1 / 12

Issues and Problems in Translation

Issues and Problems in Translation. Summer Term of 2014 Part 4 Dr. Abdullah Alkhamis http://fac.ksu.edu.sa/aalkhamisa/home. Lawrence Venuti (1953- ) The Geopolitics of Translation. Venuti – main ideas I Trade (and therefore cultural) imbalance

oksana
Download Presentation

Issues and Problems in Translation

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Issues and Problems in Translation Summer Term of 2014 Part 4 Dr. Abdullah Alkhamis http://fac.ksu.edu.sa/aalkhamisa/home

  2. Lawrence Venuti (1953- )The Geopolitics of Translation

  3. Venuti – main ideas I Trade (and therefore cultural) imbalance • English = most translated language but translation into English remains relatively small, so Anglo‐American culture invades (and shapes) the world but remains resistant to influences from other cultures • Translations as % of book production: 2.4% British; 2.96% American; 8‐12% French; 25.4% Italian; 14.4% German

  4. Venuti – main ideas II Choice of what gets translated reflects desire to stereotype other cultures or to allow in only those works which fit in with models that already exist in target culture

  5. Venuti – main ideas III The preference for fluent translations among Anglo-American readership • Fluent translations do violence to the source text(and therefore to the source culture) by erasing its difference

  6. Foreignization (translation strategy) “Foreignizing translation signifies the difference of the foreign text, yet only by disrupting the cultural codes that prevail in the target language […], deviating enough from native norms to stage an alien reading experience” (Venuti1995: 20)

  7. Venuti’sother suggested strategies • Translator’s prefaces announcing and explaining his/her strategy to the readers. • Choosing a foreign text that is marginal in the target‐language culture.

  8. ExampleMarylin Booth’s translation of بنات الرياض

  9. Booth opted for a foreignizingstrategy. For her this means: -“not to succumb to a homogenizing language that erases or diminishes the differences within the original text” -forcing the reader (not the text) to accommodate to ‘‘the other’’. -exposing readers to local pop cultures and idioms, language mixing, puns. -expecting the reader to be respectful enough of the text and interested enough to seek out cultural knowledge on her own.

  10. However, both the publisher and the original author (Alsanea) altered Booth’s translation, against her will, and made the text more “fluent”. • ST: سيداتي، آنساتي، سادتي B’s TT:Ladies, Girls, and Gentlemen Final TT: Ladies and Gentlemen • ST: سأكتب عن صديقاتي B’s TT:I shall write of my friends who are female Final TT: I shall write of my friends (later in the text: girlfriends).

  11. ST: يععع سوفلقر! B’s TT:ewww—soofalguur! Final TT: Eww . . . so vulgar! • ST: تو متش B’s TT:tuumatsh Final TT: too much • ST:سن اليأس B’s TT: The age of despair Final TT: after menarche

  12. Discussion The novel received positive reviews in the Anglo-American cultures. Why? Why did the publisher and original author alter Booth’s translation?

More Related