Leon Burnett University of Essex

Interacting with the Translation Profession: A Report Ian Kemble (Portsmouth University) Questionnaire to 25 universities 23 responses Bath Symposium (9 September 2006)

Working hypothesis “The working hypothesis was that the responses to the questionnaire would show that those courses which were more vocationally-orientated would enjoy levels of interaction with the translation profession which were higher and more varied than those of more theoretically-orientated courses.”

Spectrum theoretically balanced vocationally orientated between orientated theory & practice Spectrum depicting the range of course types

Results of survey “a total of 6 institutions (24%) declared themselves to be more theoretically orientated, situating themselves between nodes 2 and 4; 7 institutions (28%) declared their courses to be balanced between theory and practice and a total of 12 institutions (48%) described their courses as more vocationally orientated, placing themselves between nodes 6 and 9.”

Results of survey 50%vocationally orientated 25%balanced between theory and practice 25%theoretically orientated

Hidden assumption 1 25%balanced between theory and practice [= vocation] Implicit equation between ‘practice’ and ‘vocation’

Hidden assumption 2 Spectrum --- continuity Divide --- partition Metaphors condition our way of looking at the world.

Theoretically-orientated universities Warwick Birmingham West of England (UWE) Edinburgh University College London (UCL) East Anglia (UEA)

Susan Bassnett Translation Studies (1980) Comparative Literature (1993) Literary Translation?

Critique of reference books “The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, edited by Mona Baker”, in Translation and Literature (Vol. 8, ), “On the Basis of Current Knowledge: A Review of Recent Reference Works on Translation”, in New Comparison (No. 32, ), A review of Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications by Jeremy Munday (Routledge: London and New York, 2001), in Wasafiri (No. 40, 55-57), The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English. Volume 4: , in Translation and Literature (forthcoming 2007).

Reference books (by weight) Dictionary of Translation Studies, 400g. The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation, 1.05kg. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, 1.18kg. Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English (2 vols.), 5.35kg.

The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English 5 volumes (Vols. 3 & 4 published) Aim is “to present for the first time a critical and historical overview of the development of this art or craft in the English-speaking world” –General Editors’ Foreword (italics added)

The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English “we use the word ‘literary’ in the broad old sense which it has still not completely lost, to encompass something like the full range of non- technical work which has made up the reading of the literate public” –General Editors’ Foreword –Compare Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English Literary Translation as its own master.

Literary Translation Art or craft? Theory and practice New divide: transmitting culture/receiving culture Autonomous work in the recipient culture The ‘wordface’, not the ‘workplace’.