Dialogues On The Theory And Practice Of Literary Translation

The book is a collection of the dialogues between Xu Jun and some celebrated literary translators in contemporary China, involving multiple literary types, such as novels, poetry, dramas, prose, and fairy tales, and multiple languages, such as English, French, German.

The book is a collection of the dialogues between Xu Jun, a well-known expert in French literary translation and eminent “Changjiang” scholar in translation studies in China, and some celebrated literary translators in contemporary China, some of whom are also literary scholars, linguists, poets, prose writers, and editors. It is a fundamental achievement of research on the literary translation in the 20th century in China, involving multiple literary types, such as novels, poetry, dramas, prose, and fairy tales; and multiple languages, such as English, French, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and Sanskrit. The dialogues are centered on fundamental issues in the theory and practice of literary translation, such as re-creation in literary translation, the relationship between form and content in literary translation, the subjectivity of literary translators, literary translation standards and principles, the gains and losses in literary translation, the principles and methods of literary criticism, and so on. Those translation experts’ experience and multiple strategies not only play an active role in guiding literary translators in practice but also benefit theoretical development in literary translation. Thus, the book will contribute to worldwide translation studies and get well recognized by translation studies students, teachers, and scholars in the world.

This exciting new book explores the present relevance of translation theory to practice. A range of perspectives provides both current theoretical insights into the relevance of theory to translation and also offers first-hand experiences of applying appropriate strategies and methods to the practice and description of translation. The individual chapters in the book explore theoretical pronouncements and practical observations grouped in topics that include theory and creativity, translation and its relation with linguistics, gender issues and more. The book features four parts: it firstly deals with how theories from both within translation studies and from other disciplines can contribute to our understanding of the practice of translation; secondly, how theory can be reconceptualized from examining translation in practice; thirdly reconceptualizing practice from theory; and finally Eastern European and Asian perspectives of how translation theory and practice inform one another. The chapters all show examples from theoretical and practical as well as pedagogical issues ensuring appeal for a wide readership. This book will appeal to advanced level students, researchers and academics in translation studies.

Routledge Translation Guides cover the key translation text types and genres and equip translators and students of translation with the skills needed to translate them. Concise, accessible and written by leading authorities, they include examples from existing translations, activities, further reading suggestions and a glossary of key terms. Literary Translation introduces students to the components of the discipline and models the practice. Three concise chapters help to familiarize students with: what motivates the act of translation how to read and critique literary translations how to read for translation. A range of sustained case studies, both from existing sources and the author’s own research, are provided along with a selection of relevant tasks and activities and a detailed glossary. The book is also complemented by a feature entitled ‘How to get started in literary translation’ on the Routledge Translation Studies Portal (http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/translationstudies/). Literary Translation is an essential guidebook for all students of literary translation within advanced undergraduate and postgraduate/graduate programmes in translation studies, comparative literature and modern languages.

Translation: Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader responds to the need for a collection of primary texts on translation, in the English tradition, from the earliest times to the present day. Based on an exhaustive survey of the wealth of available materials, the Reader demonstrates throughout the link between theory and practice, with excerpts not only of significant theoretical writings but of actual translations, as well as excerpts on translation from letters, interviews, autobiographies, and fiction. The collection is intended as a teaching tool, but also as an encyclopaedia for the use of translators and writers on translation. It presents the full panoply of approaches to translation, without necessarily judging between them, but showing clearly what is to be gained or lost in each case. Translations of key texts, such as the Bible and the Homeric epic, are traced through the ages, with the same passages excerpted, making it possible for readers to construct their own map of the evolution of translation and to evaluate, in their historical contexts, the variety of approaches. The passages in question are also accompanied by ad verbum versions, to facilitate comparison. The bibliographies are likewise comprehensive. The editors have drawn on the expertise of leading scholars in the field, including the late James S. Holmes, Louis Kelly, Jonathan Wilcox, Jane Stevenson, David Hopkins, and many others. In addition, significant non-English texts, such as Martin Luther's "Circular Letter on Translation," which may be said to have inaugurated the Reformation, are included, helping to set the English tradition in a wider context. Related items, such as the introductions to their work by Tudor and Jacobean translators or the work of women translators from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries have been brought together in "collages," marking particularly important moments or developments in the history of translation. This comprehensive reader provides an invaluable and illuminating resource for scholars and students of translation and English literature, as well as poets, cultural historians, and professional translators.

"The Theory and Practice of Translation," first published in 1982 and a companion work to "Toward a Science of Translating" (Brill, 1964), analyses and describes the set of processes involved in translating. Bible translating, the focus of this work, offers a unique subject for such a study, as it has an exceptionally long history, involves more than 2,000 languages, a vast range of cultures and a broader range of literary structures than any other type of translating. Not only of interest to Biblical scholars, therefore, this work explores issues of textual meanings and the procedures for communicating these meanings into other languages and cultures.

Where Theory and Practice Meet is a collection of nineteen papers in translation studies. Unlike many similar books published in recent decades, which are mostly non-translation-oriented, veering to issues with little or no relevance to translation, this book focuses on the translation process, on theory formulation with reference to actual translation, on getting to grips with translation problems, and on explaining translation in language which can be understood by the general reader. Perceptive and wide-ranging, the book covers language pairs that include Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and Classical Greek, and discusses, among other things, translations of Dante’s La Divina Commedia; translations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet; Goethe’s “Prometheus” as a case of untranslatability; the challenge of translating Garcilaso de la Vega’s “Primera Égloga” into Chinese; John Minford’s translation of martial arts fiction; and Lin Shu’s translation of Alexandre Dumas’s La Dame aux camélias.