Translation: processes, products, and theories - feminisms and gender - AV work - cultural diplomacy Vienna Review: June 2012

Translation: work on texts in context Translation Studies concur: - translation is work in context; - affected by and affecting social conditions – politics, wealth/poverty, cultural traditions, borders and movements across them, health, linguistic possibilities, subjective decisions; - it is deliberate, intentional, purposeful; - it usually seeks to communicate; - it is a tool with many uses, deployed by many different agents. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

Translation as process How is translation done? - technical means; machine translations, dubbing/subtitling technologies; (fansubbing…) - solutions to linguistic problems: dictionaries, termbanks, memory systems; - the translator’s ’black box;’ - the group work of translation: authors, translators, editors, publishers, reviewers, etc. (Bruno La Tour). Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

Translation as product What affects and results from the processes of translation? - political, ideological and cultural influences; - socio-political uses/abuses of translation; - social aspects of translation: (translator’s invisibility, identity, subjectivity); translator as part of group; - management/support by government, other forces; - purposeful communication? (cultural diplomacy) - text manipulation? - access (for less able). Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

Theorization of translation - translation is purposeful and deliberate; therefore it will always prepare a text for the target audience (feminist work, film); - translation always changes a text (because of innate differences between languages, cultures, historical moments): therefore it manipulates a text; - translation is reproductive, not original work: therefore it is feminine (weak, manipulative, untrustworthy, uncreative;) - translation enables communication across all boundaries: it is metramorphic, reminiscent of the intense communication of mother and child in late- pregnancy. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

Feminisms and Translation Processes: assertive visible translators, paratexts, deliberate marked interference by translators; translation of numerous women writers, development of publishing series; nefarious language of translation: “translationese;” creative, interventionist work; close collaboration between author and translator – devising shared meaning. Products: Texts adjusted for current (feminist) times: Bible Texts produced for feminist times Theorizations … Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

Feminisms and Translation Products: Texts adjusted for current (feminist) times: Bible Re-translated for current politics: Beauvoir Texts produced for feminist times – for series of women authors; Theorizations: women’s empowerment through feminism empowers translation (cf. theoretical connection between women’s reproductive powers/translation Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

Advent of ‘Gender’/’Queer’ Processes: - less assertive interference (woman-interrogated translation); - less translation with fem-focus. - inclusive of all genders, and de-politicized Products: - gendered and queer texts reject labels, harder to ‘place’ socio-culturally or to politicize; - social ‘intellectual’ consensus = silencing. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

AV-Translation Processes: - technical problems! How to translate moving images and fleeting sound? - where place the text? - does text disrupt image or the illusion of the whole? - how far do images alone ‘speak?’ how can this be translated? - translating for accessibility: blind and hard of hearing - translating for public health communication (PSAs). Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

AV Translation Products: - how translated film differs from original – in impact, in enjoyability, in cultural clash of image and language; - how translations of same material differ from each other: French vs Quebec French, Spanish vs Mexican Spanish – - translation as film censorship (esp. in dubbing countries) - dubbing that liberates from Hollywood; - problems of slang or dialect (in written subtitles, in spoken synchronization); - humour – and its cultural variations/functions/ translations: The Three Amigos Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

Translation and Cultural Diplomacy (Processes and) Products: selection of work for translation (government involvement, CIA Cold War psychological warfare, colonial/postcolonial questions – now: writing for translation – cf. Tim Parks!) selective financing, subsidies, support; random translation – friends, groups, accidents; events promoting or hampering translation/exchange; translation as promotion/branding/advertising (Bush’s USA.) Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

Current theorizations around translation Difference is more interesting and telling than equivalence; Equivalence is impossible – hence translation “manages” difference; Translation produces knowledge selectively; Translation is communication, subject to discursive norms; sometimes it is mis-communication; It is contingent: reflecting conditions and situations; never absolute, never final; There is always room and possibility for more translation. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer