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Babel - Online First
Online First articles are the published Version of Record, made available as soon as they are finalized and formatted. They are in general accessible to current subscribers, until they have been included in an issue, which is accessible to subscribers to the relevant volume
1 - 20 of 31 results
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Review of Meade, Shih & Kim (2025): Routledge Handbook of East Asian Translation
Author(s): Hazel Shu ChenAvailable online: 11 February 2025More Less
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Exploring Sherry Simon’s views on translation through a postmodern lens
Author(s): Fatemeh ParhamAvailable online: 17 December 2024More LessAbstractThe present study takes a postmodern approach to Sherry Simon’s views on translation, aiming to uncover the extent to which her ideas in translation studies align with postmodern thought. To this end, the works of prominent postmodern thinkers including Lyotard, Baudrillard, Derrida, Cixous, Deleuze, Guattari, and Irigaray are examined. Their postmodern claims are listed and described as scenarios. Then, Simon’s views are compared with these scenarios in quest of commonalities. The results indicate that Simon’s views on gender are indeed postmodern. Her rejection of the conventional definition of fidelity reflects a postmodern stance as it rejects rigid binary opposites. Similarly, her rejection of hierarchical structures aligns with postmodern principles. Furthermore, her advocacy for dismantling absolutes in polarity can also be considered postmodern. Finally, her view on handling texts in translation to foreground female subjectivity qualifies as a postmodern approach.
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Perceptions and management of risk in the translation of a Norwegian-language health app into English
Author(s): Annjo Klungervik Greenall and Inger Hesjevoll Schmidt-MelbyeAvailable online: 17 December 2024More LessAbstractHealth texts are a type of text where non-optimal translation can have serious consequences. In the eHealth/mHealth case study presented here, we explore how different categories of translational agents perceive risk and manage it in the process of translating texts from a Norwegian health app into English. Based on the notion of risk in translation (e.g., Pym 2005) and conceptual analysis, we developed a model — The Risk Scenario — which we used to analyze interview, observational, and think-aloud data gathered during the translation process. We found that while the LSP and translator/quality checker in our study expressed the most concern over the risk of non-optimal target texts, the author and client were more focused on the risk of harming the health of end-users. Such differences likely arise from the proximal versus distal positioning (see Gile 2012) of different agents in relation to the act of translation. Additionally, we discovered that the type of text found in this kind of app — oral and informal — does not effectively communicate its risks, reaffirming the need for detailed translation briefs and suggesting that risk should be a compulsory category for source texts in high-risk domains.
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What transcends “translation universals” across time? : A multi-dimensional diachronic analysis of the changes in translated and original Chinese register features (1919–2019)
Author(s): Shuangzi Pang and Kefei WangAvailable online: 17 December 2024More LessAbstractTranslation universals have been a central focus in corpus-based translation studies (CBTS), providing key insights into translated texts. However, their diachronic aspects remain underexplored despite extensive study. This study addresses this gap using Biber’s (1988) linguistic feature indicators. It primarily investigates the diachronic evolution of register features in translated Chinese texts across four sampling periods, aiming to identify potential translation-specific features that may emerge over time. The study utilizes the CDCMC, a diachronic composite corpus comprising twenty million words sampled over four periods and spanning five genres. The research findings are as follows: (1) from a diachronic perspective, our analysis reveals a notable tendency towards “leveling out” in text variety among translated Chinese texts, with changes being comparatively smaller than those observed in original Chinese texts; (2) diachronic analysis revealed significant differences in four-dimensional features between translated and original Chinese texts, highlighting that translated texts are more informative, logically and semantically explicit, and demonstrate stronger argumentative and persuasive qualities than original Chinese texts; (3) multivariate regression analysis indicates stable linguistic traits over time with significant stage-wise variations, supporting translation as “constrained language” while also suggesting translated Chinese texts possess a degree of “activeness” compared to originals.
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Rhizomatic Chineseness and its postmodern implications for interepistemic translation studies
Author(s): Xiaorui SunAvailable online: 29 November 2024More LessAbstractThis paper draws on the conception of rhizome in Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia ([1980] 1987), to (re)define Chineseness as a cultural phenomenon of identification in a postmodern assemblage. The author argues that the postmodern reading of (diasporic) Chineseness is rhizomatic without an authentic arboreal essence. The conclusions will be borne on Douglas Robinson’s theoretical explorations of interepistemic translation between China and the West, based on the premise that transculturation and enculturation can be seen as a process of interepistemic translation with translationality at their core.
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Review of Kung (2021): Translation of Contemporary Taiwan Literature in a Cross-Cultural Context: A Translation Studies Perspective
Author(s): Hui-Hua LuAvailable online: 22 November 2024More Less
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Translation censorship : The Iranian situation
Author(s): Behrouz KaroubiAvailable online: 22 November 2024More LessAbstractThe imperative significance of translation and translators, the existence of multiple synchronic translations of the same literary works, and the stringent censorship enforced by a totalitarian theocratic regime on translators are among numerous facets that render the Iranian context a promising subject for translational research, transcending its geographical boundaries. However, despite the distinct peculiarities of this domain, the matter of translation censorship in Iran has not garnered the scholarly attention it warrants. In contrast to academic literature, the issue of censorship in translation has received relatively more substantial coverage in non-academic Persian-speaking journals and newspapers within Iran, wherein interviews with professional translators are frequently featured. This discrepancy highlights a disconnect between academia and the practical realities concerning the plight of translation censorship in Iran, necessitating reconciliation. Accordingly, this paper addresses this disparity by elucidating the enigma of translation censorship in Iran, meticulously expounding its operative mechanisms and the primary actors involved.
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Aprendizaje horizontal en las relaciones entre militares de las Fuerzas Armadas Españolas e intérpretes en situaciones de conflicto : Estudio de caso
Author(s): Carmen Valero-GarcésAvailable online: 22 November 2024More LessResumenLa comunicación multilingüe y la necesidad de intérpretes y traductores profesionales que sirvan de enlace entre las distintas partes es una realidad en los conflictos armados internacionales. Este artículo explora las relaciones de aprendizaje que surgen entre intérpretes y militares en dichas situaciones. El enfoque metodológico se basa en la teoría del aprendizaje situado de Lave y Wenger (1991) y en la obra de Engeström (1987, 1991, 2001, 2005) sobre comunidades de práctica, con énfasis en las nociones de aprendizaje horizontal y pedagogías duales, aplicado al caso concreto de las Fuerzas Armadas españolas (FF.AA) que actúan en operaciones nacionales o internacionales de pacificación o en conflictos armados. Los datos proceden de entrevistas con militares (españoles) responsables de misiones militares internacionales o que han trabajado con intérpretes. Las conclusiones del estudio indican el gran potencial que estas misiones tienen para el desarrollo de comunidades de práctica inter e intraprofesionales entre intérpretes y personal militar como forma para mejorar la calidad y eficacia de la comunicación en entornos multilingües y multiculturales cada vez más frecuentes en esta sociedad globalizada.
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Paratextual framing of trans-edited Saudi news reports on the BBC and the Xinhua (2023)
Author(s): Nora BinSultan and Eithar AlangariAvailable online: 22 November 2024More LessAbstractSince the launch of Vision2030, 2023 has marked significant transformations in Saudi Arabia, particularly in sports, culture, and technology. This has significantly increased the reporting of international news agencies on such events, which is, however, absent in the literature of translation studies. There is a notable gap in the literature regarding the role of mediated paratexts in news trans-editing within the Saudi context. This paper examines how recontextualized paratexts from Saudi sources contribute to gatekeeping and reframing the perception of Saudi Arabia in global media, focusing on the comparative case studies on the BBC and the Xinhua. The paper draws on Baker’s (2006) narrative strategies of selective appropriation and labeling as a methodological framework. The dataset involves a parallel corpus of 304 reports in English and Arabic from the BBC and the Xinhua published between January and December 2023. The findings reveal that paratextual frames play a crucial role in shaping how each news agency perceives the transformations in Saudi Arabia through remarkable reframing in the thematic selections.
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Translating Arabic allusions into English : For a hermeneutic approach
Author(s): Lobna Burohaima, Ghaleb Rabab’ah and Sanaa BenmessaoudAvailable online: 22 November 2024More LessAbstractThis article analyzes the translation of Key-Phrase (KP) allusions in the short story collection “al-‘Abarāt” by Al-Manfaluti from Arabic to English. More specifically, it looks into how the translator handled the complexity that arises from the highly intertextual and dialogical nature of Al-Manfaluti’s work. Drawing on Leppihalme’s (1997) categorization of allusions and Venuti’s (2009) approach to the translation of intertextuality, this research maps the translation strategies that the translator employed and their effectiveness in the course of reconstituting source text intertextuality in the target language. The results showed that, by and large, the translator very often employed a literal translation strategy by focusing on semantic correspondence. Such an approach produced a translation that failed to capture the rich intertextual relations in Al-Manfaluti’s original, leading to much cultural and thematic loss. The article concludes that a hermeneutic rather than an instrumental approach would be more effective at preserving the intertextual richness of source texts.
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Feminist paratextual (re)framing of online social translation : A case study of @subtitle girl (@zimu shaonü)
Author(s): Xiaoyi ChengAvailable online: 22 November 2024More LessAbstractThis study focuses on a range of paratexts around an influential social media account in China named @subtitle girl, who dedicates herself to online feminist content production in the form of (editing) and subtitling feminist clips from English to Chinese. The study aims to identify how the feminist subtitled clips are paratextually (re)framed in the context of digital feminism. The study adopts a suitable theoretical conceptualization of paratextuality and views @subtitle girl’s translational activities under the online social translation/subtitling rubric. Different paratexts around @subtitle girl’s subtitling are examined on the macro and micro level. It is found that, on the macro level, the factual paratextual elements avatar, username, and short bio of @subtitle girl, and algorithm-generated statistics about their subtitling facilitate a (post-)feminist (self-)branding and (self-)promotion of their subtitled work. On the micro level, the hashtagged synopsis for each clip and the comments introduce, highlight, reconstruct, and repackage the subtitled feminist content for the Chinese female audience online. The study shows how the feminist (re)framing on two levels of @subtitle girl’s online social translation/subtitling is fulfilled against the backdrop of digital feminist content production: both the (self-)marketing of the producer/subtitler and the interaction between the producer/subtitler and their AV content consumers and among their consumers are valued.
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Review of Almanna & House (2024): Linguistics for Translators
Author(s): Ferdi BozkurtAvailable online: 22 November 2024More Less
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Review of Miletich (2024): Transfiction: Characters in Search of Translation Studies
Author(s): Volga Yılmaz GümüşAvailable online: 22 November 2024More Less
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Review of Tekwa (2023): Machine Translation and Foreign Language Learning
Author(s): Qihang JiangAvailable online: 22 November 2024More Less
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Review of Rundle, Lange & Monticelli (2022): Translation under Communism
Author(s): Sofía MonzónAvailable online: 28 October 2024More Less
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Review of Savcı (2021): Queer in Translation: Sexual Politics under Neoliberal Islam
Author(s): Yahia MaAvailable online: 28 October 2024More Less
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Reception zones of translated Nigerian literature in France : The case of Chimamanda Adichie
Author(s): Sylvia Ijeoma MaduekeAvailable online: 19 July 2024More LessAbstractFrench translations of Nigerian literature have evolved since its introduction in France in 1953. Previous research documented periodic gaps and accounted for an ongoing translation of Nigerian literary texts in France. Since Nigerian literature has emerged as one of France’s most translated Anglophone African works, this study pursues this field by investigating how the French target culture receives and legitimizes this new literature. Consequently, it discusses several zones for the reception of Nigerian literature translated in France. Through a case study of the translation of a Nigerian writer, a general analysis of a mainstream French magazine and review platforms, and information garnered from interviews and fieldwork in France, this study shows that the prestige of a publisher, an author’s literary status, and thematic and political leanings contribute to successful reception and visibility in the target literary system. Critical and popular reception analyses from this study indicate progress in the domain of translated Nigerian literature, such as that translated Nigerian literature is featured in a mainstream French magazine. However, they show a lack of more comprehensive and systematic representation crucial for literary legitimization and visibility of translated Nigerian literature.
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The Myth of the Negro Past
Author(s): Melville J. Herskovits
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Can "Metaphor" Be Translated?
Author(s): Menachem Dagut
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