and/or out of 2) Spanish; or 3) standard Italian. Exploring the theme of collaboration, I propose a new typology of collaborative self-translation, attempting to account for both process- and product-related considerations. In examining the theme of frequency, I identify self-translators and discuss their relative distribution vis-à-vis language, generation, country of birth and location within Canada; I also map out a conceptual framework for defining and counting self-translation products, proposing new ways of understanding and classifying writers in light of their self-translational productivity. In considering the theme of language, I analyze how writers and their self-translations can be characterized in relation to language variety, language combinations and language directionality. In this thesis, I argue that Canada is a significant hub of heterogeneous self-translational activity, and that large-scale, quantitative and product-oriented study constitutes a useful research approach that can generate rich findings and complement other forms of investigation. The thesis also contains an extensive appendix in which I identify Canadian self-translators and their self-translations.

keine Angabe

Ce travail de recherche s’inscrit dans le champ à la fois traductologique et sociolinguistique. Il est réalisé dans un environnement sociolinguistique particulièrement marqué par la diversité des langues dont la coexistence montre une inégalité de statut et d’usage. Notre étude porte sur deux langues dont le français et le wolof et couvre toute la période post-coloniale (de 1960 à aujourd’hui) pendant laquelle la question lancinante de la promotion des langues nationales reste la préoccupation majeure des différentes politiques linguistiques. Elle s’attache à étudier la traduction comme moyen de reconnaissance des langues nationales sénégalaises et comme outil de promotion des échanges entre ces langues et le français, seule langue officielle du pays. Cette thèse tente de démontrer la place incontournable de la traduction dans le rétablissement des équilibres linguistiques et socio-culturels mais également dans l’édification des langues nationales et de leur littérature. Cette étude mettra en avant les notions de transfert et de médiation entre les langues et cultures qui coexistent et au cœur desquelles se trouve la traduction. Elle est basée sur un corpus parallèle de textes du droit et de la santé traduits du français vers le wolof. / Our research work falls within the field of both translation studies and sociolinguistics. The sociolinguistic environment in which it is carried out is particularly characterized by a great diversity of languages that are unequal in terms of status and use. This study focuses on two languages, french and wolof, and covers the entire postcolonial period (from the independance in 1960 to now) during which the main concern of the different linguistic policies is about the promotion of the national languages. The aim is to study translation as a means that contributes to the recognition of of Senegalese languages and also as a tool that favours exchanges between these languages and French that represents the only official language of the country. This thesis attempts to show the important place of translation in restoring linguistic and socio-cultural balances and the role it plays and has to plays in the devolopment of national languages and their written literature. Therefore, we will put emphasis on the notions of tranfer and mediation between the languages and cultures that coexist. Finally, this study is based on a parallel corpus of legal and health texts translated from French to Wolof.

This paper analyzes the author’s own translation of a metaphor dense non-fiction text and investigates how metaphors have been translated from English to Swedish. The analysis mainly draws on Schäffner’s 2004 study that views metaphors on two levels, micro and macro, and Newmark’s 1981 prescriptive framework. The translation of metaphors is a widely discussed topic among translation scholars and it has been suggested by neurological studies that translated texts with lower metaphor density than their source texts have less emotional impact. However, the issue of translation is complicated by the translatability of metaphors as conceptual metaphor theory suggests that our understanding of metaphors is primarily based on cultural experience. The findings indicate that the metaphors in the source text can be directly translated into Swedish to a high degree, and micro-level changes do not always affect the macro-level metaphor. Based on this, it appears that macro-level metaphors at times can remain intact in the target text even if changes on the micro-level are necessary in order to conform to target language conventions. However, due to the study’s limited sample, no firm conclusions are made.

Die Translationswissenschaft befindet sich gegenwärtig in einem Stadium, in dem sie sich von der reinen Untersuchung des Übersetzungsprozesses wegbewegt und stärker die hierbei beteiligten Vermittlungsprozesse behandelt (Kaindl 2009: 164). Neben der Beschäftigung mit den kulturellen Bedingungen von Translation, wie sie seit den neunziger Jahren des letzten Jahrhunderts erfolgte (Prunč 2007: 279), begannen zu Beginn dieses Jahrhunderts Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler zu fragen, was die Konsequenzen seien, wenn Translation allgemein als ein Bereich sozialer Betätigung betrachtet würde. Hierbei wurden insbesondere die Theorien Pierre Bourdieus und Niklas Luhmanns herangezogen (Kaindl 2009: 160). Die Beschäftigung mit dem Thema ist inzwischen so weit fortgeschritten, dass bereits die Möglichkeit eines „sociological turn“ in der Translationswissenschaft diskutiert wird (Wolf 2006, 2009). Mit der Theorie Niklas Luhmanns haben sich bisher vor allem Theo Hermans (insb. 1999, 2007), Hans J. Vermeer (2006a, 2006b, 2008) und Sergey Tyulenev (2009a, 2009b, 2010) beschäftigt. Andreas Poltermann kommt wohl das Verdienst zu, die Thematik als Erster im deutschsprachigen Raum behandelt zu haben (Poltermann, Andreas (1992) \\\\\\\"Normen des literarischen Übersetzens im System der Literatur\\\\\\\". In Harald Kittel, (Hrsg.) Geschichte, System, Literarische Übersetzung. Histories, Systems, Literary Translations. Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 5-31.) Wenn Tyulenev inzwischen eine gewisse Stagnation in der Rezeption systemtheoretischen Gedankenguts in der Translationswissenschaft konstatiert (Tyulenev 2010: 347), so scheint es gerade deshalb angezeigt, das bisher Erreichte zu sichten und zu fragen, inwieweit sich eine weitere Beschäftigung mit dem Thema lohnen könnte. Dies umso mehr, als die Theorie Luhmanns in besonderer Weise geeignet sein könnte, Translation zu beschreiben. Denn Translation beruht in besonderer Weise auf Kommunikation und Luhmanns zentrale These ist, dass Kommunikation das Grundelement allen sozialen Handelns sei (Luhmann 1995b: 114). Gegenstand dieser Untersuchung ist daher die Rezeption der luhmannschen Theorie durch die Translationswissenschaft. Gefragt wird dabei, wie die Theorie Luhmanns rezipiert wurde und ob aufgrund dieser oder anderer Überlegungen von Translation als sozialem System im luhmannschen Sinne gesprochen werden könnte. Nach dem einleitenden Teil wird in Kapitel zwei dieser Arbeit die Systemtheorie von Niklas Luhmann dargestellt. Hierzu wird ein Überblick über diese Theorie, ihren Anspruch und ihren Aufbau gegeben, woraufhin einzelne Begriffe der Theorie vorgestellt werden. Die Auswahl der Begriffe erfolgte nach ihrer Relevanz für ein Grundverständnis der Theorie einerseits und für die folgenden Teile andererseits. Jene Teile der luhmannschen Theorie, die nur in bestimmten Fällen und nur für diese von Belang sind, werden an der jeweiligen Stelle behandelt. Im dritten Kapitel werden die Arbeiten derjenigen Autoren vorgestellt, die sich bisher über die Behandlung reiner Teilaspekte hinaus mit der Anwendung der luhmannschen Theorie auf Translation und mit der Systemhaftigkeit von Translation befasst haben. In Kapitel vier wird die Frage diskutiert, ob die Voraussetzungen vorliegen, unter denen von Translation als System gesprochen werden kann, bevor im fünften Kapitel die Ergebnisse der Arbeit kurz zusammengefasst und mögliche Themen für weitere Forschungen genannt werden, soweit sie sich aus der Arbeit ergeben.

This thesis examines the concepts of textual order and chaos, and how Relevance Theory can be used to translate texts that do not adhere to conventional textual practices. Relevance Theory operates on the basis of presumed order in communication. Applying it to disordered communicative acts provides an opportunity and vocabulary to describe how communication can break down, and the consequences this can have for translation. This breakdown of order, which I am terming a ‘chaos principle’, will be examined through the lens of a Russian-language short story called “Lunokhod”, a story in which textual order, as described by Relevance Theory, breaks down. In this thesis, I first lay out several translation challenges presented by my corpus, discuss each with reference to Relevance Theory, and examine the implications for translation through sample translation segments. This deconstruction section argues that conventional translation methods fail to properly address the challenges of my corpus. Next comes a reconstruction section, in which I develop a theoretical framework for my translation that has roots in Relevance Theory but that frees the translation from the constraints imposed by an ordered view of communication. Finally, I present the translation itself.

Sanmao (1943-91), author of over 19 books, is well known in Chinese-speaking communities for her travel writing. The present work offers a critical introduction to Sanmao’s life and work as well as an English translation of three selections from her most recognized travelogue, among both general readers and critics, Stories of the Sahara (1976). This text recounts her experience of travelling in the Western Sahara with her husband José María Quero y Ruíz from Spain. Chapter 1 introduces Sanmao’s career, her travel narratives, and the extant scholarship on her work to the English-speaking audience. More specifically, it highlights her time living in the Western Sahara among three cultures and languages—Chinese, Spanish, and Sahrawi—and contextualizes Stories of the Sahara, especially drawing attention to moments that require special care when the text is moved from Chinese to English. Next, this chapter focuses on the central role that language and translation play in Sanmao’s travel writing. This analysis is informed by Roman Jakobson’s classification of translation as used to study travel literature by Michael Cronin. I provide a discussion of my choices concerning translating the texture of the Western Sahara and the linguistic aspects of Sanmao’s writing, as well as the characteristics of Sanmao’s legacy that I attempt to emphasize through my translation. Chapter 2 includes my English translation of three texts from Stories of the Sahara. A brief introduction and a short conclusion open and close this thesis.