Path to a PhD

I get a lot of emails from people asking me whether they should get a PhD in translation studies and, if so, what they should research for their dissertations. I’ve already written quite a bit about that on this blog (see Getting a PhD and What Can You Study When You Do a PhD in Translation?, for example).

One of the most common recent questions has been what path you need to take if you know for sure you want to get a PhD in translation studies one day. People ask me whether they should study languages, literature, linguistics, translation studies at the undergraduate or MA level, or some other topic entirely.

This is a very individual choice, and I’m loathe to tell people how to shape their lives and their careers. Obviously, to apply to and get accepted to a PhD program in translation studies, you need to show that you have the requisite level of skill in your chosen language/s and literature/s and other relevant subject area/s. You’ll need to prove that you have the scholarly background necessary for doing strong critical work in the humanities (i.e. a BA in sports science probably won’t help). You may also need to show your expertise as a translator, especially if you want to do a creative-critical PhD. But how you get these skills and how you show them in your application will vary.

Personally, my BA is in literature and creative writing and I have an MFA in creative writing. I also worked as a practicing translator for some years before applying for my PhD studies. That pathway worked for me, but I also know people who went for BAs and MAs in translation first, then directly on to a PhD, and still others who did undergraduate degrees in fields such as law or medicine and then switched to languages and translation for their MAs. Others focused on language at the undergraduate level and then came to literature and literary translation as MA students. There is no one right way.

So my simple advice is to consider what your interests are and where you eventually hope to end up. If you want to become a pharmaceutical translator, then an undergraduate degree in medicine might serve you very well. If you know you want to be an academic who researches the translation of opera, then studying languages and music as an undergraduate might be a good choice. And so on. Think about who you are and what will inspire you, and take it from there.

What Can You Study When You Do a PhD in Translation?

I’m often contacted by people who are interested in doing a PhD in translation, but they want help coming up with ideas for topics. This is a bit odd, I suppose, because if you’re going to do research, you should have enthusiasm for your topic, which generally means there’s something that intrigues you that you want to devote three or more years of your life to.

Nonetheless, here are some general, broad suggestions for topics/approaches for a PhD dissertation:

--creative-critical (you do a translation and then write a critical commentary on it)

--philosophy/ies of translation

--the translation of a particular text/author/field

--interpretation in specific a context/field

--subtitling of a particular text/media/field

--translation theory

--comparative literature

--history of translation

--translation as an art/craft

--translation and literary criticism

--translation and critical theory

--translatorial strategies for particular types of texts or specific challenges in translation

--an analysis of the translation of a text/author to one or more languages

--translation and ethics

--translation as a professional practice

I’m sure you can think of some more. Are there any additional suggestions?

Programs in Translation Studies

People regularly write to me to ask me to recommend programs in translation studies to them. This information is quite easily available on the internet, with careful Googling. I also think that since all academic programs require that students do research, you should start by researching universities and their offerings. 

However, I recently came across this list, which has some programs on it, though it is missing many, including the one I teach at, at the University of East Anglia.

What Do You Learn from Studying Translation?

Obviously, people get a wide range of things from a BA, MA, or PhD program in translation, or even from just taking a class or two in translation. You can improve your language skills, you can learn about translation theory and its application to or influence on practical translation work, you can make contacts, you improve your writing and editing abilities, you can learn to analyze texts in a new way, and so on.

But recently, I had the chance to ask some of our MA students in translation how they’d changed or developed over the course of the year and what they’d learned about translation, and their answers were fascinating. There were a number of different replies and they had the variety one would expect, covering some of the things mentioned above. However, there was one response that every single student gave.

All the students said they’d entered the program thinking that translation was just about equivalence and they thought there was always a right or wrong way to translate a text. But over the course of the year, they said, they learned that translation is much more complex than that, and that translation is a broader task and field than they’d realized. They laughed at how naïve they’d been and said how interesting it was to learn about many different strategies and approaches for translation. They said they translated more thoughtfully now, not just picking the first word or phrase that came to them, but really considering a range of options before deciding on one.

It was amazing to hear that they all had this in common and that reminded me how worthwhile all the time and effort we put in to our teaching us. This shows how much you can develop over just a few months or a year, and how radically your ideas on a topic can change.

When NOT to give up the PhD

Last winter, I wrote a post about giving up on a PhD. There were a lot of comments on Thesis Whisperer in response to that post, and it seems to have been a topic many could relate to. So I thought it was worth exploring a little further. Here, then, I want to talk about those times when you might feel rather low about your studies, but when you ought to be careful about making the decision to quit.

The question is: how can you differentiate between situations that suggest you should quit and those that might feel that way but don’t actually signal quitting time? And if it’s the latter, what should you do?

If you know for sure that you want to work in academia or in another research field, then you probably need to find a way of pushing on with your PhD. Not only do you need the PhD just because it’s usually a job requirement, but also because it shows that you are the sort of person who can do research on a high level and who can carry a major project to completion. Hence, the PhD is something you need to finish so you can move on with your life. Quitting won’t help you achieve your goals.

If you aren’t absolutely sure that you want a job in research but you haven’t ruled it out either, then you should consider completing so that you are giving yourself as many options as possible for your future. Some doctoral students don’t know what they want to do next, which is fine, but then you do need to keep your options open. Again, then, you might not want to quit.

If you want to go into a field that doesn’t require a PhD, but you know you could earn a higher salary or would have more opportunities to develop your career with a PhD, then you need to make a decision for yourself about whether the additional year/s and potential pain of the doctoral programme is worth that extra money or positions. For some people, it is worth it, while for others, they’d rather take a lower salary and leave behind the stress of their studies.

And, of course, if you want to have a career in a field completely unrelated to your PhD research or if you don’t want a career at all, then that’s something to think carefully about as well. You might find that you want to show yourself (and your friends/relatives) that you can carry out a project on a very high level and can get a PhD. You might just really want the pleasure of the title “Dr” or the status that can come with it. If either of those scenarios is the case, quitting probably isn’t the best option (then again, as I said in the last post, I’m not convinced that doing a degree just for the title is the best way to spend a few years of your life).

So what should you do if you’re currently not engaged by your research and you’re tempted to quit but you suspect that quitting isn’t the best idea?

The obvious first step is to talk. Talk to your supervisor/s, your colleagues, your family, your friends, and possibly your therapist. You need to get other people’s insight into what’s happening and what you can do. It could be that your supervisor think you’re taking the wrong tack; perhaps a shift in approach or methodology is what you need. Maybe you’re teaching too much and you’re left with no energy for your research, so you can arrange to have a lighter teaching load for the next term. Maybe you have too many hobbies and you’re not following a clear schedule for your research, and since you’re not accomplishing much, you feel upset about your research. In that situation, you need to work out a new schedule and learn to prioritise. Maybe you’re having a problem with your partner or your children but you’re avoiding it, so that’s causing you to blame your research for you feeling depressed.  Sorting out issues at home should take precedence then. Maybe you’ve recently lost a friend or relative, and you just need time to grieve before you can focus again. And so on.

For many people, feeling unhappy about their research is in fact caused by problems elsewhere in their lives and/or the lack of progress with their research is due to having little energy or low concentration levels. Take some time to talk to other people and to think about what is going on in your life. The problems you think you’re having with your PhD may not actually have that much to do with your research after all, and dealing with those other issues first may have a positive knock-on effect for your studies.

Also, as I said in my previous piece, there are times for all of us when we lose our research mojo. This is not a reason to give up on the PhD. Rather, it’s worth remembering that this is a temporary situation, and that there are ways of dealing with (taking a brief holiday, finding a new hobby, reading for pleasure, spending time with relatives/friends, meditating, going to a museum or a play or a concert, concentrating on teaching, even focusing on another part of the research project). We all need breaks and academics are particularly prone to not taking them because of our workaholic natures (yes, I’m generalising here), so if you’re feeling less than enthusiastic about your work, a strong likelihood is that you just need to do something different and to shift your attention for a little while.

Again, quitting really can be the best choice for some students. But before you make that decision, consider both other factors and also what you want to do after the PhD. It may turn out to be the case that you do want and/or need to complete the PhD, but that a short break or other solutions, such as marital counselling or a different schedule, will help you find your enthusiasm again.

Ethics and Translation

I think ethics is a huge issue when it comes to translation. As translators (or editor/publishers/readers of translations), we have a lot of different responsibilities, and many ethical issues to consider.

As many of you know, I teach in UEA’s MA program in literary translation. We tend to talk about ethics in class because, you know, it’s rather relevant to what the students want to do with their lives. One of the students (who shall, of course, not be named) in the past few years complained to me that we talked too much about ethics and that it actually had nothing to do with translation.

This student made this comment at the end of the academic year, when the cohort had spent quite a bit of time discussing issues such as translating for readers without much power or control (such as children or a minority group) or what to do when faced with potentially challenging situations (such as whether to take a job translating a porn film, or whether to agree to interpret for someone on trial, or how to handle the translation of a racist/anti-Semitic/otherwise prejudiced text, or even how to deal with a client who wasn’t paying).

I was genuinely shocked that a student who had spent a year in an intense MA program was arguing that ethics had nothing to do with their chosen career, and I was left feeling as though this person couldn’t have gotten much out of their studies.

What do you think about ethics and translation? Is it an important topic to discuss? What ethically sticky/challenging situations have you come across in your time as a translator?

Translationness and “Writers Who Translate”

Many months ago, I attended the London Book Fair, as I have done a number of times in the past. It’s an exhausting but fun trade event, and there are always some good nuggets of information or new ideas.

Daniel Hahn, my colleague at the British Centre for Literary Translation, and Turkish-to-English translator Maureen Freely had a Q&A session about being a translator.

Danny commented at one point, “The target text is the thing.” He spoke about how he wants readers to read his work as though it had been written in English and for them not to consider that it is a translation. Obviously, I disagree with this to a certain extent (read this). But it’s clearly a fine balance.

And meanwhile, Maureen said she thinks about translators as “writers who translate”, so their writing skills matter more than their source language skills.

Both of these are interesting ideas that are highly debated in translation studies. What do you think?

The Next Generation of Translators

I teach in an MA program in literary translation. Every year, students come in, expecting that once they have their MAs, they will be able to work full-time as translators of poetry or plays or whatever else. Every year, a number of students come in, sneering at people who translate users’ manuals or cookbooks or financial reports and vowing never to be one of them.

I suppose I see part of my job as informing students about the market for literary translation and about being realistic with them. An MA in literary translation will help them, of course, but it will not automatically enable them to support themselves by translating novels. Very few people – even well established, highly talented translators – can live off their literary translation work.

I also point out to my students that many people combine literary translation with other kinds of translation or with teaching or editing or research or work in the charity sector or work at banks and so on. I tell them how stimulating I personally find it to combine different types of translation and how it helps improve my language skills and my translation skills and also teaches me about new topics.

Most of the time, the students are definitely not convinced. Maybe it’s because they’re young (for the most part) and idealistic and think that everything can and will just be handed to them. Maybe they genuinely think they are too good for anything but translating song lyrics and memoirs. Maybe they don’t want to think about the fact that they will have to work hard in order to have a career in translation. Maybe they don’t have any money worries and have relatives who will support them as they translate short stories. Maybe there’s something else going on.

Of course I feel a bit hurt and shocked at the way they mock anything other than literary translation (one student actually said, “I would never lower myself to translate cookbooks!” even after I had mentioned how many cookbooks I have translated). But more importantly, I worry about what will happen when these students go out into the “real world”, armed with their MAs in literary translation, expecting to be able to support themselves on such work. I try to give them hints about how to improve their chances, and I organize talks with the Careers Centre on campus, and I talk to the students about practical matters such as writing a CV, networking, building a website, signing up with agencies, getting mentoring, and so on. So I try to do the best I can as a teacher and fellow translator.

But some students are resistant and only want to talk about translation theory. Some yawn as I suggest book fairs they might want to attend and how they can exchange business cards with editors and publishers. Some even criticize me, saying that I am negative and make them worry about what will happen next. So it’s a matter of trying to gently be realistic with them, to the best of my ability, hoping something that will sink in, while also continuing to encourage them.

What tips do you have for working with the next generation of translators?

AHRC Funding Opportunity: Doctoral Studentship

Some BNW readers might be interested in applying to do a PhD in translation. If so, here's a scholarship opportunity.

The Translation Group at Imperial College London invites applications for a 3-year doctoral studentship funded by the AHRC to begin in October 2012.

Research in Translation Studies at Imperial College is carried out in a vibrant environment. Members of staff of the Translation Group are highly research active, and the Group is home to many PhD students conducting doctoral research in areas such as translation studies, translation technology, localisation, audiovisual translation and accessibility to the media. The Group nurtures a subject-specific research culture by scheduling research seminars, inviting guest speakers from the UK and abroad, welcoming academic visitors who wish to spend periods of research at Imperial College, and organising seminars, colloquia and conferences at our institution and other venues.

For further information about the Translation Group research, visit: www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/translationgroup/ourresearch.

Studentship Award

Standard tuition fees and a maintenance grant will be paid by the AHRC for three years. For 2011-12 the maintenance grant for students in London was £15,590. EU candidates are normally eligible for a fees-only award, unless they have been ordinarily resident in the UK for 3 years immediately preceding the date of the award.

Eligibility

In line with research council requirements, applicants must meet UK residency criteria or be ordinarily resident in the EU. Applicants should hold a first or upper second class degree, and hold or be studying for an MSc or MA degree in modern languages, translation, or in another relevant area related to Translation Studies. Applicants should also fulfil Imperial College English language requirements, and be supported by two strong academic references. Further details concerning eligibility are available via the AHRC website at:

www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Documents/GuidetoStudentFunding.pdf

(pages 39-46).

How to apply

Applicants are invited to suggest their own topics of study, within the field of Translation Studies and submit a fully developed proposal. They are advised to contact a prospective supervisor to discuss their interests. For research interests of staff and of recent and current doctoral students, please visit:

www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/translationgroup/phdstudy.

Applicants should send the following documents to Tom Barbanneau at t.barbanneau@imperial.ac.uk by 19^th March 2012. Please note that all documentation is required in English:

• A research proposal including information about the research background/context, research aims and questions, methodology, any required resources and/or sources, and accompanied by a complete bibliography. The following document provides some advice on how to write a PhD proposal.
• Curriculum Vitae.
• Two academic reference letters.
• A supporting statement of academic interests and reasons for applying for this studentship. This statement should also include details of academic achievements and any relevant research experience.

The deadline for applications is 19^th March 2012. Interviews will be held at Imperial College soon after the deadline. For enquiries, please contact Dr Rocío Baños-Piñero at r.banos-pinero@imperial.ac.uk.

A PhD From the Other Side: Working with Supervisors

The past few posts were about getting a PhD, and they were from a student’s perspective, but here’s a link from the other side, i.e. your supervisor’s perspective. It talks about how to handle your supervisor.

I haven’t been on the other side that long (I only got my PhD in 2009) and I haven’t supervised that many PhD students, but I’ve learned a lot in that time. One is that it is incredibly enjoyable to work with PhD students and to help them on their journey.

But perhaps more relevantly for you, I’ve seen how things can go pretty wrong. Here is some simple and perhaps obvious advice.

If your supervisor asks you to submit work by a certain date, do it. If you don’t do it and your supervisor follows up (which, incidentally, is an annoyance for both of you and a waste of your supervisor’s limited time), respond to the message. Your supervisor cares and wants to make sure everything is okay. Your supervisor has an obligation to you, but you also have an obligation to him/her. Follow through and follow up.

When you submit work, make sure it is clean and clear. No grammatical or orthographic mistakes. No half-sentences. No unfinished ideas. No outlines (unless you were asked to submit an outline). Do the work that was requested and make sure you edit it carefully before turning it in. Be professional about your PhD; it is, after all, your job at this stage in your life.

If you are asked to submit your work in a certain format (by email, for example, or in hard copy), do it. Different teachers have different preferences for how they read student work. I prefer emailed documents, so I can use Microsoft’s Track Changes feature and edit the work in a neat fashion. But others prefer hard copies. So listen to what your supervisor requests and follow the instructions.

If you have a meeting scheduled, prepare for it. This means having the work finished and submitted on time, as discussed above. This also means that you come armed with questions and/or discussion points. Your supervisor will generally direct the meeting, but you should have some comments as well. This is your chance to get advice, so take advantage of it. Also, this should be needless to say, but come to meetings on time. It’s so irritating and inconsiderate when students are late or don’t show up at all.

Also in meetings, make sure you take notes. You’re not going to remember everything that was said, so make the most of your opportunity and write down the ideas and critiques you get. I’ve been in supervisions where a student just says “Yeah, yeah, yeah” and doesn’t write anything down. It won’t surprise you that such students don’t generally make the changes that have been suggested in the meeting. This means that the supervisor then has to repeat all those comments another time, and what’s the point of that?

You don’t have to agree with or do everything your supervisor says, but you should at least listen to it with an open mind. It’s pretty rude for a student to make faces, sigh, or interrupt while the supervisor is talking, and yet I’ve seen this more times than I would have liked.

Don’t waste time in meetings talking about your personal life, unless this is directly relevant to your studies (if you’re going through a divorce or you’ve had a death in the family or another difficult situation, you may need a break from your studies or an extension to a deadline).

Do be polite at all times. This means thanking anyone who exerts time and effort on your behalf, not just your supervisors but admin staff, other teachers, interview subjects, and so on. It’s just good manners. And to be crass about it, you’ll probably want or need a reference from your supervisor later, so it doesn’t hurt to make a good impression.

Good luck working with your supervisor!

Getting a PhD

The past two posts were about good and bad reasons for thinking you might want to get a PhD in translation studies. Here I want to write a bit more about what kind of person you should be in order to succeed in a PhD program.

I won’t lie to you. It is difficult to get a PhD and it takes a lot of effort, motivation, and perseverance, but if you are passionate and hard-working, you can probably manage it. You have to be willing to spend three or more years really focused on your topic and that means you have to choose a topic that you truly care about. It is easy to let yourself get swayed by what a supervisor suggests or wants or by a grant opportunity you spot (there are sometimes grants for people who agree to research a particular subject or agree to take on a certain job in exchange for having their PhD paid for), but I would personally recommend that you pick a topic you are fascinated by, or you will find your motivation dropping partway through the program.

You also have be able to work independently and to push yourself. You spend a lot of the time in a PhD program researching by yourself, reading and taking notes by yourself, writing up drafts by yourself, editing by yourself, and struggling by yourself. If you’re very sociable and can’t handle spending time on your own and/or if you find it hard to motivate yourself, then a PhD is not for you. If you can set goals and hunker down to make them happen, then you’d probably do well in a PhD program. A PhD is not like a BA, in that teachers won’t chase you to find out why you’re not attending seminars or turning in your work (or, okay, your supervisors will chase you a bit, but not as much as if you were an undergrad or a high school student). It’s all up to you to make sure things happen.

You also have to be the kind of person who can handle criticism. Your supervisors want to ensure that your work is as good as possible and that it will pass muster when it comes time for your defense/viva and for any possible publications. In most cases, they aren’t trying to be mean, but they may sound harsh (especially if you keep making the same mistakes and don’t seem to listen to what they are telling you). I’ve seen students cry over the criticism they get or go into a panicked spiral of self-doubt. That doesn’t help anything, although of course it’s okay to pity yourself a bit now and then. You have to learn how to hear what is useful in the feedback you get and to be able to brush yourself off, make changes, and carry on.

On the other hand, you have to believe in yourself and know how and when to defend your ideas or your way of writing. Your supervisors aren’t always right, even if they want you to think they are, and sometimes you have to tell them, “Thanks for the suggestion, but I think I’ll actually continue on in this way because…” or “I’m not so sure about that because…” You’re not always in the wrong and you have to know when to give in and when not to. You also have to learn how to defend your ideas and methods, as this is an important part of academia.

You also have to be fairly academic and interested in the theoretical side of things. You can’t just write a PhD thesis/dissertation on why you translate in a particular way or on suggestions for translators. While the practical aspect is essential and while there should be less of a practical-theoretical divide than there currently is, a PhD is pretty theoretical. I’ve talked to MA students who say they’re interested in doing a PhD, but “only if there’s no theory”. It doesn’t work like that, I’m afraid.

Mentioning the obvious, you have to know at least two languages. I’ve actually been contacted by people who’ve proposed that they study the translations of a particular author or book but without knowing the source language. Of course looking at target texts is essential, but that can’t be all you do. It’s not called “studying translations” but “translation studies” and there is a big difference there.

Ideally, you’d also be a translator yourself or at least have some experience translating. I’m sometimes surprised and dismayed by the number of people in translation studies who profess to be able to comment on what translators do but wouldn’t know how to translate themselves. An art critic has to know something about color and perspective and an expert in translation studies should know something – on a practical level – about words and context.

So, if you have many of the skills and qualities mentioned here and if you are interested in academia (whether for just a few years or for your entire career), why not apply to PhD programs? You sound like you could be a good candidate!

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about what you actually do in a PhD program in translation studies, so you might want to check that out for more information.

Why Not to Get a PhD

This is a companion post to the last one. Here I’d like to mention bad reasons for thinking you might want to get a PhD in translation and/or signs that you are not suited to a PhD. These include, but are not limited to:

--You simply want “Dr.” before your name and “PhD” after it. Sorry, but a desire for titles is not a good reason to spend 3-10 years working on another degree. I’ve met people like this and I think they’re just wasting their time, because they don’t have the right sort of motivation.

--You aren’t interested in one particular topic. I know some people who are quite smart and engaged, but like to constantly change the subject they are engaged with. That doesn’t work in a PhD. Here you must be willing to work intensely on one subject.

--You don’t know what to do with your life, so getting another degree seems like a sensible option. Getting a PhD is a huge investment in terms of time, money, and effort, so actually, in many ways it’s not a sensible thing to do. I know people who’ve started graduate degrees because they didn’t know what else to do and partway through lost their enthusiasm. They ended up realizing that they wasted their time and money when they could have been finding a job they really enjoyed.

--You don’t enjoy translation theory or any sort of theory. If you’re purely a practice-based person – and there’s nothing wrong with you if you are! – then you probably don’t want to spend a number of years thinking on a theoretical level.

--You know you want to work solely as a translator and you already have a number of customers and/or a niche in the market. In this case, a PhD probably won’t help you too much, as you don’t seem to need much in the way of marketing your skills and services.

--You are the type of person who doesn’t like working independently. In this case, it’s hard to imagine that you will do too well as a translator, and you definitely won’t survive a PhD program, where you have to work on your own and be very motivated.

Again, as with the reasons for getting a PhD, these reasons can apply to many fields, not just translation.

See the next post for more on getting a PhD.

Why Get a PhD

I get quite a few emails from people who are considering getting a PhD in translation but want some sort of confirmation that it’s a good idea. While I obviously can’t offer that, because decisions about what to do with one’s life are extremely personal and context-dependent, I can say some of the reasons why you might want to get a PhD in translation. These include, but are not limited to:

--You want to go into academia. In most cases, you will need a PhD to get an academic job.

--You have a passion for a particular subject and want to explore it in depth. This is what a PhD is about.

--You want a qualification that will help you stand out from other translators. I know a number of translators with PhDs and they certainly say that in a glutted market, any extra qualifications or skills can help you get work instead of someone else.

--You want a qualification that will help you stand out from other writers. Some people get a PhD because they then want to write “the” book on a particular subject. Many PhDs do lead on to books based on the thesis/dissertation and having another qualification will help ensure a publisher that you are the right expert for the book.

--You love learning and would thrive in an academic environment for a number of years. Some people really enjoy attending classes, seminars, and workshops, spending time in the library, debating and discussing ideas with others, and so on. If that’s you, then getting another degree might very well suit you.

Obviously, many of these ideas are applicable to areas other than translation!

In the next two posts, I’ll write some more about getting a PhD in translation.

Eugene Nida

As many of you in translation studies will already have heard, Eugene Nida has died. While he worked in the field of bible translation, he had an influence on translation studies in general due to his work on dynamic and functional equivalence.

FIT Conference

Once again, it’s time for the triennial FIT conference and this year it’s in San Francisco. I’m really looking forward to it, because I enjoyed the last congress, in Shanghai in 2008. I especially enjoyed the mixture of people who attended – academics and full-time translators, people from agencies, students, politicians, etc. I found that stimulating.

I’ll be giving a talk on translating thrillers (and of course I’ll discuss Stieg Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy) – detective fiction is quite different from my previous work on children’s literature, and I’ve been having fun doing the research.

Perhaps I’ll see some of BNW’s readers there!

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.

Meta

I often think that academics who work in translation studies need to learn more about the practice of translation (some have never translated!) and also that translators might want to read more of the research that’s carried out in the field of translation studies. In terms of the latter, you might want to read some of the articles available online at Meta.

Call for Papers

Call for Contributions:
'It just doesn't sound right.' - Translation and Intuition
Translation is a problem with two horns: to be caught on the point of free and apparently
subconscious decision; or to be pinned by the mechanical application of theory. But perhaps
this is not a helpful dichotomy. Rather, we would like to ask where in the muddle translation
actually happens, and how balance is struck between conflicting thought processes.
'It just doesn't sound right' is both the catchphrase and bane of the practising translator. A lot
stands behind these apparently throwaway words, and we would like to invite considerations of
how they might be unpacked.
Areas of interest include, but are not restricted to:
- spirit and affect - how can poetics account for the sublime, or literature's affective
power, the hairs that stand on the back of the neck?
- intentionality - the relationship between translator and author.
- preservation of non-standard features, especially in texts written to be read as if spoken.
- critical reception of translations, and the intuitive approval of translations that read smoothly.
- what is strange about translated language, and why?
- the stuff and substance of language - can we understand or only intuit the iconicity of sound?
Submission details
Please submit your papers to norwichpapers@uea.ac.uk
Deadline: Friday April 29th, 2011

Format: Word documents or Rich Text Format (.rtf). Please follow the Harvard style of
referencing. Articles should be between 4000 and 5000 words long, written in English.

Shameless Self-Promotion

I have two recent publications that readers might be interested in. The first is an issue of the journal In Other Wordsthat I edited. In Other Words is a journal on translation that is published by the British Centre for Literary Translation. The BCLT is house at the University of East Anglia in England, where I teach. The issue I edited explores the theme of Translating Queers/Queering Translation. Translation studies has looked at concepts such as how colonialism influenced what was translated and how, and some of us who work in children’s literature have similarly looked at how adults’ power over children has influenced which texts are translated for children and in what ways. Queer studies is the latest field to explore translation from this perspective, developing on from feminist analyses of translation.


On a related subject, I have a piece in the newly published anthology Queer Girls in Class.

Hope you enjoy this reading!

Translators on Translating

While convalescing from surgery a few weeks ago, I enjoyed reading Andrew Wilson’s new book Translators on Translating. Each themed chapter includes quotes, anecdotes, and extracts from practicing translators, and it makes translators and their thoughts on translation more visible.

Many of the usual suspects are included (such as Douglas Robinson, Lawrence Venuti, Martin Luther, Anthea Bell), but there are also names that are less familiar, such as Sharon M. Bell, Cathy Hirano, Eivor Martinus, Moura Budberg), and it’s very interesting to get such a wide variety of views, from different countries, languages, and time periods.

The themes include work (Samuel Johnson refers to translation as “the great pest”), technical translation, the relationship between translators and authors (Wilson points out that “[f]ew authors will ever have occasion to read a translator’s work with anything like the attention the translator puts into theirs, and fewer still are actually capable of judging the quality of the translation.”), translation theory (Andrew Chesterman and Emma Wagner say that “[m]essages from the ivory tower tend not to penetrate as far as the wordface. (The wordface is the place where we translators work – think of a miner at the coalface.)”), and more.

Wilson’s book is more than an anthology of extracts, as he explores many of the concepts and adds his own opinions and experiences. It’s a fun and fascinating book to dip into.