Translation and Interpreting Studies. The Journal of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association - Volume 7, Issue 1, 2012

Adolf Hoffmeister (1902–1973), a Czech translator, writer, painter, journalist and caricaturist was one of the Czech translators of James Joyce’s Anna Livia Plurabelle and the illustrator of Czech translations of George Bernard Shaw’s plays. His paratextual work for translated modernist literature — prefaces, caricatures, comic strips, travelogues and interviews — engaged with modernist practice in producing an abusive mimesis in his re-presentation of authors and their writing. This included a verbal and visual insertion of the translator and re-presenter that makes him visible and also fallible, unreliable and humorous. Hoffmeister’s use of humor and demystification made the complex modernist translations more accessible to a wider readership while also bringing into question the practices and mechanics of translation and cultural domestication. Analyzing non-English language modernist translation practices might provide a model for inventive translation paratexts in the modern English-language context.

Mme Lesbazeille-Souvestre’s translation of Jane Eyre, published in 1854, was the first to appear in French and has been re-edited numerous times, most recently in 2001. This analysis uses both the translator’s preface and the translation itself to explore how the translator constructed what was often seen as a problematically “feminine” text into a normatively “feminine” one and, in so doing, asserted herself as an author in her own right. In her translator’s preface, Lesbazeille-Souvestre aims to assure her readers that in translating she felt a duty of fidelity to the text and to the text’s author, and thus that they are reading a linguistically faithful translation. In the translation itself, however, and in contradiction to her stated goal, she actively attempted to construct Jane Eyre as a text that is proper both for a female writer to have produced and for female readers to consume by consistently negating the so-called “masculine” elements she found in the novel. The character of Jane Eyre is significantly altered in the translation in ways that bring her more in line with conventional feminine values. Lesbazeille-Souvestre’s protestations of complete fidelity in her preface must therefore be questioned and viewed through the lens not only of what it meant to translate in the nineteenth century but of what it meant to translate and to write as a woman.

The work of the ICTY courtroom is an ongoing exercise in translation and interpreting. At times discussions of issues related to translation and interpreting are so germane to a trial that they merit inclusion in the trial judgment. Furthermore, translation affords a variety of translation-specific opportunities for courtroom strategies for both the defense and the prosecution. An example of this is a series of courtroom discussions with witnesses and forensic experts on how to translate and interpret the word “asanacija” in several of the Srebrenica trials which reached trial and appeal judgments. The article describes the process by which the Tribunal language services arrived at their translation of this term and their recommendations for interpreters and the impact of the discussions on translation and interpreting for the outcome of these trials. Hence, translation and the forces it sets in motion often influence jurisprudence and shape international justice.

The article examines the role of translators at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and how their translations of evidentiary documents are used in trials. Drawing on theoretical studies and practical examples, it rejects the notion that the meaning of source documents can ever be conveyed with complete fidelity and accuracy but shows how this problem is resolved by adopting flexible translation strategies and enabling parties to check translations against the originals at every stage of proceedings. This system, which evolved over a period of many years, is contrasted with the often haphazard organization of translation at the Nuremberg Tribunal.

Language is often a barrier to high-quality healthcare. Providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services is part of eliminating health disparities, offering quality care, and minimizing risk exposure. In the city of Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates, residents argue for appropriate interpreting services in order to have access to quality care and good health outcomes. The focus of this study was on the need for professional interpreting services to facilitate communication between patients with no functional English and English-speaking health professionals. A survey, structured in-person and telephone interviews, and patients’ comments in four hospitals in Al-Ain were conducted and participants were asked to answer twenty open-ended questions on the state of healthcare in their city. The rate of response was 51% (62 returned surveys). The analysis of the data indicates a need for effective language services in Al-Ain healthcare institutions, and perhaps across the country. It was also found that most of the interpreting services are provided by ad hoc interpreters. This serves as a challenge to educational and medical institutions to cooperate and design programs to prepare well-trained professional interpreters so as to ensure quality interpreting services and quality patient care.

The main goal of this paper — originally published in Portuguese in 1993 — is to propose a reflection on a key question often associated with the training of translators: What kind of knowledge should future professionals acquire in order to produce successful translations? As it examines logocentric notions of knowledge and meaning from the perspective of contemporary, post-Nietzschean thought, with special emphasis on Derridean deconstruction, this paper explores similarities between traditional notions of translation and pedagogy, both founded on the possibility of stable meanings that could be objectively separated from the language and the circumstances in which they occur. Such notions and what they imply for the kinds of relationships that define and constitute both translation and pedagogy are also further questioned from the perspective of some key insights from psychoanalytic theory as it undermines the rationalist notion according to which knowledge is something that might be completely grasped or mastered. As a general conclusion, the paper emphasizes the importance of developing a critical apparatus within the classroom that will allow both students and teachers to constantly evaluate their relationship and the power dynamic that create their community as well the roles they play in the production and transference of meaning in such a community, a production which is central to both translation and pedagogy.