2027433
03
01
01
JB
John Benjamins Publishing Company
01
JB code
BTL 157 Eb
15
9789027259721
06
10.1075/btl.157
13
2021019361
DG
002
02
01
BTL
02
0929-7316
Benjamins Translation Library
157
01
Translating Asymmetry – Rewriting Power
01
btl.157
01
https://benjamins.com
02
https://benjamins.com/catalog/btl.157
1
B01
Ovidi Carbonell i Cortés
Carbonell i Cortés, Ovidi
Ovidi
Carbonell i Cortés
Universidad de Salamanca
2
B01
Esther Monzó-Nebot
Monzó-Nebot, Esther
Esther
Monzó-Nebot
Universitat Jaume I
01
eng
405
xiii
391
LAN023000
v.2006
CFP
2
24
JB Subject Scheme
COMM.CGEN
Communication Studies
24
JB Subject Scheme
TRAN.INTERP
Interpreting
24
JB Subject Scheme
TRAN.TRANSL
Translation Studies
06
01
The relevance of translation has never been greater. The challenges of the 21st century are truly glocal and societies are required to manage diversities like never before. Cultural and linguistic diversities cut across ideological systems, those carefully crafted to uphold prevailing hierarchies of power, making asymmetries inescapable. Translation and interpreting studies have left behind neutrality and have put forward challenging new approaches that provide a starting point for researching translation as a cultural and historical product in a global and asymmetrical world. This book addresses issues arising from the power vested in and arrogated by translation and interpreting either as instruments of change, or as tools to sustain dominant structures. It presents new perspectives and cutting-edge research findings on how asymmetries are fashioned, woven, upheld, experienced, confronted, resisted, and rewritten through and in translation. This volume is useful for scholars looking for tools to raise awareness as to the challenges posed by the pervasiveness of power relations in mediated communication. It will further help practitioners understand how asymmetries shape their experiences when translating and interpreting.
05
By exploring asymmetry, power, and translation with innovative methodologies against the backdrop of globalization, the progress of digital technologies, and institutional politics, this book presents significant contributions and academic value that attract students and scholars in translation studies, cultural studies, and migration studies, as well as translation and interpreting practitioners.
Yu Jinquan, Sun Yat-sen University, in Babel 69:1 (2023).
05
This volume is, overall, a very inspirational and motivational piece of research and reflection for the discipline’s future orientations. Its conceptual sophistication prevents it from being considered a mere textbook of translation. It is much more than that. Its revolutionary vision is, nevertheless, ideal for both junior and experienced practitioners and researchers in TI and Applied Linguistics who might be ready to see the discipline under a new, fascinating light.
María Ángeles Orts, Universidad de Murcia, in RESLA (Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics), 36:2 (2023).
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JB code
btl.157.loc
ix
xiii
5
Miscellaneous
1
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Contributors
10
01
JB code
btl.157.int
1
12
12
Introduction
2
01
Introduction
Translation and interpreting mediating asymmetries
1
A01
Ovidi Carbonell i Cortés
Carbonell i Cortés, Ovidi
Ovidi
Carbonell i Cortés
Universidad de Salamanca
2
A01
Esther Monzó-Nebot
Monzó-Nebot, Esther
Esther
Monzó-Nebot
Universitat Jaume I
10
01
JB code
btl.157.p1
Section header
3
01
Section I. Revisiting the foundations of asymmetry
10
01
JB code
btl.157.01bie
15
34
20
Chapter
4
01
Chapter 1. Translating strangers
1
A01
Esperança Bielsa
Bielsa, Esperança
Esperança
Bielsa
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
20
Cesar Millan
20
cosmopolitan stranger
20
cosmopolitanism
20
distance
20
otherness
20
strangeness
20
Tania Head
01
It has been argued that traditional notions of the stranger, as put forward in classical accounts by Simmel, Schütz and others, need to be re-examined in the light of widespread social developments that challenge the divisions between the self and the other that were once taken for granted. This chapter addresses the significance of the cosmopolitan stranger, whose skills are especially important under conditions of generalised societal strangeness. A consideration of the interrelated notions of distance and strangeness in the social experience of the stranger is offered and the specific features of the cosmopolitan stranger examined. After that, the cases of two cosmopolitan strangers (“dog whisperer” Cesar Millan and 9/11 impostor survivor Tania Head) who have played a prominent social role in societies that were not initially their own are discussed. A concluding section returns to the notions of distance and strangeness in order to generalise from these particular cases by relating them to different strategies for translating the foreign.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.02sal
35
54
20
Chapter
5
01
Chapter 2. Negotiating asymmetry
The language of animal rights and animal welfare
1
A01
Myriam Salama-Carr
Salama-Carr, Myriam
Myriam
Salama-Carr
University of Manchester
20
animal rights
20
animal welfare
20
asymmetry
20
translation
01
Growing public concern about animal welfare, notably in the context of widespread industry-led exploitation of animals and abusive breeding and slaughtering practices, is increasingly politicised and the shift of focus from the concept of animal welfare to that of animal rights, from compassion to ethics, is framed in an increasingly vocal political discourse. Described as “the fastest social movement” (Gaarder 2011), animal activism has achieved a global dimension where translation plays a significant albeit under-researched role in constructing and disseminating a discourse of animal welfare and contributing to “the social construction of animals” (Stibbe 2001). Drawing on Schicktanz’s (2006) discussion of asymmetry and ambivalence in the context of the human-animal relationship, the paper will explore how, with a backdrop of greater convergence between philosophical and scientific perspectives, concepts such as sentience, welfare and rights are evolving with reference to non-human animals. Examples will be drawn from European and international institutions’ material and from activist organisations.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.03she
55
76
22
Chapter
6
01
Chapter 3. Helpers, professional authority, and pathologized bodies
Ableism in interpretation and translation
1
A01
Naomi Sheneman
Sheneman, Naomi
Naomi
Sheneman
Manualists LLC
2
A01
Octavian E. Robinson
Robinson, Octavian E.
Octavian E.
Robinson
Gallaudet University
20
ableism
20
cripping
20
disability justice
20
interpretation
20
professionalization
20
toxic benevolence
01
In this paper, we examine how ableism, undergirded by interlocking systems of oppression mediated by our social locations, exists in this profession with interpreters and translators acting as professional authorities-cum-helpers for pathologized bodyminds. The intersections of the nature of interpretation, professional authority, and inherent powers of influence granted to nondisabled people result in violence masked by a veneer of benevolence (Kent 2007; Mole 2018; Robinson, Sheneman, and Henner 2020). In this chapter, we highlight how Chapman and Withers’ (2019) concept of toxic benevolence in social work can be applied to interpretation. We explore and suggest <i>cripping</i> as a means of mediating power relations in interpretation work through a critical disability framework.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.04han
77
99
23
Chapter
7
01
Chapter 4. An information asymmetry framework for strategic translation policy in multinational corporations
1
A01
Thomas A. Hanson
Hanson, Thomas A.
Thomas A.
Hanson
Butler University
2
A01
Christopher D. Mellinger
Mellinger, Christopher D.
Christopher D.
Mellinger
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
20
information asymmetry
20
international business
20
knowledge management
20
strategic translation policy
01
The size and scope of multinational corporations in the globalized and interconnected modern economy has increased the need for language services to facilitate a broad range of cross-language communication. Much of the prior research on language in international business has emphasized a metaphorical language barrier and the concept of equivalence in translation, while failing to recognize the strategic importance of translation and interpreting. By contrast, this chapter emphasizes the role of language service professionals in achieving corporate communication goals. A framework is offered that links a firm’s response to information asymmetry (to mitigate or maintain) and whether the communication is internal to the firm or with an external party. This two-dimensional approach implies four types of communication goals, and we offer examples of how firms might achieve these goals. The framework recognizes the value of translation and interpreting in adopting strategic translation policies for operating in a multilingual environment.
10
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JB code
btl.157.05mar
101
121
21
Chapter
8
01
Chapter 5. Tom, Dick and Harry as well as Fido and Puss in boots are translators
The implications of biosemiotics for translation studies
1
A01
Kobus Marais
Marais, Kobus
Kobus
Marais
University of the Free State
20
anthropocentric bias
20
biosemiotics
20
linguicentrism
20
non-professional translation and interpreting (NPTI)
01
As a field, translation studies arose from the practice of interlingual, mostly written translation. Though not an invalid point of departure, this assumption, which had not really been investigated critically despite lip service to Jakobson’s categories of intralinguistic, interlinguistic and intersemiotic translation, has meant that translation studies has limited its field of interest to, mainly, written, literary, professional translation as instantiated by Western practices. This linguistic bias has an anthropocentric bias as its logical implication. The limited conceptualization of translation has become untenable for a number of reasons, not least of which is the growth in multimodal communication made possible by information-technology developments as well as the growth in posthumanist thinking. Lastly, semiotic conceptualizations of translation clearly pose theoretical challenges to a translation studies that is conceptualized on the basis of interlinguistic translation only or that is based on a linguicentric and thus anthropocentric bias. <br />This chapter investigates the Peircean definition of meaning as “the translation of a sign into another system of signs” (Peirce 1931–1966: 4.127), in particular the ways in which this kind of thinking has evolved in the modern field of biosemiotics. If all meaning creation is, per definition, translation, it means that every living organism is a translator. It further means that one needs to consider translational actions by animals and plants at both intraspecific and interspecific levels. The chapter addresses the asymmetry both in the relationships between human and non-human animals and in the attention that translation studies pays to this power dynamic.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.p2
Section header
9
01
Section II. Unveiling the structure
10
01
JB code
btl.157.06gus
125
144
20
Chapter
10
01
Chapter 6. Child language brokering in Swedish welfare institutions
A matter of structural complicity?
1
A01
Kristina Gustafsson
Gustafsson, Kristina
Kristina
Gustafsson
Department of Social Work,
20
child language brokering
20
health and medical care
20
interpreting
20
public service
20
public service professionals
20
social services
20
social work
20
structural complicity
20
structural discrimination
20
Swedish welfare institutions
01
This chapter investigates the asymmetries associated to child language brokering in Swedish welfare institutions. Group interviews with (a) people who have experiences of language brokering as children and (b) public service professionals who have used children as brokers in encounters with non-Swedish speaking service users are analyzed. Results show that both groups consider that resorting to child language brokering is wrong but at the same time they reproduce this social practice and see benefits in it. This ambiguity leads interviewees to lay responsibility on several levels: the parents who place unreasonable demands on their children; the public service professionals who allow children to take on responsibility in precarious situations, and society at large that may be accomplice to structural discrimination of non-Swedish speaking service users. The responsibilities identified by interviewees in their narratives are critically discussed in relation to the concept of “structural complicity” showing how power relations and social structures create situations where individuals act with complicity even when they do something that they consider to be a good solution for an imperative problem and for which they do not see any alternatives.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.07ris
145
168
24
Chapter
11
01
Chapter 7. Responsibility, powerlessness, and conflict
An ethnographic case study of boundary management in translation
1
A01
Hanna Risku
Risku, Hanna
Hanna
Risku
University of Vienna
2
A01
Jelena Milosevic
Milosevic, Jelena
Jelena
Milosevic
University of Vienna
3
A01
Regina Rogl
Rogl, Regina
Regina
Rogl
University of Vienna
20
boundary management
20
boundary spanner
20
conflict
20
field research
20
translation network
20
translation project management
01
A growing body of research shows the existence of tensions, frictions, and conflicts in translation production networks, pointing to the key role therein of agency, trust, communication, and technology. However, there are few empirical investigations that include the different actors in one and the same network and analyse the perspectives and practices of both clients and vendors. This paper draws on an ethnographic field study in which participant observation and qualitative interviews were used to study translation clients in a major international corporation as well as a translation agency with which they collaborate. The research looks at conflicts in their areas of contact, how these are handled and their consequences. The analysis yields rich, emotional narratives on how the different actors perceive each other and deal with power asymmetries. It reveals conflicting and ambiguous expectations regarding mutual responsibilities that lead to mistrust, power plays, fear, and frustration.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.08fol
169
196
28
Chapter
12
01
Chapter 8. Of places, spaces, and faces
Asymmetrical power flows in contemporary economies of translation and technologies
1
A01
Deborah A. Folaron
Folaron, Deborah A.
Deborah A.
Folaron
Concordia University
20
Canada
20
digital economies
20
indigenous peoples
20
inuit peoples
20
network society
20
technologies
20
translation
01
The contemporary translation economy of our globalizing digital world is deeply intertwined with information and communication technologies and the Internet, with the once separate sphere of machine translation lately converging more tangibly and impactfully with translation and interpreting practices as we have traditionally understood them. The decisions on what to translate, and by whom, why, where, and when, have always been conditioned by ideology, politics, economies, and the diverse power structures and dynamics at play in society. The Internet has brought with it the growth of a “parallel” world of human social and cultural practices in digital form, one where the display and dissemination of knowledge are intimately linked to the presence, visibility, and representation on the Web of one’s language and culture, both through native language use in communication and through practices of translation and localization. Analogous to material and physical territorial geographic spaces, virtual spaces reflect tensions and asymmetries of power. In this chapter we discuss these linguistic and translational relationships of asymmetry through the prism of digital world technologies and economies, and their implications for lesser-used and low- or no-resourced language groups. This discussion is followed by examples from two contexts: firstly, the broader Indigenous territorial context of First Nations peoples in Canada; and secondly, the Arctic Indigenous cross-territorial circumpolar groups of Inuit peoples in Canada.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.09mon
197
225
29
Chapter
13
01
Chapter 9. Translating values
Policymakers interpreting interpretation in the 2018 Aquarius refugee ship crisis
1
A01
Esther Monzó-Nebot
Monzó-Nebot, Esther
Esther
Monzó-Nebot
Universitat Jaume I
20
non-professional translation and interpreting
20
policymakers
20
refugee protection
20
translation and interpreting policies
20
translation beliefs
20
volunteer interpreting
01
In June 2018, the Aquarius, a search and rescue vessel operating in the Mediterranean Sea, rescued 630 migrants at sea and asked to dock at the nearest port. First Italy and then Malta refused and the dramatic situation of those on board made the news and highlighted the increasingly restrictive nature of European migration policies. Progressive parties in the Valencian regional and Spanish central governments provided the conditions to offer a safe berth and to implement the regional government’s plan to assist refugees in a crisis situation. This chapter will offer an overview of the plan, focusing on its linguistic component, and analyze how translation and interpreting were approached by the policymakers responsible for its inception and development. A distance between the values protected by translation and interpreting professional codes of practice and those that policymakers desire to advance in crisis situations will be evinced as revolving around the role of translation and interpreting in mediating asymmetries.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.10bie
227
252
26
Chapter
14
01
Chapter 10. EU institutional websites
Targeting citizens, building asymmetries
1
A01
Łucja Biel
Biel, Łucja
Łucja
Biel
University of Warsaw
20
digital Eurolect
20
distance
20
institutional netspeak
20
institutional translation
20
institution-to-citizen communication
20
Polish Eurolect
20
power
20
translator's agency
20
website localisation
01
This chapter uses corpus methods to explore how distance and power asymmetries are mediated by EU institutions in their website netspeak – the digital Eurolect – and subsequently reflected in Polish translations against the background of Polish domestic institutions’ websites. At the policy level, the selective translation of EU content into only procedural languages builds asymmetries between official languages. The study analysed two dimensions of translations: (1) grade of specialisation (EU terminology, <i>EUese</i>), and (2) engagement strategies positioning institutions and citizens in a discourse. EU and domestic websites show preferences for different types of engagement strategies, with the former oriented at downplaying power but maintaining a respectful distance while the latter decreasing distance through directness, personalisation, and informalisation.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.p3
Section header
15
01
Section III. Resisting asymmetries
10
01
JB code
btl.157.11ban
255
268
14
Chapter
16
01
Chapter 11. Translation, multilingualism and power differential in contemporary African literature
1
A01
Paul Bandia
Bandia, Paul
Paul
Bandia
Concordia University
20
African literature
20
multilingualism
20
power
20
translation
01
Contemporary African literature is, by its very nature, a fertile ground for elucidating the rather symbiotic relation between translation and power differential, given the inherent multilingualism and the implied language hierarchy characteristic of the African postcolonial context. Asymmetry here begins with the unequal power relations between orality and literacy, between oral tradition and writing, between indigenous languages and the languages of colonization. This power differential is enhanced further by the ever-increasing gap between languages of officialdom and the evolving and rapidly assertive languages of creolization. To the extent that African literature is a window into life in contemporary African society, the aesthetic representation of Africanity in writing as well as in colonial or global languages involves translating asymmetry and negotiating, redressing or rewriting power inequalities. This underlying characteristic of African literature dovetails with literary practices in the diaspora whereby migration and identitarian politics draw heavily from the notion of translation as a mechanism for expressing discourses of resistance to oppression and asymmetrical power relations. This chapter seeks to lay bare the underpinnings of power differentials in contemporary African literature and to highlight the role of translation in resisting asymmetry and rewriting power.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.12man
269
289
21
Chapter
17
01
Chapter 12. Small yet powerful
The rise of small independent presses and translated fiction in the UK
1
A01
Richard Mansell
Mansell, Richard
Richard
Mansell
University of Exeter
20
Booker Prize
20
cultural capital
20
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
20
independent publishers
20
literary prizes
20
translated fiction
20
translator studies
01
At the turn of the century many feared that the UK publishing scene was soon to be dominated by an ever-more consolidated number of conglomerates, pushing what was already a risk-averse industry even further away from bold endeavours such as translated literary fiction. Yet this has not materialised, and in the UK translated fiction has seen remarkable growth. Using data from prestigious literary prizes, this chapter analyses the shift in power away from the “big five” publishers and their imprints to small, independent publishers. It also analyses the consequences of this shift for the actions of those involved in the chain of production and consumption, including what this means not only for the profile of books that are translated and published, but also how translators approach their task.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.13god
291
311
21
Chapter
18
01
Chapter 13. Against the asymmetry of the post-Francoist canon
Feminist publishers and translations in Barcelona
1
A01
Pilar Godayol
Godayol, Pilar
Pilar
Godayol
Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya
20
feminism and translation
20
feminist historiography of translation
20
feminist publishing houses
20
history of feminist publishing
20
history of translation
20
history of women
01
The emergence of women’s social and cultural movements in Spain after the death of Francisco Franco led to the appearance of remarkable feminist publication series and publishing houses in a search for foreign ideological mothers. In Barcelona, three such feminist projects were founded in 1977: Colección Feminismo (1977–1979), of Ediciones de Feminismo, La Educación Sentimental (1977–1984), of Anagrama, and the hybrid and multipurpose cultural and political café-bar LaSal, the embryo of LaSal, Edicions de les Dones (1978–1990), the first feminist press in Spain. In this chapter three feminist imprints of the Transition period will be presented. All of them fought to combat the chronic lack of ideological mothers that the Francoist regime had imposed. Aimed at restoring the historical memory of women and creating an identity debate, the importation of foreign feminist literature was crucial for the social transformations of the time. Translation became one of the elements of social change, a political act in trying to achieve canonical equality.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.14flo
313
333
21
Chapter
19
01
Chapter 14. Citizens as agents of translation versions
The polyphonic translation
1
A01
Georgios Floros
Floros, Georgios
Georgios
Floros
University of Cyprus
20
agency
20
citizenship
20
memory
20
polyphonic (translation)
20
power
20
translation politics
01
The prospects of a solution to the Cyprus issue have led to a revived interest in the fate of Famagusta, which, after more than 40 years of abandonment due to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, has turned into a ghost city and a strong symbol both of the island’s division and the prospect of reunification. Hands-on-Famagusta, an architectural project (2015a) by a bi-communal team (Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots) aiming to explore prospects of reunifying the city, also becomes important through its trilingual website (English-Greek-Turkish). More specifically, the involvement of various translation agents co-shaped the translation product and led to the creation of what will be termed a polyphonic translation (following Bakhtin 1986), as this trilingual output allowed not merely for a simple coexistence of conflicting discourses, but for a quasi-interaction, aiming at highlighting them as constituting elements of a potential cohabitation of Famagusta. All parties involved negotiated their memory and bypassed officially established language and translation policies and challenged dominant discourses of both sides. Their action prompts new ways of thinking about translation politics in terms of (a) citizens emerging as active agents of translation because, through or despite their memories and in contrast to official power centers, and (b) the reevaluation of “accuracy” and “sameness” in particularly polyphonic translation situations, where opposing discourses converge to necessary “amnesia.”
10
01
JB code
btl.157.15mar
335
360
26
Chapter
20
01
Chapter 15. (Re)locating translation within asymmetrical power dynamics
Translation as an instrument of resistant conviviality
1
A01
M. Rosario Martín Ruano
Martín Ruano, M. Rosario
M. Rosario
Martín Ruano
GIR TRADIC, University of Salamanca
20
asymmetry
20
conviviality
20
dialogue
20
digital age
20
globalisation
20
politics
20
power
20
translation
20
translation policy
01
This article proposes a critical approach to any instance of translation which (1) contributes to the (re)thinking of translation beyond the idea of bridge-building; (2) is based on a conceptualisation of culture(s) and identity(ies) in terms of translation and in inevitably political terms; and (3) may be useful for exploring alternative, resistant translation policies and practices inspired by an ideal of social conviviality. It will be argued that this is especially necessary in our superdiverse societies and in the contemporary era, where the potentialities of translation, both as a metaphor and as a practice, for social cohesion can be rethought and exploited. Translation perceived and practised as a dialogic and empowering tool will be posited as a powerful antidote to the perverse effects of the model of globalisation which is accepted as dominant in the current digital paradigm.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.16ben
361
377
17
Chapter
21
01
Chapter 16. Agency and social responsibility in the translation of the migration crisis
1
A01
Karen Bennett
Bennett, Karen
Karen
Bennett
Universidade Nova de Lisboa/CETAPS
20
legal translation
20
migration
20
news translation
20
social responsibility
20
translator agency
20
translator ethics
01
This paper looks at translator agency and ethics in the light of the current migration crisis, focusing on two concrete situations, one from the legal sphere and one from news translation-reportage. The first discusses how irresponsible choices in the translation of legal documents can proliferate in the online environment, generating a kind of “lexicoprudence” (Guia 2016) that produces alarming consequences in the real world. The second looks at the reportage in the British press of speeches by foreign politicians concerning the problem of unaccompanied “child migrants” in the wake of the dismantling of the Calais “Jungle.” Both will be discussed in the light of recent debates about translation agency and ethics.
10
01
JB code
btl.157.ind
379
391
13
Miscellaneous
22
01
Index
02
JBENJAMINS
John Benjamins Publishing Company
01
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam/Philadelphia
NL
04
20210816
2021
John Benjamins B.V.
02
WORLD
13
15
9789027209146
01
JB
3
John Benjamins e-Platform
03
jbe-platform.com
09
WORLD
21
01
00
99.00
EUR
R
01
00
83.00
GBP
Z
01
gen
00
149.00
USD
S
701027432
03
01
01
JB
John Benjamins Publishing Company
01
JB code
BTL 157 Hb
15
9789027209146
13
2021019360
BB
01
BTL
02
0929-7316
Benjamins Translation Library
157
01
Translating Asymmetry – Rewriting Power
01
btl.157
01
https://benjamins.com
02
https://benjamins.com/catalog/btl.157
1
B01
Ovidi Carbonell i Cortés
Carbonell i Cortés, Ovidi
Ovidi
Carbonell i Cortés
Universidad de Salamanca
2
B01
Esther Monzó-Nebot
Monzó-Nebot, Esther
Esther
Monzó-Nebot
Universitat Jaume I
01
eng
405
xiii
391
LAN023000
v.2006
CFP
2
24
JB Subject Scheme
COMM.CGEN
Communication Studies
24
JB Subject Scheme
TRAN.INTERP
Interpreting
24
JB Subject Scheme
TRAN.TRANSL
Translation Studies
06
01
The relevance of translation has never been greater. The challenges of the 21st century are truly glocal and societies are required to manage diversities like never before. Cultural and linguistic diversities cut across ideological systems, those carefully crafted to uphold prevailing hierarchies of power, making asymmetries inescapable. Translation and interpreting studies have left behind neutrality and have put forward challenging new approaches that provide a starting point for researching translation as a cultural and historical product in a global and asymmetrical world. This book addresses issues arising from the power vested in and arrogated by translation and interpreting either as instruments of change, or as tools to sustain dominant structures. It presents new perspectives and cutting-edge research findings on how asymmetries are fashioned, woven, upheld, experienced, confronted, resisted, and rewritten through and in translation. This volume is useful for scholars looking for tools to raise awareness as to the challenges posed by the pervasiveness of power relations in mediated communication. It will further help practitioners understand how asymmetries shape their experiences when translating and interpreting.
05
By exploring asymmetry, power, and translation with innovative methodologies against the backdrop of globalization, the progress of digital technologies, and institutional politics, this book presents significant contributions and academic value that attract students and scholars in translation studies, cultural studies, and migration studies, as well as translation and interpreting practitioners.
Yu Jinquan, Sun Yat-sen University, in Babel 69:1 (2023).
05
This volume is, overall, a very inspirational and motivational piece of research and reflection for the discipline’s future orientations. Its conceptual sophistication prevents it from being considered a mere textbook of translation. It is much more than that. Its revolutionary vision is, nevertheless, ideal for both junior and experienced practitioners and researchers in TI and Applied Linguistics who might be ready to see the discipline under a new, fascinating light.
María Ángeles Orts, Universidad de Murcia, in RESLA (Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics), 36:2 (2023).
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Miscellaneous
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Contributors
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12
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Introduction
2
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Introduction
Translation and interpreting mediating asymmetries
1
A01
Ovidi Carbonell i Cortés
Carbonell i Cortés, Ovidi
Ovidi
Carbonell i Cortés
Universidad de Salamanca
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A01
Esther Monzó-Nebot
Monzó-Nebot, Esther
Esther
Monzó-Nebot
Universitat Jaume I
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Section I. Revisiting the foundations of asymmetry
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34
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Chapter 1. Translating strangers
1
A01
Esperança Bielsa
Bielsa, Esperança
Esperança
Bielsa
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
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Cesar Millan
20
cosmopolitan stranger
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cosmopolitanism
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distance
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otherness
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strangeness
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Tania Head
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It has been argued that traditional notions of the stranger, as put forward in classical accounts by Simmel, Schütz and others, need to be re-examined in the light of widespread social developments that challenge the divisions between the self and the other that were once taken for granted. This chapter addresses the significance of the cosmopolitan stranger, whose skills are especially important under conditions of generalised societal strangeness. A consideration of the interrelated notions of distance and strangeness in the social experience of the stranger is offered and the specific features of the cosmopolitan stranger examined. After that, the cases of two cosmopolitan strangers (“dog whisperer” Cesar Millan and 9/11 impostor survivor Tania Head) who have played a prominent social role in societies that were not initially their own are discussed. A concluding section returns to the notions of distance and strangeness in order to generalise from these particular cases by relating them to different strategies for translating the foreign.
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54
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Chapter 2. Negotiating asymmetry
The language of animal rights and animal welfare
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A01
Myriam Salama-Carr
Salama-Carr, Myriam
Myriam
Salama-Carr
University of Manchester
20
animal rights
20
animal welfare
20
asymmetry
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translation
01
Growing public concern about animal welfare, notably in the context of widespread industry-led exploitation of animals and abusive breeding and slaughtering practices, is increasingly politicised and the shift of focus from the concept of animal welfare to that of animal rights, from compassion to ethics, is framed in an increasingly vocal political discourse. Described as “the fastest social movement” (Gaarder 2011), animal activism has achieved a global dimension where translation plays a significant albeit under-researched role in constructing and disseminating a discourse of animal welfare and contributing to “the social construction of animals” (Stibbe 2001). Drawing on Schicktanz’s (2006) discussion of asymmetry and ambivalence in the context of the human-animal relationship, the paper will explore how, with a backdrop of greater convergence between philosophical and scientific perspectives, concepts such as sentience, welfare and rights are evolving with reference to non-human animals. Examples will be drawn from European and international institutions’ material and from activist organisations.
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76
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Chapter
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Chapter 3. Helpers, professional authority, and pathologized bodies
Ableism in interpretation and translation
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A01
Naomi Sheneman
Sheneman, Naomi
Naomi
Sheneman
Manualists LLC
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A01
Octavian E. Robinson
Robinson, Octavian E.
Octavian E.
Robinson
Gallaudet University
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ableism
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cripping
20
disability justice
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interpretation
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professionalization
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toxic benevolence
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In this paper, we examine how ableism, undergirded by interlocking systems of oppression mediated by our social locations, exists in this profession with interpreters and translators acting as professional authorities-cum-helpers for pathologized bodyminds. The intersections of the nature of interpretation, professional authority, and inherent powers of influence granted to nondisabled people result in violence masked by a veneer of benevolence (Kent 2007; Mole 2018; Robinson, Sheneman, and Henner 2020). In this chapter, we highlight how Chapman and Withers’ (2019) concept of toxic benevolence in social work can be applied to interpretation. We explore and suggest <i>cripping</i> as a means of mediating power relations in interpretation work through a critical disability framework.
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99
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Chapter 4. An information asymmetry framework for strategic translation policy in multinational corporations
1
A01
Thomas A. Hanson
Hanson, Thomas A.
Thomas A.
Hanson
Butler University
2
A01
Christopher D. Mellinger
Mellinger, Christopher D.
Christopher D.
Mellinger
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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information asymmetry
20
international business
20
knowledge management
20
strategic translation policy
01
The size and scope of multinational corporations in the globalized and interconnected modern economy has increased the need for language services to facilitate a broad range of cross-language communication. Much of the prior research on language in international business has emphasized a metaphorical language barrier and the concept of equivalence in translation, while failing to recognize the strategic importance of translation and interpreting. By contrast, this chapter emphasizes the role of language service professionals in achieving corporate communication goals. A framework is offered that links a firm’s response to information asymmetry (to mitigate or maintain) and whether the communication is internal to the firm or with an external party. This two-dimensional approach implies four types of communication goals, and we offer examples of how firms might achieve these goals. The framework recognizes the value of translation and interpreting in adopting strategic translation policies for operating in a multilingual environment.
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121
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Chapter
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Chapter 5. Tom, Dick and Harry as well as Fido and Puss in boots are translators
The implications of biosemiotics for translation studies
1
A01
Kobus Marais
Marais, Kobus
Kobus
Marais
University of the Free State
20
anthropocentric bias
20
biosemiotics
20
linguicentrism
20
non-professional translation and interpreting (NPTI)
01
As a field, translation studies arose from the practice of interlingual, mostly written translation. Though not an invalid point of departure, this assumption, which had not really been investigated critically despite lip service to Jakobson’s categories of intralinguistic, interlinguistic and intersemiotic translation, has meant that translation studies has limited its field of interest to, mainly, written, literary, professional translation as instantiated by Western practices. This linguistic bias has an anthropocentric bias as its logical implication. The limited conceptualization of translation has become untenable for a number of reasons, not least of which is the growth in multimodal communication made possible by information-technology developments as well as the growth in posthumanist thinking. Lastly, semiotic conceptualizations of translation clearly pose theoretical challenges to a translation studies that is conceptualized on the basis of interlinguistic translation only or that is based on a linguicentric and thus anthropocentric bias. <br />This chapter investigates the Peircean definition of meaning as “the translation of a sign into another system of signs” (Peirce 1931–1966: 4.127), in particular the ways in which this kind of thinking has evolved in the modern field of biosemiotics. If all meaning creation is, per definition, translation, it means that every living organism is a translator. It further means that one needs to consider translational actions by animals and plants at both intraspecific and interspecific levels. The chapter addresses the asymmetry both in the relationships between human and non-human animals and in the attention that translation studies pays to this power dynamic.
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Section II. Unveiling the structure
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144
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Chapter 6. Child language brokering in Swedish welfare institutions
A matter of structural complicity?
1
A01
Kristina Gustafsson
Gustafsson, Kristina
Kristina
Gustafsson
Department of Social Work,
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child language brokering
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health and medical care
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interpreting
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public service
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public service professionals
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social services
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social work
20
structural complicity
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structural discrimination
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Swedish welfare institutions
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This chapter investigates the asymmetries associated to child language brokering in Swedish welfare institutions. Group interviews with (a) people who have experiences of language brokering as children and (b) public service professionals who have used children as brokers in encounters with non-Swedish speaking service users are analyzed. Results show that both groups consider that resorting to child language brokering is wrong but at the same time they reproduce this social practice and see benefits in it. This ambiguity leads interviewees to lay responsibility on several levels: the parents who place unreasonable demands on their children; the public service professionals who allow children to take on responsibility in precarious situations, and society at large that may be accomplice to structural discrimination of non-Swedish speaking service users. The responsibilities identified by interviewees in their narratives are critically discussed in relation to the concept of “structural complicity” showing how power relations and social structures create situations where individuals act with complicity even when they do something that they consider to be a good solution for an imperative problem and for which they do not see any alternatives.
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Chapter 7. Responsibility, powerlessness, and conflict
An ethnographic case study of boundary management in translation
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A01
Hanna Risku
Risku, Hanna
Hanna
Risku
University of Vienna
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A01
Jelena Milosevic
Milosevic, Jelena
Jelena
Milosevic
University of Vienna
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A01
Regina Rogl
Rogl, Regina
Regina
Rogl
University of Vienna
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boundary management
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boundary spanner
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conflict
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field research
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translation network
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translation project management
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A growing body of research shows the existence of tensions, frictions, and conflicts in translation production networks, pointing to the key role therein of agency, trust, communication, and technology. However, there are few empirical investigations that include the different actors in one and the same network and analyse the perspectives and practices of both clients and vendors. This paper draws on an ethnographic field study in which participant observation and qualitative interviews were used to study translation clients in a major international corporation as well as a translation agency with which they collaborate. The research looks at conflicts in their areas of contact, how these are handled and their consequences. The analysis yields rich, emotional narratives on how the different actors perceive each other and deal with power asymmetries. It reveals conflicting and ambiguous expectations regarding mutual responsibilities that lead to mistrust, power plays, fear, and frustration.
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Chapter 8. Of places, spaces, and faces
Asymmetrical power flows in contemporary economies of translation and technologies
1
A01
Deborah A. Folaron
Folaron, Deborah A.
Deborah A.
Folaron
Concordia University
20
Canada
20
digital economies
20
indigenous peoples
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inuit peoples
20
network society
20
technologies
20
translation
01
The contemporary translation economy of our globalizing digital world is deeply intertwined with information and communication technologies and the Internet, with the once separate sphere of machine translation lately converging more tangibly and impactfully with translation and interpreting practices as we have traditionally understood them. The decisions on what to translate, and by whom, why, where, and when, have always been conditioned by ideology, politics, economies, and the diverse power structures and dynamics at play in society. The Internet has brought with it the growth of a “parallel” world of human social and cultural practices in digital form, one where the display and dissemination of knowledge are intimately linked to the presence, visibility, and representation on the Web of one’s language and culture, both through native language use in communication and through practices of translation and localization. Analogous to material and physical territorial geographic spaces, virtual spaces reflect tensions and asymmetries of power. In this chapter we discuss these linguistic and translational relationships of asymmetry through the prism of digital world technologies and economies, and their implications for lesser-used and low- or no-resourced language groups. This discussion is followed by examples from two contexts: firstly, the broader Indigenous territorial context of First Nations peoples in Canada; and secondly, the Arctic Indigenous cross-territorial circumpolar groups of Inuit peoples in Canada.
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Chapter 9. Translating values
Policymakers interpreting interpretation in the 2018 Aquarius refugee ship crisis
1
A01
Esther Monzó-Nebot
Monzó-Nebot, Esther
Esther
Monzó-Nebot
Universitat Jaume I
20
non-professional translation and interpreting
20
policymakers
20
refugee protection
20
translation and interpreting policies
20
translation beliefs
20
volunteer interpreting
01
In June 2018, the Aquarius, a search and rescue vessel operating in the Mediterranean Sea, rescued 630 migrants at sea and asked to dock at the nearest port. First Italy and then Malta refused and the dramatic situation of those on board made the news and highlighted the increasingly restrictive nature of European migration policies. Progressive parties in the Valencian regional and Spanish central governments provided the conditions to offer a safe berth and to implement the regional government’s plan to assist refugees in a crisis situation. This chapter will offer an overview of the plan, focusing on its linguistic component, and analyze how translation and interpreting were approached by the policymakers responsible for its inception and development. A distance between the values protected by translation and interpreting professional codes of practice and those that policymakers desire to advance in crisis situations will be evinced as revolving around the role of translation and interpreting in mediating asymmetries.
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Chapter 10. EU institutional websites
Targeting citizens, building asymmetries
1
A01
Łucja Biel
Biel, Łucja
Łucja
Biel
University of Warsaw
20
digital Eurolect
20
distance
20
institutional netspeak
20
institutional translation
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institution-to-citizen communication
20
Polish Eurolect
20
power
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translator's agency
20
website localisation
01
This chapter uses corpus methods to explore how distance and power asymmetries are mediated by EU institutions in their website netspeak – the digital Eurolect – and subsequently reflected in Polish translations against the background of Polish domestic institutions’ websites. At the policy level, the selective translation of EU content into only procedural languages builds asymmetries between official languages. The study analysed two dimensions of translations: (1) grade of specialisation (EU terminology, <i>EUese</i>), and (2) engagement strategies positioning institutions and citizens in a discourse. EU and domestic websites show preferences for different types of engagement strategies, with the former oriented at downplaying power but maintaining a respectful distance while the latter decreasing distance through directness, personalisation, and informalisation.
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Section III. Resisting asymmetries
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Chapter 11. Translation, multilingualism and power differential in contemporary African literature
1
A01
Paul Bandia
Bandia, Paul
Paul
Bandia
Concordia University
20
African literature
20
multilingualism
20
power
20
translation
01
Contemporary African literature is, by its very nature, a fertile ground for elucidating the rather symbiotic relation between translation and power differential, given the inherent multilingualism and the implied language hierarchy characteristic of the African postcolonial context. Asymmetry here begins with the unequal power relations between orality and literacy, between oral tradition and writing, between indigenous languages and the languages of colonization. This power differential is enhanced further by the ever-increasing gap between languages of officialdom and the evolving and rapidly assertive languages of creolization. To the extent that African literature is a window into life in contemporary African society, the aesthetic representation of Africanity in writing as well as in colonial or global languages involves translating asymmetry and negotiating, redressing or rewriting power inequalities. This underlying characteristic of African literature dovetails with literary practices in the diaspora whereby migration and identitarian politics draw heavily from the notion of translation as a mechanism for expressing discourses of resistance to oppression and asymmetrical power relations. This chapter seeks to lay bare the underpinnings of power differentials in contemporary African literature and to highlight the role of translation in resisting asymmetry and rewriting power.
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Chapter 12. Small yet powerful
The rise of small independent presses and translated fiction in the UK
1
A01
Richard Mansell
Mansell, Richard
Richard
Mansell
University of Exeter
20
Booker Prize
20
cultural capital
20
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
20
independent publishers
20
literary prizes
20
translated fiction
20
translator studies
01
At the turn of the century many feared that the UK publishing scene was soon to be dominated by an ever-more consolidated number of conglomerates, pushing what was already a risk-averse industry even further away from bold endeavours such as translated literary fiction. Yet this has not materialised, and in the UK translated fiction has seen remarkable growth. Using data from prestigious literary prizes, this chapter analyses the shift in power away from the “big five” publishers and their imprints to small, independent publishers. It also analyses the consequences of this shift for the actions of those involved in the chain of production and consumption, including what this means not only for the profile of books that are translated and published, but also how translators approach their task.
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311
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Chapter 13. Against the asymmetry of the post-Francoist canon
Feminist publishers and translations in Barcelona
1
A01
Pilar Godayol
Godayol, Pilar
Pilar
Godayol
Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya
20
feminism and translation
20
feminist historiography of translation
20
feminist publishing houses
20
history of feminist publishing
20
history of translation
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history of women
01
The emergence of women’s social and cultural movements in Spain after the death of Francisco Franco led to the appearance of remarkable feminist publication series and publishing houses in a search for foreign ideological mothers. In Barcelona, three such feminist projects were founded in 1977: Colección Feminismo (1977–1979), of Ediciones de Feminismo, La Educación Sentimental (1977–1984), of Anagrama, and the hybrid and multipurpose cultural and political café-bar LaSal, the embryo of LaSal, Edicions de les Dones (1978–1990), the first feminist press in Spain. In this chapter three feminist imprints of the Transition period will be presented. All of them fought to combat the chronic lack of ideological mothers that the Francoist regime had imposed. Aimed at restoring the historical memory of women and creating an identity debate, the importation of foreign feminist literature was crucial for the social transformations of the time. Translation became one of the elements of social change, a political act in trying to achieve canonical equality.
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Chapter 14. Citizens as agents of translation versions
The polyphonic translation
1
A01
Georgios Floros
Floros, Georgios
Georgios
Floros
University of Cyprus
20
agency
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citizenship
20
memory
20
polyphonic (translation)
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power
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translation politics
01
The prospects of a solution to the Cyprus issue have led to a revived interest in the fate of Famagusta, which, after more than 40 years of abandonment due to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, has turned into a ghost city and a strong symbol both of the island’s division and the prospect of reunification. Hands-on-Famagusta, an architectural project (2015a) by a bi-communal team (Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots) aiming to explore prospects of reunifying the city, also becomes important through its trilingual website (English-Greek-Turkish). More specifically, the involvement of various translation agents co-shaped the translation product and led to the creation of what will be termed a polyphonic translation (following Bakhtin 1986), as this trilingual output allowed not merely for a simple coexistence of conflicting discourses, but for a quasi-interaction, aiming at highlighting them as constituting elements of a potential cohabitation of Famagusta. All parties involved negotiated their memory and bypassed officially established language and translation policies and challenged dominant discourses of both sides. Their action prompts new ways of thinking about translation politics in terms of (a) citizens emerging as active agents of translation because, through or despite their memories and in contrast to official power centers, and (b) the reevaluation of “accuracy” and “sameness” in particularly polyphonic translation situations, where opposing discourses converge to necessary “amnesia.”
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Chapter 15. (Re)locating translation within asymmetrical power dynamics
Translation as an instrument of resistant conviviality
1
A01
M. Rosario Martín Ruano
Martín Ruano, M. Rosario
M. Rosario
Martín Ruano
GIR TRADIC, University of Salamanca
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asymmetry
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conviviality
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dialogue
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digital age
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globalisation
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politics
20
power
20
translation
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translation policy
01
This article proposes a critical approach to any instance of translation which (1) contributes to the (re)thinking of translation beyond the idea of bridge-building; (2) is based on a conceptualisation of culture(s) and identity(ies) in terms of translation and in inevitably political terms; and (3) may be useful for exploring alternative, resistant translation policies and practices inspired by an ideal of social conviviality. It will be argued that this is especially necessary in our superdiverse societies and in the contemporary era, where the potentialities of translation, both as a metaphor and as a practice, for social cohesion can be rethought and exploited. Translation perceived and practised as a dialogic and empowering tool will be posited as a powerful antidote to the perverse effects of the model of globalisation which is accepted as dominant in the current digital paradigm.
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Chapter 16. Agency and social responsibility in the translation of the migration crisis
1
A01
Karen Bennett
Bennett, Karen
Karen
Bennett
Universidade Nova de Lisboa/CETAPS
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legal translation
20
migration
20
news translation
20
social responsibility
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translator agency
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translator ethics
01
This paper looks at translator agency and ethics in the light of the current migration crisis, focusing on two concrete situations, one from the legal sphere and one from news translation-reportage. The first discusses how irresponsible choices in the translation of legal documents can proliferate in the online environment, generating a kind of “lexicoprudence” (Guia 2016) that produces alarming consequences in the real world. The second looks at the reportage in the British press of speeches by foreign politicians concerning the problem of unaccompanied “child migrants” in the wake of the dismantling of the Calais “Jungle.” Both will be discussed in the light of recent debates about translation agency and ethics.
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Miscellaneous
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Index
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