Benjamins Translation Library (vols. 1–118, 1994–2015)

Literary Translation in Modern Iran: A sociological study is the first comprehensive study of literary translation in modern Iran, covering the period from the late 19th century up to the present day. By drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of culture, this work investigates the people behind the selection, translation, and production of novels from English into Persian. The choice of novels such as Morier's The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Vargas Llosa's The War of the End of the World provides insights into who decides upon titles for translation, motivations of translators and publishers, and the context in which such decisions are made.The author suggests that literary translation in Iran is not a straightforward activity. As part of the field of cultural production, literary translation has remained a lively game not only to examine and observe, but also often a challenging one to play. By adopting hide-and-seek strategies and with attention to the dynamic of the field of publishing, Iranian translators and publishers have continued to play the game against all odds.

The book is not only a contribution to the growing scholarship informed by sociological approaches to translation, but an essential reading for scholars and students of Translation Studies, Iranian Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies.

Audio description (AD) is a narrative technique which provides complementary information regarding the where, who, what and how of any audiovisual content. It translates the visuals into words. The principal function of this ad hoc narrative is to make audiovisual content available to all: be it a guided city tour of Barcelona, a 3D film, or a Picasso painting. Audio description is one of the younger siblings of Audiovisual Translation, and it is epigonic to the audiovisual translation modality chosen. This book is the first volume on the topic written in English and it brings together an international team of leading audio description teachers, scholars, and practitioners to address the basic issues regarding audio description strategies. Using one stimulus, Quentin Tarantino’s film Inglourious Basterds (2009), the authors analysed what, when, where and how to audio describe. The book is written in a collaborative effort, following a bottom up approach. The many issues that surfaced in the process of the analysis were grouped in broader categories represented in the ten chapters this book contains. A good example of a successful international collaboration, the volume sets a robust practical and theoretical framework for the many studies on audio description to come in the future. Considering the structure of the individual contributions, the book is not only oriented towards the identification of the challenges that await the describer, but it also offers an insight into their possible solutions.

This volume on Transfiction (understood as an aestheticized imagination of translatorial action) recognizes the power of fiction as a vital and pulsating academic resource, and in doing so helps expand the breadth and depth of TS. The book covers a selection of peer-reviewed papers from the 1st International Conference on Fictional Translators and Interpreters in Literature and Film (held at the University of Vienna, Austria in 2011) and links literary and cinematic works of translation fiction to state-of-the-art translation theory and practice. It presents not just a mixed bag of cutting-edge views and perspectives, but great care has been taken to turn it into a well-rounded transficcionario with a fluid dialogue among its 22 chapters. Its investigation of translatorial action in the mirror of fiction (i.e. beyond the cognitive barrier of ‘fact’) and its multiple transdisciplinary trajectories make for thought-provoking readings in TS, comparative literature, as well as foreign language and literature courses.

Video games are part of the growing digital entertainment industry for which game localization has become pivotal in serving international markets. As well as addressing the practical needs of the industry to facilitate translator and localizer training, this book seeks to conceptualize game localization in an attempt to locate it in Translation Studies in the context of the technologization of contemporary translation practices. Designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to the topic of game localization the book draws on the literature in Game Studies as well as Translation Studies. The book’s readership is intended to be translation scholars, game localization practitioners and those in Game Studies developing research interest in the international dimensions of the digital entertainment industry. The book aims to provide a road map for the dynamic professional practices of game localization and to help readers visualize the expanding role of translation in one of the 21st century's key global industries.

The Selected Papers from the 6th Congress Tracks and Treks in Translation Studies (TS) held at the University of Leuven, Belgium in 2010 congregated scholars and practitioners presenting their ideas and research in this thriving domain. This volume includes fifteen carefully selected articles which represent the diversity and breadth of the topics dealt with in Translation Studies today, increasingly bolstered by its interaction with other disciplines. At the same time it aims to provide a balance between process and product oriented research, and training and professional practice. The authors cover both Translating and Interpreting from a myriad of approaches, touching upon topics such as creativity, pleasant voice, paratext and translator intervention, project-based methodologies, revision, corpora, and individual translation styles, to name but a few. This volume will hopefully contribute to further fruitful interaction and cohesion which are essential to the international status of TS.

This is an expanded and slightly revised version of the book of the same title which caused quite a stir when it was first published (1995). It thus reflects an additional step in an ongoing research project which was launched in the 1970s. The main objective is to transcend the limitations of using descriptive methods as a mere ancillary tool and place a proper branch of DTS at the very heart of the discipline, between the theoretical and the applied branches.

Throughout the book, theoretical and methodological discussions are illustrated by an assortment of case studies, the emphasis being on the need to take whatever one wishes to focus on within the contexts which are relevant to it.

Part One discusses the pivotal position of the descriptive branch within Translation Studies, and Part Two then outlines a detailed rationale for that positioning. This, in turn, supplies a framework for the case studies comprising Part Three, where a number of exemplary issues are analysed and contextualized: texts and modes of translational behaviour are situated in their cultural setting, and textual components are related to their texts and then also to the cultural constellations in which they are embedded. All this leads to Part Four, which asks what the knowledge accumulated through descriptive studies of the kind advocated in the book is likely to yield in terms of both the theoretical and the applied branches of the field.

All in all: an innovative, thought-provoking book which no one with a keen interest in translation can afford to ignore.

The book Post-Socialist Translation Practices explores how Communism and Socialism, through their hegemonic pressure, found expression in translation practice from the moment of Socialist revolution to the present day. Based on extensive archival research in the archives of the Communist Party and on the interviews with translators and editors of the period the book attempts to outline the typical and defining features of the Socialist translatorial behaviour by re-reading more than 200 translations of children's literature and juvenile fiction published in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Despite the variety of different forms of censorship that the translators in all Socialist states were subject to, the book argues that Socialist translation in different cultural and linguistic environments, especially where the Soviet model tried to impose itself, purged the translated texts of the same or similar elements, in particular of the religious presence. The book also traces how ideologically manipulated translations are still uncritically reprinted and widely circulated today.

Acclaimed, when it first appeared, as a seminal work – a groundbreaking book that was both informative and highly readable – Translators through History is being released in a new edition, substantially revised and expanded by Judith Woodsworth. Translators have played a key role in intellectual exchange through the ages and across borders. This account of how they have contributed to the development of languages, the emergence of literatures, the dissemination of knowledge and the spread of values tells the story of world culture itself.

Content has been updated, new elements introduced and recent directions in translation scholarship incorporated, providing fresh insights and a more nuanced view of past events. The bibliography contains over 100 new titles and illustrations have been refreshed and enhanced.

An invaluable tool for students, scholars and professionals in the field of translation, the latest version of Translators through History remains a vital resource for researchers in other disciplines and a fascinating read for the wider public.