Transfer Thinking in Translation Studies


Book Description

The concept of transfer covers the most diverse phenomena of circulation, transformation and reinterpretation of cultural goods across space and time, and are among the driving forces in opening up the field of translation studies. Transfer processes cross linguistic and cultural boundaries and cannot be reduced to simple movements from a source to a target (culture or text). In a time of paradigm shifts, this book aims to explore the potential and interdisciplinary power of transfer as a concept and an analytical tool to account for complex cultural dynamics. The contributions in this book adopt various research angles (literary studies, imagology, translation studies, translator studies, periodical studies, postcolonialism) to study an array of entangled transfer processes that apply to different objects and aspects, ranging from literary texts, legal texts, news, images and identities to ideologies, power asymmetries, titles and heterolingualisms. By embracing a process-oriented way of thinking, all these contributions aim to open the ‘black box’ of transfer in the widest sense.




Exploring the Implications of Complexity Thinking for Translation Studies


Book Description

Exploring the Implications of Complexity Thinking for Translation Studies considers the new link between translation studies and complexity thinking. Edited by leading scholars in this emerging field, the collection builds on and expands work done in complexity thinking in translation studies over the past decade. In this volume, the contributors address a variety of implications that this new approach holds for key concepts in Translation Studies such as source vs. target texts, translational units, authorship, translatorship, for research topics including translation data, machine translation, communities of practice, and for research methods such as constraints and the emergence of trajectories. The various chapters provide valuable information as to how research methods informed by complexity thinking can be applied in translation studies. Presenting theoretical and methodological contributions as well as case studies, this volume is of interest to advanced students, academics, and researchers in translation and interpreting studies, literary studies, and related areas.




Transfer Thinking in Translation Studies


Book Description

Innovative and interdisciplinary approach to transfer.




Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond


Book Description

A replacement of the author's well-known book on Translation Theory, In Search of a Theory of Translation (1980), this book makes a case for Descriptive Translation Studies as a scholarly activity as well as a branch of the discipline, having immediate consequences for issues of both a theoretical and applied nature. Methodological discussions are complemented by an assortment of case studies of various scopes and levels, with emphasis on the need to contextualize whatever one sets out to focus on.Part One deals with the position of descriptive studies within TS and justifies the author's choice to devote a whole book to the subject. Part Two gives a detailed rationale for descriptive studies in translation and serves as a framework for the case studies comprising Part Three. Concrete descriptive issues are here tackled within ever growing contexts of a higher level: texts and modes of translational behaviour — in the appropriate cultural setup; textual components — in texts, and through these texts, in cultural constellations. Part Four asks the question: What is knowledge accumulated through descriptive studies performed within one and the same framework likely to yield in terms of theory and practice?This is an excellent book for higher-level translation courses.




Cultural Transfer Reconsidered


Book Description

Examining the cultural dynamics of translation and transfer, Cultural Transfer Reconsideredproposes new insights into both epistemological and analytical questions. With its focus on the North, the book opens perspectives mainly implying textual, intertextual and artistic practices and postcolonial interrelatedness.




The Turns of Translation Studies


Book Description

What’s new in Translation Studies? In offering a critical assessment of recent developments in the young discipline, this book sets out to provide an answer, as seen from a European perspective today. Many “new” ideas actually go back well into the past, and the German Romantic Age proves to be the starting-point. The main focus lies however on the last 20 years, and, beginning with the cultural turn of the 1980s, the study traces what have turned out since then to be ground-breaking contributions (new paradigms) as against what was only a change in position on already established territory (shifting viewpoints). Topics of the 1990s include nonverbal communication, gender-based Translation Studies, stage translation, new fields of interpreting studies and the effects of new technologies and globalization (including the increasingly dominant role of English). The author’s aim is to stimulate discussion and provoke further debate on the current profile and future perspectives of Translation Studies.




The Situatedness of Translation Studies


Book Description

In The Situatedness of Translation Studies, Luc van Doorslaer and Ton Naaijkens reassess some outdated views about Translation Studies. They present ten chapters about lesser-known conceptualizations of translation and translation theory in various cultural contexts, such as Chinese, Estonian, Greek, Russian and Ukrainian.




Contra Instrumentalism


Book Description

Contra Instrumentalism questions the long-accepted notion that translation reproduces or transfers an invariant contained in or caused by the source text. This "instrumental" model of translation has dominated translation theory and commentary for more than two millennia, and its influence can be seen today in elite and popular cultures, in academic institutions and in publishing, in scholarly monographs and in literary journalism, in the most rarefied theoretical discourses and in the most commonly used clichés. Contra Instrumentalism aims to end the dominance of instrumentalism by showing how it grossly oversimplifies translation practice and fosters an illusion of immediate access to source texts. Lawrence Venuti asserts that all translation is an interpretive act that necessarily entails ethical responsibilities and political commitments. Venuti argues that a hermeneutic model offers a more comprehensive and incisive understanding of translation that enables an appreciation of not only the creative and scholarly aspects of what a translator does but also the crucial role translation plays in the cultural and social institutions that shape human life.




A Translation Theory of Knowledge Transfer


Book Description

In A Translation Theory of Knowledge Transfer, Kjell Arne Røvik develops a new theory on the challenges of transferring and sharing knowledge across organizational borders. Based on extensive research, he proposes a new, reframing idea of knowledge transfer as acts of translation, resembling the translation of texts. This new concept both extends and challenges established theories of knowledge transfer. Containing a comprehensive review of the last 40 years of research on knowledge transfer across organizational borders, this book also offers a step-by-step account of how a new theory within organizational research has been developed. Røvik states that the capacity of an organization to transfer and exploit knowledge from other organizations is a key to its competitiveness, progress, and even survival, and convincingly argues how this new translation theory can be used to guide practitioners involved in knowledge transfer processes.




Cross-Linguistic Transfer of Writing Strategies


Book Description

In the context of increasingly multilingual global educational settings, this book provides a timely exploration of the phenomenon of cross-linguistic transfer of writing strategies (in particular, transfer from the foreign language to the first language) and presents a compelling case for a multilingual approach to writing pedagogy. The book presents evidence from a classroom-based intervention study conducted in a secondary school in England on cross-linguistic strategy transfer. It suggests that even beginner or low proficiency foreign language learners can develop effective skills and strategies in the foreign language classroom which can also positively influence writing in other languages, including their first language. This book ultimately encourages more joined-up, cross-curricular, cross-linguistic thinking related to language in schools by exploring the potential for collaboration between languages teachers.