Translation Studies
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Open Access Translation, Conflict and Mediation: How Translators 'Re-narrate' the Conflict(2021-11-15) Salama, Hind Ben; Klimkiewicz, AureliaThe story of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has had multiple narrators and re-narrators over the past seventy-three years. This thesis discusses how translators and interpreters re-narrate this conflict according to their positionality within and outside the narrative. In a comparative analysis of the Arabic and French translations of Footnotes in Gaza, a journalistic graphic book by Joe Sacco (2009), we will see how Mohammad Tawfiq Al-Bujairami, a Palestinian activist translator, and Sidonie Van den Dries, an external translator, re-narrate this conflict. We will also explore how the in-between translators, those who belong to one side of the conflict but work with the other, re-narrate the same events. Since translators in conflict zones deal with conflictual and competitive narratives, we will also find out whether they can act as mediators. The theoretical framework used in this analysis consists of the narrative theory by Mona Baker, cultural theories by Eva Hoffman and Edward Sad, the re-writing theory by Andr Lefevere, and Critical Discourse Analysis by Van Dijk. The findings show that translators re-narrate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict differently. While the Palestinian activist translator - who considers translation as a site of resistance - radically detaches himself from the source text, the French external translator - who adopts a neutral stance towards the conflict - fully re-embodies the source text. The findings also suggest that neutrality in translation does not necessarily lead to a successful mediation between the conflictual narratives. On the contrary, neutrality perpetuates the imbalance of powers. A successful mediation is, therefore, one that empowers the less powerful and gives voice to the less heard.Item Open Access Spanish and French Translations of the Riddles in the Hobbit or there and back again: A Prismatic Approach(2020-11-13) Davila, Natalia; Aubin, Marie-ChristineThe riddles in chapter five of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien have intrigued researchers for many years. Influenced by Norse mythology, they were more than a game: they were a cultural tradition, with binding powers and serious consequences. Filled with wordplay and meaning, their answers were hidden behind stylistic features of language. Translators tried their best to capture and transfer the voice of the author and his characters into other languages. The novel was first translated into Spanish and French in the 1960s. Over time, literary genres and the status of writers evolved. Works get retranslated, and signs of involvement from translators in the process can still be detected. A close link between culture and language may reveal that through reading, translators create individual perceptions of the source text. As though reading through a different lens, they may develop a prismatic approach to translation.Item Open Access Breaking Binaries: Rethinking Gendered Metaphors in Translation Theory(2020-05-11) How, Laura Margaret; Guzman, Maria ConstanzaIn efforts to understand the complexity of translation, theorists have often turned to metaphor. As Lori Chamberlain (1988) shows, some of these metaphors have mirrored the androcentric hierarchy of Western society, subordinating women and translation. Since the 1980s, feminist translation theorists and translators have sought to dismantle this patriarchal view of translation using woman-centred metaphors. However, their understandings of womanhood and gender often exclude genderqueer and trans identities. In the past decade, translation studies research on queer and trans issues and representation has grown, though it has largely been written from white Western academic and literary perspectives. This thesis investigates the inclusivity of gendered metaphors of translation in feminist, queer, and trans translation theory. I suggest that if translation studies is to represent the diversity of gender identities that exist worldwide, attention must be paid to this works accessibility, to intersections of oppression, and to marginalized understandings of gender.Item Open Access The Development of Ukrainian Children's Literature Translation Tradition from Russian Imperialism through the Soviet Era to the Global Context. The Study of Various Translations of Rudyard Kipling's Tale "The Cat that Walked by Himself" into Ukrainian(2020-05-11) Yevhenivna Zdrazhko, Alina; Klimkiewicz, AureliaBased on the postcolonial approach to the interpretation of the hegemonic rule on the territory of Ukraine, this thesis examines colonizing policies designed to manifest the dominant ideology through translation into Ukrainian from the times of Russian imperialism through the Soviet era and to the global context. This research argues that the shifts in the development of the Ukrainian translation tradition are grounded in historical events, political changes, financial factors, ideological impact, and language evolution. The significance of this thesis resides in its unique approach to the assessment of translation availability and demand through the examination of library collections, weeding approaches, and public library collection formation guidelines. The goal of this research is to forecast developments in the Ukrainian translation tradition forthcoming within the next 30 years, as well as to calculate the timeframe for the feasible elimination of ideologically charged translations from educational institutions and libraries.Item Open Access On Ezra Pound's Translation of Classical Chinese Poetry in Cathay(2018-11-21) Du, Ming Ming; McDonough-Dolmaya, JulieThis thesis focuses on Ezra Pound's translation of Classical Chinese Poetry in Cathay. A comparative study of Pound's translations with the original Chinese poems and versions by other translators is conducted. The theoretical framework adopted is Toury's (1995) Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS): an important concept, 'shifts', is used for the analysis. Lefevere's (1975) seven strategies for translating poetry and Chesterman's (1997) categorization of shifts are incorporated as the secondary framework. The thesis reveals that regardless of some considerable deviations from the original, Pound's translations have successfully reproduced the essence, the delicate shades of meaning, the musicality, the sharp imagery, the precise diction, and the succinct style of the source texts, which has enable Cathay to become a popular collection of translation since its first publication in 1915.Item Open Access Still Two Solitudes? Translation of Manifestos and Political Platforms in Quebec(2018-05-28) Bachan, Anissa Donna-Marie; Séguinot, CandaceHow can translation reinforce or challenge the dominant discourse circulating in a society? In Canada, a divide separates French from English Canadians and stereotypes about these two solitudes tend to be echoed in media discourse. By examining how English newspapers report on two text genresmanifestos and platformsproduced in Quebec, this thesis contributes to the literature on ideology and translation, specifically studies that employ Critical Discourse Analysis. Focusing on rhetorical features of manifestos, the main objective of this research is to test a methodology for analyzing translation shifts. Between French and English versions, features related to identity revealed the most variation across each text genre. Empirically, this analysis also demonstrates that for English newspapers the national question obscures other issues in Quebec politics. Overall, this research confirms that translation of political texts can serve to reproduce stereotypes that maintain unequal power relations between dominant and non-dominant groups.Item Open Access Who Framed Conrad Black?: Language and Translation in Print Newspaper Articles(2017-07-27) Nemeth, Deanna Marie; Hebert, LyseThe primary objective of this corpus-based research is to reveal how media discourse contributes to the framing and portrayal of public figures, specifically Conrad Black, in French and English print media from Canada, the United Kingdom and France, and in particular, to identify the language and strategies used to do so. A secondary purpose of this thesis is to examine news reports for evidence of assumed translation as defined by Toury (1995). The theories and methodologies drawn on derive from linguistics, discourse analysis, media studies, cultural studies, and translation studies. By applying a multidisciplinary approach and conducting quantitative and qualitative analyses, I produced evidence that Conrad Black was framed and labelled in the English-language and French-language print media, and found evidence of at least one assumed translation among the reports I examined.Item Open Access Saad Elkhadem's The Plague in English: A Study of the Translation Strategies used to Recreate the Egyptian Ethos(2016-11-25) Alharbi, Abeer Ali M.; Aubin, Marie-ChristineThis thesis focuses on translation as a transcultural activity. It studies the foreignizing and domesticating translation strategies used to recreate the Egyptian ethos in the translation of Elkhadems The Plague from Arabic to English. Five theories are incorporated in the analysis. These are Venutis Domesticating and Foreignizing Theory; Tourys DTS; Genettes Paratexts; Pedersens taxonomy of strategies for rendering culture-bound references and his classification of culture-bound elements; and Vermeers Skopos Theory. Three types of analysis are conducted: a literary analysis of the source text; a microanalysis of the target text, further divided into an analysis of the novel's paratexts and a descriptive analysis of ninety-eight culture-bound references; and finally, a macro-analysis of the overall norms and of the skopos of the translation showing how both affect the transmission of the Egyptian ethos. Overall, this thesis provides some insight into the influence of translation on cultural identity.Item Open Access Audiovisual Translation, Ideology and Politics: A Case Study of the Effects of Franco-American Relations on Hollywood Film Translation(2016-11-25) Flynn, Rachel Jean; Guzman, Maria ConstanzaThis thesis explores the importance of audiovisual translation (AVT) as a facilitator of cross-cultural communication. It considers the hegemonic power of Hollywood and the ideological significance of dubbing its films for a French audience. Contributing to modern popular culture, Hollywood blockbusters reach millions of individuals worldwide; thus, the cultural, ideological and political embeddedness of its dubbed products warrants analysis within a Translation Studies framework. Situated within the context of Franco-American political relations of 2003, when the two nations disagreed over the Iraq invasion, this case study reflects upon the ways in which incidences of Frenchness and Americanness in blockbuster films were translated before and after the disagreement. By considering dubbed films within two contexts, the findings of this research highlight the interconnectedness between context, ideology, translation and meaning transfer. This interdisciplinary research creates a discussion regarding the far-reaching implications of AVT in relation to cultural ideology and international politics.Item Open Access Symbolic Ethnicity: A Non-Textual Translation Process(2016-09-20) Rodas, Gabriela Cecilia; Hebert, LyseThe translation process is commonly defined as a practice where meaning is transferred from one linguistic code to another. This poses difficulties as it excludes other meaning-making practices. By examining examples of symbolic ethnicity, I demonstrate that cultural phenomena can be considered a process of non-textual translation. To do this, I draw on Maria Tymoczkos notion of the cluster concept in order to explore the similarities and overlaps between translation and symbolic ethnicity. Furthermore, the images depicting ethnic symbols are examined using Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis in order to address the meaning connoted in the images that contribute to the representation of Italian-Canadians. Lastly, using the Constructionist Approach as understood by Stuart Hall, my research addresses how these symbols are recognizable as Italian-Canadian. My analysis of demonstrates that symbolic ethnicity is not only a form of representation but also a non-textual translation process.Item Open Access """Fresh off the boat"" or ""Canadian born Chinese"": cultural translation in the Chinese-Canadian community"Law, Harmony Ki Tak; Klimkiewicz, AureliaOver the course of its history, the Chinese-Canadian community has had to adapt in various ways to the encounters, similarities and differences between Chinese and Canadian cultural practices and worldviews. While the situation began with racial discrimination and self-imposed isolation in ethnic enclaves, it has evolved to champion cultural integration, but also raise questions of cultural identity in the face of cosmopolitanism. This paper, therefore, examines those issues from the perspective of cultural translation, particularly the dynamics between the I and the Other as cultures, as well as translational resistancy and accommodation. These, combined with a statistical study on self-identification in Chinese-Canadian autobiographical literature, can articulate the tension that exists within the Chinese-Canadian population as it attempts to find its niche within Canadian society: being both Chinese and Canadian. From this, both the Chinese- and mainstream-Canadian population can glean lessons for future cultural integration and preservation in a cosmopolitan setting.Item Open Access Reading against the grain: translation of India in eighteenth and nineteenth Century French travel accounts(2016-06-23) Banerjee, Sanjukta; Hebert, LyseThe majority of research on colonial India, including research in Translation Studies, tends to approach it as an Anglophone space. The history of Indo-French encounter in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has so far been left out of mainstream discourses. This thesis addresses that neglect through an analysis of the role of language and translation in the accounts of three francophone travellers who visited the subcontinent between the 1750s and 1830s. Based on the premise of both travel and translation being integral to the construction of the foreign, it presents a context-specific re (reading) of the accounts to identify contexts and voices that challenge the largely homogenous perception of early colonial India. The possibility of uncovering heterogeneity in colonial discourses is explored through the twin themes of convergence and divergence-of contexts, ideologies, interests and contingencies. What emerges is that the similarities and differences between French and British representations in the period under discussion needs a nuanced understanding-one that can be achieved by seeing heterogeneity within instances of apparent conformity or resistance.Item Open Access Interpretation of Iconography and Iconography of Interpretation: Uncovering La Malinche(2015-08-28) Jerkic, Adrijana; Hebert, LyseIn historiography, the interpreters or translators who accompanied the principal actors in historic events have scarce presence in written or visual accounts. La Malinche, an interpreter during the Spanish conquest of today's Mexico, is an exception to this. She is one of the most represented cultural icons in history. This thesis looks at La Malinche's representations in texts and images produced in the 16th century and from the 18th to 21st centuries. It puts those two semiotic modes in dialogue, exploring how they inform or contradict each other. To do so, I draw on Erwin Panofsky and MarÃa Calzada Pérez. La Malinche's representation during the 16th century reflects how she was used as a symbol in the dominant Spanish discourse during that time. Her representation from the 18th century onwards speaks to how she was resignified and what purpose she served in the emerging nation building process in Mexico.Item Open Access NGO Translation and Translator Practices Explored Through an Ideological Lens(2015-08-28) Worth, Maya-Lin Sylvia; Guzman, Maria-ConstanzaThis thesis project looks at translation and translator practices in the world of Canadian development-NGOs. Given this context, both translation and development studies are drawn upon within this project. Focusing on the ideological aspects of these practices, theories of functionalism and critical discourse analysis (CDA), as they relate specifically to translation studies, are employed. After presenting this framework, two types of analyses follow, which allow us to interrogate the ideology of such NGO translation and translator practices. First, the specific translations found in the promotional videos drawn from one organization, Plan Canada, are presented and analyzed. Later, translators and their practices are investigated though empirical research and more general investigations of several different NGOs’ website content. Finally, how ideology is manifested in these practices is related to greater ideological tendencies within our global society.Item Open Access English Canadian Literature in Mexico: Building Bridges in the Case of Dionne Brand's What We All Long For(2014-07-09) Cervantes Crespy, Ixchel Aleph; Guzman, Maria-ConstazaAbstract The translation of English Canadian literature has been essential towards the construction of an image of English Canadian culture for Mexican readers. This translated literature becomes part of the general literary system in Mexico, affecting both readership and how translation and its publication are practiced in the country. This thesis is a twofold project: In the first part I will examine the place of the subsystem of Canadian literature in translation as part of the Mexican literary polysystem. Second, I translate five chapters of the novel What We All Long for by Canadian writer Dionne Brand, after an analysis of her work. Finally I present a translation commentary of the translation process. This thesis looks to offer a new view of English Canada to Mexican audiences through its literature and expand the image that they have and construct of English Canadian literature.