38 research outputs found
Introduction: self-translating, from minorisation to empowerment
No full textThis introductory chapter discusses the implications of self-translation in multilingual contexts in Europe, aiming at mapping out innovative perspectives to the study of power and, by so doing, empowering self-translation. We start by critically engaging with the ‘cultural’ and ‘power turns’ in translation studies, as a way of delineating what the particularities of self-translation are when practised by author-translators in multilingual spaces. Focusing on the European milieu, defined broadly in terms of its geographies, we then discuss multilingualism, cultural awareness and ethnic diversity as staple terms in both academic and political ideologies across Europe, emphasising that one of the aspects of multilingualism is precisely the power differentials between languages and cultures. We explore these unequal power relations and centre–periphery dichotomies of Europe’s ‘minorised’ languages, literatures and cultures, suggesting the usage of ‘minorised’ in preference to the others discussed, inasmuch as it highlights both hegemonic power hierarchies and also the continual resistance to them. This is followed by a brief overview of the emerging debates in the subdiscipline of self-translation in recent times. It is within them that we situate our contribution, arguing that the self-translators’ double affiliation as authors and translators turns them into powerful cultural and ideological mediators and places them in a privileged position to challenge (or submit to) power. Here another term, ‘self-censorship,’ is suggested as invaluable to self-translation studies where self-editing often occurs before translation is begun. Finally, the introduction presents the organisation of the book and the main ideas discussed by the 11 authors in their individual chapters
books piece on part-time Mainer Lily Tuck, a fiction winner at the National Bo
No full textbooks piece on part-time Mainer Lily Tuck, a fiction winner at the National Book Awards held last week in New York. Tuck is the author of The News from Paraguay
Converging Ideologies in William Fowler’s Hybrid Translation of Machiavelli’s Il Principe
No full textThis article explores the place of William Fowler’s translation of Machiavelli’s Prince in the Scottish Jacobean polysystem. Even if it was never finished, Fowler may have seen his rendering of Il Principe as a way of gaining King James’s favor at a time when Fowler had become a peripheral member at the sovereign’s court. Consequently, the translator’s hybrid deployment of three different sources, together with his own additions and suppressions, were aimed to conform to James VI’s political and cultural project. The ideological convergences between the king’s political thought and Fowler’s manipulated Prince supported and legitimized the existing power structures of the target culture. The unfinished/unedited state of the manuscript may suggest that a total reconciliation between James’s markedly idealized vision of kingship and government and Machiavelli’s treatise was impossible despite the translator’s intercultural and ethnocentric appropriation of the source text
Identity under Treat: Origin Myths as a Device of National Affirmation in Catalonia and Scotland
No full textContrasting Kingly and Knightly Masculinities in Barbour’s Bruce
No full textThe chapter examines the multiple representations, evolution and opposition of masculine constructions in John Barbour’s Brus (c.1375) which tells the story of Scotland’s First War of Independence. The two main heroes, Robert Bruce and James Douglas are shown to represent a fluid masculinity, adapting to the changing social and political circumstances of medieval Scotland. This is contrasted with the negative models of Edward I and Edward Bruce. The chapter discusses the results of the initial absence of proper leaders and male models, secondly the evolution of Bruce and Douglas into ideal king and knight, and finally the interactions of the male protagonists with women. Patriarchy is shown to operate not only in the power of men over women, but also in the authority that groups of men exercise over other groups according to social hierarchies.</p
