An Anglo-American Perspective to Translation
Prof. Dr. Constanza Gerding Salas - May 2013
Student’s work: Choose one topic and write a 1,500-word essay. Be concise and clear.
1. “I see translation as the attempt to produce a text so transparent that it does not seem to be translated. A good translation is like a pane of glass. You only notice that it’s there when there are little imperfections— scratches, bubbles. Ideally, there shouldn’t be any. It should never call attention to itself.” Norman Shapiro (qtd. in Venuti, 1995: 1). Discuss translators’ invisibility.
2. In terms of translation exchange, the globalized world has paradoxically contributed to the development of English as a dominant force, which to some extent cancels out cultural differences. In front of this reality, Venuti justifies translators’ visibility. Is a visible translator a better mediator today?
3. As you perceive it or according to what you have studied, what is the status of your mother tongue in the world? Discuss its status in relation to the concept of ethnocentric violence in translation.
4. Domestication and foreignization refer to the degree to which a text conforms to the target culture, domestication being TL&C-oriented, and foreignization, SL&C-oriented. Centuries-old ideas formulated in a modern sense by Venuti, who views the dichotomy between them as ideological and as the ethical choice translators make. Discuss.
5. How are acts of translation linked to the epoch and culture a translator lives in? Think of issues or trends in your cultural environment that may have influenced translation? Explain how they have affected translation and what the effect has been.
6. According to Miller et al. (2010), culture can be defined as “the social process whereby people communicate meanings, make sense of their world, construct their identities, and define their beliefs and values.” How do these concepts relate to translation practice in your country?
7. In what ways do you think feminist translation scholars have contributed to women’s visibility, women’s identity and government policy-making? Have they conformed to fluency or to resistancy in translation?
8. In what ways can gender (feminine, gay, transgender) text handling / translation be more complex in specific language combinations? How does the readership matter?
9. What could the role of translation be in minor cultures whose main concern is to survive? Venuti: “Today minor cultures are realizing that the survival of their languages and cultural traditions depends on their own active involvement, often in the form of funding language instruction and translation[1].” Discuss.
[1] Taken from an interview with Lawrence Venuti at an international conference held on 24-26 May 2012, University of Tallinn, Estonia. http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/translationstudies/data/Tallinn_Conference_Interview.pdf