TranscUlturAl (Journal)
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Le Bureau : Le nouveau mockumentaire d’entreprise francais(e) en question?
No full textIn this essay, I show how Le Bureau (2006), a business fiction adapted from the British TV series The Office (2001-2003), maintained its originality by being in line with diverse traditions both French and trans-national. However, while addressing with a satirical tone some problems that are either global (like some issues related to the “new spirit of capitalism”) or typically French (such as the resistance to a concrete application of anti-discriminatory measures on the workplace), the critical impact of this mockumentary seems limited by the fact that it is framed within TV programs and especially Canal+’s entertainment “philosophy.”
Dans cet essai, je montre comment la fiction d’affaires Le Bureau (2006), adaptation française de la série télévisée britannique The Office (2001-2003), a réussi à maintenir une certaine originalité en s’inscrivant dans diverses traditions artistiques à la fois françaises (documentaire), trans-nationales (mockumentaire) et trans-culturelles (la sitcom), tout en adressant de manière humoristique et critique certains problèmes globaux, comme «le nouvel esprit du capitalisme» et d’autres plus typiquement français (comme la résistance à appliquer des mesures anti-discriminatoires concrètes sur les lieux de travail). Cependant, le fait que ce mockumentaire fut fait pour la télévision et plus spécifiquement pour Canal+ (qui est une chaîne d’abord divertissante) limite sa fonction et son impact critique
Uses of the Imagination: Bilanguaging the Translation of U.S. Latino Poets
No full textThe translation of multicultural poetry is as challenging as it is creative. In this verse, meaning is transmitted through a defiance of norms, firstly because poetry is a genre that strives for verbal concision and innovation; and secondly because the multilingual poet involves another language —either in its original form or as a translation into the language of composition—to enhance sound and cultural imagery. In order to translate this type of poetry, it is necessary to analyze traditional translations of multicultural literature to establish what the reader’s expectations are, if any, regarding this writing technique. Also, as implicit translations embedded within the lines create a tangible heteroglossia, this element must be considered and conveyed as such in the new version. In this study, the ideas on polylingualism in literature discussed by Mikhail Bakhtin, Meir Steinberger, Walter Mignolo, and Paul Bandia are first weighed, and then an examination of the actual Spanish versions of U.S. Latino poetry published in Usos de la imaginación: poesía de l@s latin@s en EE.UU helps crystallize the problems and strategies involved in the translation of multicultural literature.
La traducción de la poesía multicultural es una tarea tan desafiante como creativa. En esta lírica, se transmite el sentido a través de un cuestionamiento de las normas, primero porque la poesía es un género que busca la concisión verbal y la innovación; segundo porque el poeta multicultural involucra otra lengua—en su forma original o como traducción a la lengua de composición—para enriquecer las imágenes sonoras y culturales. Para traducir este tipo de poesía, es necesario investigar modos tradicionales de traducir la literatura multicultural para así establecer cuáles son, si existen, las expectativas de lectura. También, ya que las traducciones implícitas crean una heteroglosia tangible, hay que considerar este factor y transmitirlo en la nueva versión. En este estudio, se examina las ideas sobre el uso de polilingüismo en la literatura expuestas por Mikhail Bakhtin, Meir Steinberger, Walter Mignolo y Paul Bandi, y luego se analizan las traducciones al castellano de poesía latina realizadas para el libro Usos de la imaginación: poesía de l@s latin@s en EE.UU para llegar a una cristalización de los problemas y posibles soluciones para la traducción de la literatura multicultural
The Translator’s Art of Failure: Engaging the Other in Imperfect Harmony
No full textRather than view translation as a compromise at best, a failure at worst, and always derivative and secondary, I explore the practice of literary translation as one of engagement: with the text, with the Other, and with the world. I will discuss the nature of this engagement as dynamic, electric, life-affirming, an encounter and a dialogue that offers an opportunity for both unification and separateness, freedom and intimacy. From this perspective of the personal, I will reach into the realm of the “political,” the broader context within which translators work—the power differentials, the objective material conditions—and the specifics of my own translating relationship: between Latin American Spanish and North American English. My understanding of that relationship—which could be framed as the theory behind my practice—influences what I want to translate—passionate engagement—and how I translate: how I approach the object of desire. I will read from and discuss several of my most recent translations, texts that in themselves explore questions of language and power: the power of language to subvert, and the dis-harmonious and unequal association of languages and cultures in this “globalized” world, where issues of separateness and unification are often a matter of survival
Social Factors, Language Preservation and Attitudes towards Spanish and Tzotzil in San Pedro Chenalhó in the State of Chiapas, Southeast Mexico
No full textKarla Del Carpio is a language instructor with a Bachelor’s degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Mexico. She holds a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Alberta in Canada where she is currently a doctoral student in the program of Secondary Education. Her research interests are Second Language Acquisition, Bilingual Education and Indigenous Languages Revitalization.
Abstract
This paper examines the social factors that have influenced the Tzotzils to maintain their indigenous language even if there are factors that have worked against such preservation. The Tzotzils are an indigenous group found in Chiapas, southeast Mexico, and the participants of this study were the Tzotzils living in Chenalhó, a predominantly indigenous community in central Chiapas. The closeness of Chenalhó to cities, the lack of employment in this community, government programs and especially the establishment of bilingual schools where Spanish is more frequently used than Tzotzil, are examples of the factors that have influenced the Tzotzils to use Spanish. However, Tzotzil speakers identify with their native language, so they are concerned with preserving it and transmitting it to younger generations. Nonetheless, people in this indigenous community realize that speaking Spanish is important so they can communicate with non-indigenous Mexicans and they can have better opportunities in life.
 
Translating Communities
No full textoai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/4142This article will focus on communities which translate and communities which are translated, with an emphasis on the often unintended, unexpected, and unwanted effects of translation.
Beginning with the scepticism – ‘hostility’ would perhaps be a better word – shown by Augustine towards Jerome’s undertaking to produce a new Latin translation of the Old Testament based on the Hebrew text rather than the Greek version of the Septuagint, and from there moving on to Mark Fettes’s discussion (in In Translation) of the reception of the translation into English of Haida myths by the Canadian poet Robert Bringhurst, as well as to the translation, also into English, of literary texts in Oriya, one of the national languages of India, I will draw attention to what, in these cases at least, has been perceived by some – usually those left out of the process of translation – as the danger or violence of translation.
Given such a negative perception of translation, generalized in the Italian adage traduttore traditore, the question arises as to how this translation effect can at the very least be reduced, if not eliminated entirely, and how the “community with foreign cultures” that Lawrence Venuti writes of in “Translation, Community, Utopia” can come into being. A collaborative approach to translation involving participants from both source and target, foreign and domestic cultures – a new community of translators – will be put forward as a possible solutio
The Gothic Imagination in Ukrainian Romanticism
No full textAlthough there have been many studies devoted to the Gothic in European and American Romantic literatures, it remains largely overlooked in Ukrainian literature. The British scholar Neil Cornwell has attempted an analysis of the Gothic in Russian literature, including in his work references to the Ukrainian prose writer Mykola Hohol\u27 [Nikolai Gogol\u27]. Cornwell and Leonard J. Kent see the supernatural in Hohol’s oeuvre as evidence of Gothic influences. On the whole, however, the Gothic imagination in Hohol’s stories has not been studied in depth. The same is true for the works of other Ukrainian Romantic authors living in the Russian Empire—e.g., Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnov"ianenko, Oleksa Storozhenko, and Panteleimon Kulish, as well as those living in Galicia, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, such as Omelian Partyts\u27kyi, Orest Avdykovs\u27kyi, Volodyslav Lozyns\u27kyi, and Lev Sapohivs\u27kyi. My preliminary analysis reveals that Gothic elements are very vivid in their works. Also, there is evidence suggesting that European Gothic authors, such as Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, Jacques Cazotte and Charles Maturin, whose works were popular among the intelligentsia of both the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires, influenced them.
My first goal will be to show that there was awareness of the Gothic among Ukrainian Romantic authors. Against this background, I will examine their oeuvre and catalogue those works, which belong to the Gothic genre, thus, defininng and establishing the Ukrainian Gothic canon. I will then test whether there are common themes among these writers, and whether they echo the concerns of West European Gothic literature. Since the supernatural is one of the constituent elements of Gothic prose, I will engage in a comparative analysis of the depiction of supernatural occurrences in the Ukrainian and West European Gothic. I will attempt to provide a psychological interpretation of the supernatural in order to identify the symbols, hidden behind these images in the works of the Ukrainian and West European Gothic authors. My investigation will strive to trace wheter there are any similarities or differences between them and will reveal the manner in which the Ukrainian Gothic relates to the West European Gothic. By examining what is being borrowed, and what is being discarded by Ukrainian Gothic literature, as well as the innovations it introduces, I will determine the specificity of the Ukrainian Gothic. As part of my work, I also propose to extend the notion of the Gothic to folklore by investigating the manner in which oral literature could have served as a common source for the Gothic in both West European and Ukrainian literature. I expect that such an analysis will allow me to reevaluate previous scholarly approaches to Ukrainian Romanticism, which saw the supernatural element as being solely a product of the folkloric imagination. It will also allow me to identify any specific elements in Ukrainian Gothic works, which might have originated in the West European Gothic.
My dissertation aspires to initiate a discussion of the nature of the Gothic in Ukrainian Romanticism and lay the groundwork for subsequent analysis of the Gothic within the oeuvre of those Ukrainian Modernist and Post-Modernist writers, whose works also show evidence of this trend.
 
Promoting ‘Lesser-Used’ Languages Through Translation
No full textThe globalization of communication in ‘major’ languages has become incompatible with the claims made by the other languages. Many minor, ‘lesser used’ languages were formerly marginalized and ignored because of their incompatibility with national policies; more recently, while acknowledged by specialists, they still have had to struggle to be more publicly recognized as vehicles for important literature, and also in some cases as actually existing. Having the Nobel Prize for Literature awarded is not necessarily effective: within years of Frédéric Mistral’s Nobel prize few people would have acknowledged the existence of Provençal as a language. One potentially more profitable means of achieving recognition is through being translated into better-known languages. The paper will look at two examples.
First: Slovene, the language of just 2 million people in Europe; a language with an established literature; officially a national language; but not generally known. Promotion through translation has been extraordinarily active: great efforts have been made to translate all the major works of literature into ‘major’ languages. Among the results: an enormous translation factory, where sometimes quality is sacrificed to quantity; and very high pay for translators.
Second, at the other end of the ‘status-as-a-language’ spectrum: Lakhian, which very few people recognize as a ‘language’ rather than a dialect; and yet one that received huge (if temporary) recognition when the one person who wrote what is recognized as ‘serious’ literature in Lakhian, Ondra Lysohorsky, had his poetry translated by Boris Pasternak and W.H. Auden
Les altérités en conflit : l’éthique bermanienne de la traduction à l’épreuve de l’Étranger lévinassien
No full textThe purpose of the present article is to compare Antoine Berman’s theory of translation with Emmanuel Levinas’ ethical philosophy. Contrary to what has often been claimed, these works differ in many aspects that will be systematically addressed. The author will then undertake to derive a theory of translation from Levinas’ philosophy of language.
L’objet de cet article est de comparer les théories de la traduction d’Antoine Berman et d’Emmanuel Levinas. Contrairement à ce que l’on pourrait croire, ces théories diffèrent sur un certain nombre de points que nous examinerons. Après avoir comparé ces deux théories, nous dériverons une théorie de la traduction de la philosophie du langage de Lévinas
Exposing Myself : Reading, Translating, Rewriting Marie Nimier’s La nouvelle pornographie
No full textIf writing erotica or pornography is an intimate process for any author, equally, if not more so, is the act of translating it: the translator of erotica enters into the very personal space of a stranger, walking alongside, reliving the other’s fantasies, experiencing corporal and spiritual sensations of love, desire and lust, then reinterpreting these for the foreign reader. Thus, translating erotica is undoubtedly a most intimate gesture. Through the process of reading and translating erotic literature, I have pondered numerous questions: How and why does the translator approach the erotic text? How does the interaction of objectivity and subjectivity come into play for the translator of this genre? Essentially, what is the rapport between author, translator, reader, and narrator in the context of the pornoerotic? Furthermore, in what ways is the translator’s procedure similar or different from that of literary translation in general? Undoubtedly, the challenges of translating pornography or erotica include and yet surpass those encountered in other types of literary translation. Beginning with an examination of the elusive definitions of erotica and pornography, intertwined with delimitations of literature and mass-produced fiction, I explore in this MA thesis the issues and problems that arose during my experience of translating Marie Nimier’s auto-fictional novel La nouvelle pornographie. On the practical side, there were specific lexical difficulties as well as challenges in recreating in English sexual desire and physical interactions written in French. On the professional side, struggles with censorship, taboos, and the questionable academic suitability of this marginal genre; all of which make the study of pornography and erotica, along with the practice of translating, it a transgressive and an uncomfortably intimate act
Inter-Semiotic Translation within the Space of the Multimodal Text
No full textThough Jakobson conceptualized inter-semiotic transfer as a valid form of translation between texts some 40 years ago, it remained a relatively marginal area of investigation until recently. Additionally, we may note that information and communication technologies (ICTs) have also markedly modified previously held notions of what constitutes a “text”. Basing my research on these two observations, this paper will draw attention to inter-semiotic translation within the space the newscast, a prime example of an ever-evolving multi-modal text created by newer forms of ICTs. More specifically, the focus lies in how we can posit translational activity in the construction of the newscast (for instance, how the “visual” images translate the “verbal” narration of the newscaster or journalist). This conceptualization of “news-making” will lead us to consider the ways in which cultural stereotypes are created through the “translation” of interacting texts (verbal, visual, aural) on the same interface. To suggest that newscasts, and by extension media, proliferate cultural stereotypes, is by no means novel. However, to consider how inter-semiotic translation plays a role in their creation may be a departure from previous paradigms. In fact, Kress and van Leeuwan state: “This incessant process of ‘translation’, or ‘transcoding’ – ‘transduction’ – between a range of semiotic modes represents […] a better, more adequate understanding of representation and communication (2006:39)”. Furthermore, because cultural stereotyping is often at the root of conflict, this type of investigation becomes, we suggest, all the more worthwhile in understanding how we “translate” difference across borders, semiotic or otherwise