Translation And Ideology

Ideology has become increasingly central to work in translation studies. To date, however, most studies have focused on literary and religious texts, thus limiting wider understanding of how ideological clashes and encounters pervade any context where power inequalities are present. This special edition of The Translator deliberately focuses on ideology in the translation of a rich variety of lesser-studied genres, namely academic writing, cultural journals, legal and scientific texts, political interviews, advertisements, language policy and European Parliament discourse, in all of which translation as a social practice can be seen to shape, maintain and at times also resist and challenge the asymmetrical nature of exchanges between parties engaged in or subjected to hegemonic practices. The volume opens with two ground-breaking papers that investigate the nature and representation of truth and knowledge in the translation of the sciences, followed by two contributions which approach the issue of shifts in the translation of ideology from the standpoint of critical linguistics and critical discourse analysis, using data from political speeches and interviews and from English and Korean versions of Newsweek. Other contributions discuss the role that translation scholars can play in raising public awareness of the manipulative devices used in advertising; the way in which potentially competing institutional and individual ideologies are negotiated in the context of interpreting in the European Union; the role translation plays in shaping the politics of a multilingual nation state, with reference to Belgium; and the extent to which the concepts of norms and polysystems may be productive in investigating the link between translation and ideology, with reference to Chinese data.

Today's worldwide ideological tensions have captured the interest of such varied disciplines as political science, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies and linguistics. There are two primary reasons why translation studies cannot ignore the ideological debate. Historically, translation has always been a site for ideological clashes. In addition, globalization is now setting off translational mechanisms even within monolingual artifacts, and this calls for the expertise of translation scholars. Apropos of Ideology aims to contribute to the broader discussion of ideology by providing a forum for debating ideological issues in translation as well as by bringing together, within the pages of a single volume, different types of translation research, informed by very different research ideologies. Adopting a wide definition of ideology as a set of ideas, beliefs and codes of behaviour that "govern a community by virtue of being regarded as the norm", a number of translation scholars look into ideological phenomena as they impinge on the process of translation. They consider questions of politics, but also reflect upon gender, sexuality, religion, secularity, technology and even the very discipline of translation studies. At the same time, the volume displays the kaleidoscopic complexity of the discipline while providing a strong argument that such diversity of perspectives is highly desirable. Contributors include Maria Tymoczko, Rosemary Arrojo, Christiane Nord, Keith Harvey, Peter Fawcett, Ma Carmen Africa Vidal, Christina Schäffner, David Katan, Francesco Straniero-Sergio, and Sehnaz Tahir.

This volume invites us to revisit ideology, censorship and translation by adopting a variety of perspectives. It presents case studies and theoretical analyses from different chronological periods and focuses on a variety of genres, themes and audiences. Focusing on issues that have thus far not been addressed in a sufficiently connected way and from a variety of disciplines, they analyse authentic translation work, procedures and strategies. The book considers the ethical and ideological implications for the translator, re-examines the role of the ideologist or the censor—as a stand-alone individual, as representative of a group, or as part of a larger apparatus—and establishes the translator’s scope of action. The chapters presented here contribute new ideas that help to elucidate both the role of the translator throughout history, as well as current practices. Collectively, in demonstrating the role that ideology and censorship play in the act of translation, the authors help to establish a connection between the past and the present across different genres, cultural traditions and audiences. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice.

Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this book investigates the style, or ‘voice,’ of English language translations of twentieth-century Latin American writing, including fiction, political speeches, and film. Existing models of stylistic analysis, supported at times by computer-assisted analysis, are developed to examine a range of works and writers, selected for their literary, cultural, and ideological importance. The style of the different translators is subjected to a close linguistic investigation within their cultural and ideological framework.

Since the “cultural turn” in the 1990s, increasing attention has been paid to ideological concerns and gender issues in relation to translation studies. This volume is a further illustration of this trend and focuses on the intersection of translation theory and practice with ideological constraints and gender issues in a variety of cross-cultural, geographical and historical contexts. The book is divided into three parts, with the first devoted to the health sciences, examining gender bias in medical textbooks, and the language and sociocultural barriers involved in obtaining health services in Morocco. The second part addresses the interaction of the three themes on the representation of gender and the construction of the female image both in diverse narrative texts and the presence of women in the translation of poetic works in Franco’s Spain. Finally, Part Three explores editorial policies and translator ethics in relation to feminist writing or translation in the context of Europe with special reference to Italy, and in the world of magazines aimed at a female readership.

Translation is a fundamental aspect of biblical scholarship and an ever-present reality in a global context. Scholars interested in more than linguistically oriented translation problems of a traditional nature often struggle to find an interdisciplinary venue in which to share their work. These essays, by means of critical engagement with the translation, translation practices, and translation history of texts relevant to the study of Bible and ancient and modern Christianity, explore theoretical dimensions and contemporary implications of translations and translation practice. The contributors are George Aichele, Roland Boer, Virginia Burrus, Alan Cadwallader, K. Jason Coker, John Eipper, Scott S. Elliott, Raj Nadella, Flemming A. J. Nielsen, Christina Petterson, Naomi Seidman, Jaqueline du Toit, Esteban Voth, and Matt Waggoner.

Today's worldwide ideological tensions have captured the interest of such varied disciplines as political science, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies and linguistics. There are two primary reasons why translation studies cannot ignore the ideological debate. Historically, translation has always been a site for ideological clashes. In addition, globalization is now setting off translational mechanisms even within monolingual artifacts, and this calls for the expertise of translation scholars. Apropos of Ideology aims to contribute to the broader discussion of ideology by providing a forum for debating ideological issues in translation as well as by bringing together, within the pages of a single volume, different types of translation research, informed by very different research ideologies. Adopting a wide definition of ideology as a set of ideas, beliefs and codes of behaviour that "govern a community by virtue of being regarded as the norm", a number of translation scholars look into ideological phenomena as they impinge on the process of translation. They consider questions of politics, but also reflect upon gender, sexuality, religion, secularity, technology and even the very discipline of translation studies. At the same time, the volume displays the kaleidoscopic complexity of the discipline while providing a strong argument that such diversity of perspectives is highly desirable. Contributors include Maria Tymoczko, Rosemary Arrojo, Christiane Nord, Keith Harvey, Peter Fawcett, Ma Carmen Africa Vidal, Christina Schäffner, David Katan, Francesco Straniero-Sergio, and Sehnaz Tahir.

Leonardi analyses and evaluates the problems that may arise from ideology-driven shifts in the translation process as a result of gender differences. First she offers a theoretical background, draws up an analytic checklist of linguistic tools and states the main hypothesis, then she tests the hypothesis with four empirical analyses.