LINGUIST List 25.2962
Fri
Jul 18 2014
Calls:
Translation/USA
Editor for this issue:
Anna White <awhitelinguistlist.org>
Date: 17-Jul-2014
From: Concepcion Godev
<cgodev
uncc.edu>
Subject: Translation Versus
Globalization
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Full Title: Translation Versus
Globalization
Date: 20-Feb-2015 - 21-Feb-2015
Location: Charlotte, USA
Contact Person: Sheri Long
Meeting Email:
< click here to access email >
Web Site:
https://languages.uncc.edu/sites/languages.uncc.edu/files/media/CALL%20FOR%20PAPERS%20Translation%20vs%20Globalization.pdf
Linguistic Field(s): Translation
Call Deadline: 25-Sep-2014
Meeting Description:
Translation versus Globalization
20-21 February 2015, Department of Languages
and Culture Studies, UNC Charlotte, USA
The symposium will tackle a variety of issues
that characterize the complex relationship
between translation and globalization.
Multilingualism was born as soon as men and
women began to speak. Nevertheless,
throughout
historythere have been multiple attempts to
limitthe scope/number of languages--often due
to politics or thedesire for convenience. This
on-going effort has involved the systematic use
of a lingua franca
(currently English, historically others) or the
utopic quest for an ideal vehicular language
such as Volapük or Esperanto. In any event,
linguistic diversity has never really been
threatened and the translation process(es) have
always been considered at the very core of
human exchange. Yet today translation plays and
has to play an even more important role than
before in a context where the magnitude of
globalization reinforces the hegemonic dream of
a neatly constructed homogenized culture whose
range is supposed to move us toward the
universal. During our symposium, we will tackle
a variety of issues that characterize the
complex relationship between translation and
globalization.
Call for Papers:
Papers addressing the topic of the symposium
will be presented in English. Please send a ½
page abstract and bio to EventsLCS
uncc.edu. Deadline for the abstract
is 25 Sept 2014. The organizing committee is
exploring a published volume and information
will be forthcoming.
Translation versus Globalization invites 15-20
minute original papers that address:
1. Is translation an instance of resistance
and/or a guarantor for linguistic and cultural
diversity?
2. Translation and the editorial market: In Why
Translation Matters (2010), Edith Grossman
points out that writers have to be translated
into English to be considered for the Nobel
Prize. What has been
translated? Why? According to a study (1992)
led by Richard Jacquemond, the Southern
hemisphere
represents a mere 1-2% of the total books
translated. What is the north-south (im)balance
today?
3. In How Many Languages Do We Need? (2011)
Victor Ginsburgh and Sholmo Weber discuss the
desire to avoid an excess of societal
fragmentation in our rapidly globalizing
environment. Does this
narrow the focus on a relatively small number
of so-called core languages? How do the core
languages of academia and/or government and
economic structures impact translation and
translation studies?
4. For Po Petterson, the postcolonial turn has
both opened and foreclosed roads in Literary
Translation
Studies. Even though there were predecessors
like Edouard Said and Frantz Fanon in theory,
and Chinua Achebe and Ngũgĩwa Thiong’o in
literature and criticism, it is the “Holy
Trinity” of postcolonial criticism--Henry Louis
Gates, Jr., Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Homi
K. Bhabha
--that made current postcolonial translation
theory largely entrapped in the
poststructuralist jargon of “in-betweenness”
and “hybridity.” This supposed liberation from
Eurocentric traditions has created a new form
of elitist tradition in which 2 translations
are theory rather than practice-driven. If one
is to see an act of translation as either an
act of “rewriting” (André Lefevere) or
“domesticating and foreignizing” (Lawrence
Venuti), then what does one make of this
theoretical knowledge? How can an act of
translation be meaningful without full
examination of its “socio-cultural contexts” or
“interdisciplinary openness” (Petterson)? What
are the advantages and disadvantages of a
functional theory of translation (David B.
Frank, 2008)?
5. Paradoxically, will translations become
agents of a growing cultural uniformity and
vehicles for cultural stereotypes (by selecting
what enters the stereotypical frame of a given
culture)? Which languages and bodies of work
are the most/least translated?
6. What does it mean to
read/translate/interpret the Devil on the Cross
by Ngũgĩwa Thiong’o as an English translation
of an original Gikuyu text (Caitaani
mutharaba-Ini) if Gikuyu, “as native language,”
is already a language borrowed from the Other?
While it is true the mother tongue shapes one’s
perception of the world, is it already
inhabited by others (Derrida, Monolingualism of
the Other, 1998)?
7. Translation and World Literature: Is it
enough to read translated books? Is it
satisfactory to skip the original version?
Consider translation and the international
canon.
8. Geocriticism and translation: Geocriticism
is established on notions such as
transgressivity (permanent deterritorializing
process) and multifocality. What might such an
approach bring to the field of Translation
Studies?
9. Translation and technology: What is the role
of the translator with the emergence of
globalization trends? How does the relentless
rise of technology affect the processes and
products of translation? What translation
trends may emerge from the human-machine
interface? Are translational professions
threatened by technology? Or, is their role
enhanced instead?
10. Translation profession: How may the
profession of translation evolve in the next
two decades? Which new sociological agents and
cultural exchanges may emerge in the
profession?
11. Translation pedagogy: With the emergence of
new globalization trends, translation has
become more interdisciplinary and
application-oriented; thus, requiring broader
meta-competences or skills that may not be
prevalent in the traditional curriculum. What
are the core skills that translators must
possess? What program outcomes should a
translation degree aspire to? Are there
specific key courses that define the program’s
success? Should the translation curriculum be
standardized?
This symposium is organized both by the
Department of Languages and Culture Studies,
UNC Charlotte, represented by Sheri Spaine
Long, Chair, and the research team E.A. 1087
Espaces Humains et Interactions
Culturelles,Université de Limoges, represented
by Bertrand Westphal.
Page Updated: 18-Jul-2014