FAQ – References on Allusions

As I’ve said before, I get a lot of emails from people who ask me to tell them where to find books or articles on particular areas of translation studies. I do think research means that you should do the research, but of course it can be helpful to get book suggestions from other people.

So here are some reading subjects on the topic of allusions/intertextuality in general and on translating cultural/political/literary/religious/other references:

Graham Allen, Intertextuality (London: Routledge, 2000).

Richard Bauman, A World of Others’ Words (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004).

Mieke K.T. Desmet, ‘Intertextuality/Intervisuality in Translation: The Jolly Postman’s Intercultural Journey from Britain to the Netherlands’, The Translation of Children’s Literature, ed. Gillian Lathey (Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2006).

B.J. Epstein, “Life is Just an Allusion,” in Crossing Textual Boundaries in International Children’s Literature, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, spring 2011

B.J. Epstein, “Manipulating the Next Generation: Translating Culture for Children,” in Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 41-76, autumn 2010
Belén González Cascallana, “Translating Cultural Intertextuality in Children’s Literature”, in Van Coillie, Jan, and Walter P. Verschueren, eds., Children’s Literature in Translation: Challenges and Strategies (Manchester: St. Jerome, 2006), 97-110.

William Irwin, ‘Against Intertextuality’, Philosophy and Literature, vol. 28, nr. 2, (October 2004), 227-242.

Ritva Leppihalme, Notes on Culture Bumps: An Empirical Approach to the Translation of Allusions (Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1997).

Ulrike H. Meinhof and Jonathan Smith, eds. Intertextuality and the Media: From Genre to Everyday Life (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000).

Mary Orr, Intertextuality: Debates and Contexts (Cambridge: Polity, 2003).

Isabel Pascua-Febles, “Translating Cultural References: The Language of Young People in Literary Texts,” in Van Coillie, Jan, and Walter P. Verschueren, eds., Children’s Literature in Translation: Challenges and Strategies (Manchester: St. Jerome, 2006), 111-121.

Market Research and a Good Website

Not only is Carcanet a publisher that is interested in receiving translated poetry, but their website also has a lot of great resources, such as an audio library (poets reading their work), reviews, interviews, and “free poem of the day, a Poet on Poet of the week, and an author of the month services”.

Market Research

Here is a new bilingual magazine, which focused on poetry. It is called The Black Herald and is looking for poetry translated between French and English.

A Few Articles on Languages

Here are some articles on languages.

The first one is an article about Esperanto.

The second is on Hebrew and how an ancient language can be kept modern.

The last article is, sadly, about the most endangered languages.

London Book Fair

It’s that time again – time for the London Book Fair. While it’s mostly a trade event, and not the book paradise bibliophiles might imagine, it is certainly worth going to. For the second year in a room, there will be a translation center, with talks on translation offered every day. Besides those events, I also like the cooking demonstrations (as I am an avid cook myself) and the display of cookbooks from all over the world, plus I enjoy meeting fellow translators as well as editors from publishing companies who publish translated literature. Hope to see some of you there!

Readux

Here is a new literary website with “English-language reviews, interviews, articles, and opinion on German and French books and events.” It’s Berlin-centered, but not limited to Berlin, or even to Germany. I wish there were sites like this based in many countries – imagine how that would increase our knowledge of and access to various countries and their literatures!

An Unusual Lexicon

I really like this blog, which defines unusual (okay, and some slightly more common) words, because “poetry is language made strange.”