Translation And Interdisciplinarity

This volume collects works on the most relevant disciplines in translation. They are all written in English or French, and are grouped into four sections that illustrate the type of interdisciplinary approach adopted in each of the areas under study: translation theory and methodology, specialised translation, literary translation and other areas.

First published as a special issue of Target (issue 25:1, 2013), this volume explores interdisciplinarity in translation and interpreting process research, fields that have enjoyed a boom in the last decade. For this reason, the time was ripe for a reflection on the broad range of methodologies that have been applied in our endeavours to understand both translation and interpreting processes better. The ten chapters provide a snapshot of how translation and interpreting process researchers have availed themselves of concepts and theories developed in other disciplines, such as psychology, the cognitive sciences, journalism, and literary studies, to examine and illuminate their object of study. This collection demonstrates that translation and interpreting process research borrow heavily from other disciplines and call for a consideration of how translation research can become truly interdisciplinary through increased collaboration, synergy, and mutual advancement.

Interdisciplinarity is significant in the age of globalization and digitalization. It creates new opportunities through comparison and analysis of different findings and methods. Furthermore, it expands the boundaries of each discipline: each topic or phenomenon can be viewed under a whole new light. Instead of conventional or traditional methods, interdisciplinary cooperation can lead to innovative approaches that can contribute to the value of each discipline involved. It also requires respect and recognition between disciplines: their independent positions could be questioned or justified based on their interrelationship. Moreover, interdisciplinary work brings together diverse experts who cooperate and share their findings with each other. In this sense, interdisciplinarity can be seen as a dialogue between disciplines. In this complex interaction, a 'third' field may emerge that transcends the boundaries of each independent discipline. Since relatively young Translation Studies has long been influenced by other disciplines, its boundaries could be defined through interdisciplinarity. In this book, numerous translation scholars engage with the relationship between translation and other disciplines. Translation here is not only to be understood as a transmission of texts, but in a broader sense, as denoting a transformation of different phenomena that could be studied both as a product and as a process.

This book brings together an ensemble of leading voices from the fields of economics, language policy, law, political philosophy, and translation studies. They come together to provide theoretical perspectives and practical case studies regarding a shared concern: translation policy. Their timely perspectives and case studies allow for the problematizing and exploration of translation policy, an area that is beginning to come to the attention of scholars. This book offers the first truly interdisciplinary approach to an area of study that is still in its infancy. It thus makes a timely and necessary contribution. As the 21st century marches on, authorities are more and more confronted with the reality of multilingual societies, and the monolingual state polices of yesteryear seem unable to satisfy increasing demands for more just societies. Precisely because of that, language policies of necessity must include choices about the use or non-use of translation at different levels. Thus, translation policy plays a prominent yet often unseen role in multilingual societies. This role is shaped by tensions and compromises that bear on the distribution of resources, choices about language, legal imperatives, and notions of justice. This book aims to inform scholars and policy makers alike regarding these issues.

This volume claims that interdisciplinarity and translation constitute the two main ‘challenges’ for cultural studies today. These conceptual issues (‘inter’ and ‘trans’) express themselves within specific historical and ‘cultural’ contexts. Interdisciplinarity is linked with the ongoing process of the institutionalisation of cultural studies in national academies, but also increasingly internationally, comparatively and to a certain extent even globally (cf. cultural studies of ‘global culture’). Translation concerns cultural studies both as an object or product and as a subject or producer of translation processes. Cultural studies is the result of translation, translates and is being translated. The essays in this volume therefore relate these various ongoing cultural, linguistic and institutional translation processes to political and ethical issues of internationalisation and globalisation. The contributions draw their originality and strength from strategically crossing, disciplinary and national boundaries. They deliberately ignore the question of what may be ‘proper’ (to) cultural studies, and instead problematise the notions of ‘propriety’ and ‘belonging’. As a ‘reading practice’ cultural studies, in these pages, is performed through adaptations and combinations of theory and critical practice. The volume should be of interest to everyone concerned with cultural studies’ role in promoting intellectual debate within an increasingly international and ‘globalised’ public sphere.

This book brings together an ensemble of leading voices from the fields of economics, language policy, law, political philosophy, and translation studies. They come together to provide theoretical perspectives and practical case studies regarding a shared concern: translation policy. Their timely perspectives and case studies allow for the problematizing and exploration of translation policy, an area that is beginning to come to the attention of scholars. This book offers the first truly interdisciplinary approach to an area of study that is still in its infancy. It thus makes a timely and necessary contribution. As the 21st century marches on, authorities are more and more confronted with the reality of multilingual societies, and the monolingual state polices of yesteryear seem unable to satisfy increasing demands for more just societies. Precisely because of that, language policies of necessity must include choices about the use or non-use of translation at different levels. Thus, translation policy plays a prominent yet often unseen role in multilingual societies. This role is shaped by tensions and compromises that bear on the distribution of resources, choices about language, legal imperatives, and notions of justice. This book aims to inform scholars and policy makers alike regarding these issues.

Over the last decade there has been a dramatic increase in publications on media and translation. In fact, there are those who believe that so much has been published in this field that any further publications are superfluous. But if one views media and translation as anything ranging from film and television drama to news-casting, commercials, video games, web-pages and electronic street signs, it would seem that research in media and translation has barely scratched the surface. The research in this field is shared largely by scholars in communication and translation studies, often without knowledge of each other or access to their respective methods of scholarship. This collection will rectify this lack of communication by bringing such scholars together and creating a context for a theoretical discussion of the entire emerging field of Media and Translation, with a preference for theoretical work (rather than case studies) on translation and communications of various forms, and through various media.