Cover not available
Article published In:
Target
Vol. 26:1 (2014) ► pp.63–97

How devoted can translators be?

Revisiting the subservience hypothesis

| Université de Montréal
In a seminal contribution published in Target in 1998, Daniel Simeoni argued for a habitus-governed model of explanation for translation and suggested that subservience might be a defining feature of this habitus, a primordial norm. The objective of the present article is twofold. First, it aims to recontextualize the ‘subservience hypothesis’ by shedding light on the empirical work underlining it. Second, following the approach developed in Simeoni (2001), the author tests again the hypothesis through textual analysis, by studying the early translation history into French of a textbook entitled Marketing Management by Philip Kotler. The author explores to what extent traces of the primordial norm, as defined by Simeoni (2001), can be found in the first four French editions of this scholarly text produced over the period (1967–1981), two of which were signed by a professional translator and the others by a marketing scholar.
Keywords: habitus, Philip Kotler, primordial norm, social sciences, marketing, Daniel Simeoni, subservience, translation language
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.The empirical basis of the subservience hypothesis
    • 1.1On the origins of subservience
    • 1.2Finding traces of the translator’s devotion in contemporary translations
  • 2. Marketing Management as translation, in translation
    • 2.1Notes on corpus, authors, and method
    • 2.2Kotler’s Marketing Management (1967–1980): moving toward universality
    • 2.3Translating Marketing Management into French
    • 2.4Updating one’s own translation
  • 3.Discussion
    • 3.1Interpreting translatorial choices
    • 3.2Distinguishing different types of habituses
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Appendix
  • References
Published online: 7 March 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.26.1.03buz
References (36)
References
Primary sources
American editions
Kotler, Philip. 1967. Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning and Control . EnglewoodCliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 628 pages.Google Scholar
. 1972. Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning and Control. 2nd ed. EnglewoodCliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, xiv, 885 pages.Google Scholar
. 1976. Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning and Control. 3rd ed. EnglewoodCliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, xiv, 529 pages.Google Scholar
. 1980. Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning and Control. 4th ed. EnglewoodCliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, xiv, 722 pages.Google Scholar
French editions
Kotler, Philip. 1971. Marketing Management: analyse, planification et contrôle . Traduit de l’américain par Christine Durieux. Paris: Publi-Union, 743 pages.Google Scholar
. 1973. Marketing Management: analyse, planification et contrôle . 2e éd. Traduit de l’américain par Christine Durieux. Paris: Publi-Union, 1041 pages.Google Scholar
Kotler, Philip, and Bernard Dubois. 1977. Marketing Management: analyse, planification et contrôle . 3e éd. française. Paris: Publi-Union, 558 pages.Google Scholar
. 1981. Marketing Management: analyse, planification et contrôle . 4e éd. française. Paris: Publi-Union, 714 pages.Google Scholar
French Canadian Edition
Kotler, Philip, Pierre Filiatrault, and Ronald E. Turner. 1994. Le management du marketing . Montréal: Gaëtan Morin, xxiii, 1144 pages.Google Scholar
Secondary sources
Berman, Antoine. 1995. Pour une critique des traductions: John Donne . Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Bourassa, Maureen A., Peggy H. Cunninghman, and Jay M. Handelman. 2007. “How Philip Kotler Helped to Shape the Field of Marketing.” European Business Review 19 (2): 174–192. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Homo academicus . Paris: Éditions de Minuit.Google Scholar
. 1994. Raisons pratiques. Sur la théorie de l’action . Paris: Le Seuil.Google Scholar
Buzelin, Hélène. 2005. “Unexpected Allies.” The Translator 11 (2): 193–218.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007. “Translations in the Making.” In Constructing a Sociology of Translation, ed. by Alexandra Fukari, and Michaela Wolf, 135–169. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011. “Agents of Translation.” In Handbook of Translation Studies , ed. by Yves Gambier, and Luc van Doorslaer, 6–12. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cochoy, Franck. 1999. Une histoire du marketing. Domestiquer l’économie de marché . Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Crisafulli, Edoardo. 2002. “The Quest for an Eclectic Methodology of Translation Description.” In Crosscultural Transgressions. Research Models in Translation Studies II: Historical and Ideological Issues , ed. by Theo Hermans, 26–43. Manchester: St Jerome.Google Scholar
Durieux, Christine. 1988. Fondement didactique de la traduction technique . Paris: Didier Érudition.Google Scholar
. 2010. Fondement didactique de la traduction technique . 2nd ed. Paris: Maison du dictionnaire.Google Scholar
Fox, Karen F.A., Irina I. Skorobogatykh, and Olga V. Saginova. 2008. “Philip Kotler’s Influence in the Soviet Union and Russia.” European Business Review 20 (2): 152–176. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gambier, Yves. 1992. “Adaptation: une ambiguité à interroger.” Meta 37 (3): 421–425. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heinich, Nathalie. 1984. “Les traducteurs littéraires: l’art et la profession.” Revue française de sociologie 251: 264–280. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kalinowski, Isabelle. 2002. “La vocation au travail de traduction.” Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 1441: 47–54.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Katan, David. 2009. “Translation Theory and Professional Practice: A Global Survey of The Great Divide.” Hermes 421: 111–153.Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno. 1987. Science in Action .Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, Douglas. 1996. Translation and Taboo . DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
. 2008. “The Translators’ Personae: Marketing Translatorial Images as Pursuit of Capital.” Meta 53 (3): 609–622. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Simeoni, Daniel. 1995. “Translating and Studying Translation: the View from the Agent.” Meta 40 (3): 445–460. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1998. “The Pivotal Status of the Translator’s Habitus.” Target 10 (1): 1–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2001. Traduire les sciences sociales. L’émergence d’un habitus sous surveillance: Du texte support au texte source . PhD diss. Paris, École des hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon. 1995. Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond . Amsterdam: John Benjamins.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence. 1995. The Translator’s invisibility: A History of Translation . London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1998. The Scandals of Translation . London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (13)

Cited by 13 other publications

Sakamoto, Akiko, Darren van Laar, Joss Moorkens & Félix do Carmo
2024. Measuring translators’ quality of working life and their career motivation. Translation Spaces 13:1 ► pp. 54 ff. DOI logo
Diao, Hong
2022. Translating and literary agenting: Anna Holmwood’sLegends of the Condor Heroes. Perspectives 30:6 ► pp. 1059 ff. DOI logo
Panofsky, Ruth
2022. Gwendolyn Moore. Mémoires du livre 13:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Sela-Sheffy, Rakefet
2022. The Translation Professions. In The Cambridge Handbook of Translation, ► pp. 160 ff. DOI logo
Gagné, Anne-Marie
2021. Du livre de poche subversif au standard sobre « à la française » : les trajectoires matérielles d’Invitation to Sociology en anglais et en français1. TTR 33:2 ► pp. 41 ff. DOI logo
Parkins-Ferrón, Courtney G.
2020. Are Translators Really Subservient? Empirical Evidence from Lexical Transfer and Language Prestige in Curaçao. Research in Language 18:3 ► pp. 245 ff. DOI logo
Piekkari, Rebecca, Susanne Tietze & Kaisa Koskinen
2020. Metaphorical and Interlingual Translation in Moving Organizational Practices Across Languages. Organization Studies 41:9 ► pp. 1311 ff. DOI logo
Bayri, Furzana
2019. Li-qawmin yatafakkarūn(Q. 30:21): Muhammad Asad's Qur'anic TranslatorialHabitus. Journal of Qur'anic Studies 21:2 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Xu, Minhui & Jing Yu
2019. Sociological formation and reception of translation. Translation and Interpreting Studies 14:3 ► pp. 333 ff. DOI logo
Sayols, Jesús
2018. Transculturation and Bourdieu’s habitus theory. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 30:2 ► pp. 260 ff. DOI logo
Tekgül, Duygu
2017. Competition and co-operation for recognition and professional esteem in the literary translation industry. Translation Studies 10:1 ► pp. 54 ff. DOI logo
Buzelin, Hélène, Mylène Dufault & Cecilia Foglia
2015. On translating the ‘bible of marketing’. The Translator 21:1 ► pp. 24 ff. DOI logo
Buzelin, Hélène
2014. Translating the American textbook. Translation Studies 7:3 ► pp. 315 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.