Translation and Interpreting Studies. The Journal of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association - Volume 2, Issue 2, 2007

This study sets out to demonstrate that both foreignizing and domestication translation strategies may be used for the purpose of organizing, controlling, and disseminating knowledge of a foreign country in ways that do not necessarily "respect" the foreign. Analysis of early 19th century translations from Chinese into English and contemporary reviews reveals that a split in translation practice emerges between 1815 and 1830, whereby translators produced both foreignizing and domesticating translations for different audiences. Coupled with changing attitudes toward the Chinese on the part of the British, both types of translations fostered an orientalist discourse in the emergent discipline of sinology and had a negative impact on the image of China in the British imagination.

The Simpsons is one of the most successful cartoons and one of the most famous (and widely quoted) sitcoms in TV history, a mass-media phenomenon and the longest-running prime-time animated show in television history. As a typical postmodern creation, it oscillates between a work of art and a consumer good to be exported and sold. Translators and dubbing teams attempting to reproduce it in another language (and culture) must deal confidently with an enormous amount of textual material. This article analyzes the practical strategies adopted by Italian translators using selected episodes from Season Five (with references to other seasons and episodes). As this analysis of the Italian edition will try to demonstrate that, while The Simpsons undoubtedly remains an American ‘product’, many of its themes and references are part of a global cultural background whose adaptation for a ‘local’ audience, such as the Italian one, can still be possible.

This article analyzes the rapid developments in Russian political language, or discourse, since the fall of the Soviet Union as they impact Russian>English interpreting. Specifically, the article focuses on the mixing of registers produced by the persistence of Soviet-era language and the introduction of new influences, such as borrowings and criminal and marketing slang.

Earlier studies have reported on differences in drafting and revising style between professional and non-professional translators. This article presents analysis of keystroke data in order to isolate trends that indicate patterns of final text production. As part of a larger think-aloud study, eight subjects, (a student, two German professors, two translation professors, and three professional translators) translated on computer from German into English while thinking aloud. All keystrokes were logged using a computer deamon. Two styles of translation revision are found: Deletion, immediate revision of errors with little post-translation navigation, and Navigation, post-translation keystrokes to reach and correct errors. Although Deletion is more efficient than Navigation in keystroke use, no evidence was found in this sample that one style is more efficient than the other in terms of overall text production speed. In addition, no division between professionals and non-professionals was evident in this small study. More research is needed on a larger sample.

This retrospective account of the process of translating Algerian playwright Fatima Gallaire’s Les co-épouses (1990) from French into English problematizes the recent assimilation of Francophone literature into the French canon. Pointing to the ways in which translating revealed cultural lacuna in a French reading, I also explain how it challenged many assumptions about traditional approaches to translation. For instance, although we began translating with a predilection for the resistant translation advocated by Lawrence Venuti, we became progressively aware of areas of resistance in Gallaire’s text, that is, in the source text, even prior to translation. This resistance was the result of the Arab cultural fabric woven into the French text, as well as a layer of Arabic that modulated and disrupted the French in which the play is written. Ultimately, the experience of translating a text by a Francophone author led me to review assumptions regarding the accessibility or transparency of Francophone texts as they are increasingly adopted by a French literary canon in search of revitalization.