Vienna Review : June 2012

1. Vienna Review: June 2012 Translation: processes, products, and theories- feminisms and gender- AV work- cultural diplomacy

2. Translation: work on texts in context • Translation Studies concur: • - translation is work in context; • - affected by and affecting social conditions – politics, wealth/poverty, cultural traditions, borders and movements across them, health, linguistic possibilities, subjective decisions; • - it is deliberate, intentional, purposeful; • - it usually seeks to communicate; • - it is a tool with many uses, deployed by many different agents. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

3. Translation as process • How is translation done? • - technicalmeans; machine translations, dubbing/subtitling technologies; (fansubbing…) • - solutions to linguisticproblems: dictionaries, termbanks, memory systems; • - the translator’s ’black box;’ • - the group workof translation: authors, translators, editors, publishers, reviewers, etc. (Bruno La Tour). Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

4. Translation as product • What affects and results from the processes of translation? • - political, ideological and cultural influences; • - socio-political uses/abuses of translation; • - social aspects of translation: (translator’s invisibility, identity, subjectivity); translator as part of group; • - management/support by government, other forces; • - purposeful communication? (cultural diplomacy) • - text manipulation? • - access (for less able). Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

5. Theorization of translation • - translation is purposeful and deliberate; therefore it will always prepare a text for the target audience (feminist work, film); • - translation always changes a text (because of innate differences between languages, cultures, historical moments): therefore it manipulates a text; • - translation is reproductive, not original work: therefore it is feminine (weak, manipulative, untrustworthy, uncreative;) • - translation enables communication across all boundaries: it is metramorphic, reminiscent of the intense communication of mother and child in late-pregnancy. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

6. Feminisms and Translation • Processes: • assertive visible translators, paratexts, deliberate marked interference by translators; • translation of numerous women writers, development of publishing series; nefarious language of translation: “translationese;” • creative, interventionist work; • close collaboration between author and translator – devising shared meaning. • Products: • Texts adjusted for current (feminist) times: Bible • Texts produced for feminist times • Theorizations … Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

7. Feminisms and Translation • Products: • Texts adjusted for current (feminist) times: Bible • Re-translated for current politics: Beauvoir • Texts produced for feminist times – for series of women authors; • Theorizations: women’s empowerment through feminism empowers translation (cf. theoretical connection between women’s reproductive powers/translation Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

8. Advent of ‘Gender’/’Queer’ • Processes: • - less assertive interference (woman-interrogated translation); • - less translation with fem-focus. • - inclusive of all genders, and de-politicized • Products: • - gendered and queer texts reject labels, harder to ‘place’ socio-culturally or to politicize; • - social ‘intellectual’ consensus = silencing. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

9. AV-Translation • Processes: • - technical problems! How to translate moving images and fleeting sound? • - where place the text? • - does text disrupt image or the illusion of the whole? • - how far do images alone ‘speak?’ how can this be translated? • - translating for accessibility: blind and hard of hearing • - translating for public health communication (PSAs). Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

10. AV Translation • Products: • - how translated film differs from original – in impact, in enjoyability, in cultural clash of image and language; • - how translations of same material differ from each other: French vs Quebec French, Spanish vs Mexican Spanish – • - translation as film censorship (esp. in dubbing countries) • - dubbing that liberates from Hollywood; • - problems of slang or dialect (in written subtitles, in spoken synchronization); • - humour – and its cultural variations/functions/ translations: The Three Amigos Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

11. Translation and Cultural Diplomacy • (Processes and) Products: • selection of work for translation (government involvement, CIA Cold War psychological warfare, colonial/postcolonial questions – now: writing for translation – cf. Tim Parks!) • selective financing, subsidies, support; • random translation – friends, groups, accidents; • events promoting or hampering translation/exchange; • translation as promotion/branding/advertising (Bush’s USA.) Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer

12. Current theorizations around translation • Difference is more interesting and telling than equivalence; • Equivalence is impossible – hence translation “manages” difference; • Translation produces knowledge selectively; • Translation is communication, subject to discursive norms; sometimes it is mis-communication; • It is contingent: reflecting conditions and situations; never absolute, never final; • There is always room and possibility for more translation. Click View then Header and Footer to change this footer