Maze-walkers and echoborgs
Reflections on translator metaphors
Brian Mossop | York University
The article fills a gap in the existing array of translation metaphors by introducing maze-walkers as a metaphor
for translators at work. Ten similarities and five dissimilarities between translating and walking through a hedge maze are
discussed. Translators’ control over their actions is compared to that of maze-walkers and of four other metaphorical agents:
stage and musical performers, puppeteers, echoborgs and ghost-writers. Most existing metaphors convey attitudes toward
translations and translators, whereas the maze-walking metaphor captures the varied actions of a translating translator. The
metaphor may be of value to anyone explaining translation to students.
Article outline
- 1.Types and functions of metaphors
- 2.Types of maze
- 3.How are maze-walkers like translating translators?
- 4.How does maze-walking differ from translating?
- 5.Four voice control metaphors
- 6.Metaphors versus subclasses
- 7.Product, process or agent?
- 8.The subjective experience of maze-walking
- 9.Further work
- 10.Concluding remarks
- Notes
-
References
Published online: 02 September 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.21001.mos
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.21001.mos
References
Baudrillard, Jean
Benshalom, Yotam
Borges, Jorge
Boyd, Richard
Chesterman, Andrew
Corti, Kevin and Alex Gillespie
Dastyar, Vorya
Levý, Jiři
Martín de León, Celia and Maria Presas
Mossop, Brian
Reed Doob, Penelope
Schleiermacher, Friedrich
St. André, James
2019 “List
of Metaphors for Translation.” http://traserver.tra.cuhk.edu.hk/tc/ctt.php?id=19
Taivalkoski-Shilov, Kristiina
2010 “When
Two Become One: Reported Discourse Viewed through a Translatological
Perspective.” In Translation effects. Leuven: CETRA, edited by Omid Azadibougar, 16 pp. https://www.arts.kuleuven.be/cetra/papers/files/kristiina-taivalkoski-shilov-when-two-become-one.pdf
Tatarella, Francesca
Turchi, Peter
Ullyatt, Tony
Williams, Hollis
2020 “The
mathematics of mazes.”
To appear in Mathematics Today. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343615560_The_Mathematics_of_Mazes