PANEL 6
LITERARY TRANSLATION I
Chair: Peter Freeth, University of Leeds
The Powers of Transcreation and Self-translation: Towards a Creative Practice in Translation Studies
Sofía Monzón (University of Alberta, Canada)
During the past years, scholars within the Translation Studies have paid attention to a growing interest that explores the parallels between creative writing, self-translation, and literary translation (Bassnett, Lefevere, Kemble and O'Sullivan, Wilson). To consider that the practice of translation is a bi-directional transfer—one that implies multiple cross-links and dialogues—results in accepting that such activity is no longer linear, but circular, dynamic, and tremendously multifaceted. Quoting Borges, Bassnett announces that all writing is a form of translation, therefore translation too is conceived as a creative act. These appealing conceptions demand a reconceptualization of the literary branch of TS in a way that expands the scope to a more creative translation practice and, what is more, serves to take the invisibility that still characterizes the profession to a more favorable status.
For this project I intend to shed some light on the premises anticipated by these scholars, and I will attempt to frame a corpus of translators who committed themselves to the enriching task of performing creative translation. If we assume that "the inherently organic nature of translation as literary (re)creation and proliferation, equal, if not better, to the process of 'original creation'" (Wilson), much is still to be done at our university programs in translation to lay the foundations for this practice. Incentivizing creative writing and self-translation as reciprocated transfers can be two useful ways of training literary translators in a manner that magnifies the cognitive and experimental skills required to handle resistances posed by complex transfers. Thus, I analyze how self-translation and transcreation can be seen as key elements for the translators' creativity to operate when they meet the distances between the different semiotic systems. Hence, such resistance and its untranslatability can be used to forge a creative translation.
A Possible Paradigm Shift in the Translation of Children's Literature
Lúcia Sánta (Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary)
Translating literature and thus culture, especially for children, requires an interdisciplinary approach. The present research applies elements of translation studies, developmental psychology and education in order to examine the possibility of a paradigm shift in Hungarian translation of children’s literature. In Hungary the dominant method in this field is domesticating whereas the research wishes to prove that more works translated with a foreignizing approach could, in fact, educate and still entertain the children at the same time. The topic is crucial in our increasingly multicultural world where greater knowledge of foreign cultures may reduce the intolerance and fear towards them. The basis of the paper is the thorough literature we have on the translation of children’s literature (Oittinen, 2002; Lathey, 2006), however, the main focus is the empirical research that specifically focuses on the children’s reception of the two methods. Similarly to Cámara-Aguilera and Faber’s paper (2015) two different translations were created and given to two groups of children and afterwards their recall, comprehension and motivation was measured. This research not only included visual representation to see how creativity is affected, but it is also unique regarding the examined age group. The participating children were between ages 4 and 6, not yet readers themselves, which age group has not been examined before. The factor appears to be of significance as they had for instance higher motivation regarding the foreignizing translation compared to other studies. The data gathered so far definitely proves that the field requires further investigation and that the paradigm shift in the Hungarian tradition may be necessary. We must focus on when and how foreignizing is best introduced into translated children’s literature and longitudinal research could also prove whether it has developmental benefits as well.
The Brontë Sisters in Portugal: Some Lines for a Study of Their (Non) Translation
Rita Monteiro (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
This paper is an exploratory first step in a wider investigation about the (non) translation of the Brontë Sisters in Portugal. Between 2016 and 2020, the world celebrates the Bicentenary of the Brontës, putting into focus the enduring, global influence of their life and work — and the important role that translation plays in their legacy. With a particular focus on the phenomena of retranslation and the six key questions it involves (What, Who, When, Where, Why, and How) and adopting a descriptive approach, we will attempt to understand how and why the Brontës were (not) translated into European Portuguese in different historical periods. In order achieve this, we will present an external history of their translations in Portugal, based on empirical data about translations, retranslations, and re-editions, as well as film and TV adaptations of the novels. This will allow us to have a more complete picture of their position in Portugal over the years, explore connections between different types of translations, and identify trends in the changing popularity of their works across different historical, political, and cultural contexts. Moreover, we will look at aspects such as prefaces, the titles of the collections where their novels are inserted, and book covers, in order to understand how the authors are “translated” and (re)presented in the target culture, putting into evidence questions of gender, canonicity, ideology, and intertextuality and their relationship with translation.