This article examines the production and prominence of literature translated into English, asking how far we have come toward decentering America’s literary offerings. Through analyses of the ...Publishers Weekly Translation Database, we find that global linguistic representation in American publishing remains low and skewed heavily toward the colonial languages of traditional cultural centers, with translations from French, Spanish, and German making up 45 percent of translations published in the United States. Books written in French tend to traverse pathways to translation that reinforce cultural hierarchies, whereas Spanish-language books get translated through different pathways that sometimes circumvent and sometimes include traditional centers. Approximately 60 percent of books translated into English are published by smaller-scale, independent presses and university-affiliated presses. At the pole of large-scale production, where the other 40 percent of translated literature is produced, there is increasing concentration among large conglomerate publishers. The recent entry of Amazon’s publishing arm has also dramatically increased the production of mass-market translated fiction in the United States. But the question remains: how and where does translated literature become known and accessible to the American reading public? To find answers, we surveyed recent initiatives by mainstream media outlets to promote global literature and translations. Using two audit methods, we assess the visibility of translated books in the New York Times Book Review between 2008 and 2021. We found that only 5 percent of New York Times Book Review items include translated books, and that translations from French, German, Spanish, and Italian account for over half of those receiving full critical reviews. We conclude our discussion by suggesting that user-generated online platforms, such as Goodreads.com or Bookriot.com, may be fruitful sites for further investigation of how translated books might gain greater visibility among American readers. This digital literary sphere is ripe ground for further work seeking to understand the possibilities for diffusion and reception of translated literature and how this might advance the decentering of the global literary field.
Current volume examines Finnish-Russian literary contacts that have not been thoroughly studied previously – the translation and reception history of Russian literature in Finland, and Finnish ...literature in Russia from 1800 until 1930. Personal contacts have influenced the decisions of what to translate and by whom more than the evident European context of Russian literature. In Finland, the relationship with Russia and attitudes to its literature have always been a political issue. Hostile relations have meant a remarkable decrease in translations, but maintained active discussion of Russian culture. During more friendly times, the inquisitive interest has increased and led to more intensive translation activities. However, since the early days of Finnish literature, only few intellectuals have known Russian well enough to translate literature into Swedish or Finnish. Consequently, translating has been highly dependent on individual mediators, often with a transnational identity.
Given the conservative nature of Arab societies, Vladimir Nabokov’s English novel
(1955) poses considerable challenges to Arab translators because of its pornographic nature and controversial themes: ...pedophilia, incest, and young teenage sex. This study mainly examines the translation of
by Mola with occasional references to Jubaili’s translation of the novel. It also investigates the translation strategies employed by the two translators. The findings showed that Jubaili followed the literal approach of translation with no significant deviation from the novel’s themes and characterization. On the other hand, Mola dysphemized the expressions and eroticized the events, which were more euphemistic in the original. Mola’s utilization of some translation strategies such as omission, addition, and substitution affected the representation of the main characters, namely, Humbert (stepfather) and Lolita (stepdaughter), by shifting their roles as victim and victimizer, making Humbert’s actions less culpable, and removing any traces of Lolita’s innocence. In so doing, Mola reinforces sexual norms for young American women and diminishes the pedophile/incest angle. This study is significant, particularly within the context of translators’ training and for those interested in literary translation.
The article studies the translation of the Ancient Greek literature into Ukrainian as an important and historically conditioned process that influenced the translation tradition in Ukraine. The ...authors trace the history of translation dating from the period of Kyivan Rus to modern times by applying linguistic, chronological and thematic approaches. As a result of the conducted study the authors define main directions and trends of assimilation of the classical Ancient Greek literature by the Ukrainian context through translation in its cultural and historical dimension, as well as characterize the translations of the Ukrainian scientists and outline their contribution into the classical literature corpus formation. It has been revealed that in different historical periods, translated literature performed definite functions (it was used in religious worship, as the material for original literature creation, in intellectual discussions). Since the 19th century, there existed a tendency when translators (M. Zerov, I. Franko, Lesya Ukrainka, V. Svidzinskyi, P. Nishchynskyi, M. Rylskyi, G. Kochur, Borys Ten, M. Lukash, M. Moskalenko, A. Sodomora, etc.), guided by their own preferences, cultural trends, national needs, political attitudes, consciously chose original texts for translation, carried out scientific investigations and added commentaries to their publications, thereby creating a scientific discussion in the Ukrainian society. It was also found out that translations of Homer's works into Ukrainian led to the emergence of a certain translational tradition (the same phenomenon is observed in Western Europe), when Ukrainian translators developed a methodology that allowed them not only to convey the ideological and content component of the original poems, but also to reproduce the rhyming of ancient poetry. The paper concludes that modern translators from the Ancient Greek language continue to popularize ancient literature and the legacy of the holy fathers, thereby supporting the continuity of the Ukrainian school of translation.
На рубеже XX–XXI веков в русской переводной литературе идиоматика использовалась нередко вне прямой связи с задачей оригинала, что выходило за рамки традиционных норм, закрепленных в теоретических ...исследованиях и учебных пособиях по переводу. В целом для переводов этого периода характерны стилистические эксперименты, широкое использование просторечной, жаргонной и табуированной лексики. Такая практика стала проявлением общей тенденции на преодоление сложившегося в середине XX века консервативного узуса языка переводной литературы и реакцией на общую демократизацию речевых практик русского языка. Вольное использование идиоматики на рубеже веков могло решать прагматические и стилистические задачи или же, напротив, вело к немотивированной русификации текста, противоречило стилистическому контексту произведений и меняло речевые характеристики персонажей. Выявлены многочисленные примеры неточного в смысловом отношении использования фразеологических единиц.
This article sheds light on translated children’s literature in Sweden during the period 2015−2020. A relatively large portion of children’s literature in Sweden (36% in 2020), from books for ...toddlers to young adult literature, comes from translations. It has been shown in polysystem research, that ‘semi-peripheral’ countries such as Sweden, or places having a so-called ‘dominated language’, are known to import much literature because, for example, their internal production is rather limited, which a priori is not the case in Sweden. We first present a panorama of the kinds of books that are translated to Swedish and the languages they are translated from. We then focus on the particular position in Sweden of African children’s literature from French-speaking regions and assume that French is used as a tool that enables this literature to reach a Swedish audience, as part of the global phenomena of serial books and the emerging wimmelbooks. We conclude that even if Sweden’s national production is greater than book importing and translation, there is still a not insignificant number of translated picturebooks through which authors and illustrators from French-speaking regions occupy a stable share of this production, and may in this way transport cultural values from more peripheral countries.
Este artigo publicado em 1921 na China aborda aspectos teóricossobre tradução em geral e sobre tradução literária, em particular, apartir de alguns métodos relacionados à tradução como “espírito” ...versus“aparência”, “palavras singulares” e “espírito das entonações”
The translation activity of the founder of revolutionary Chinese literature, Jiang Guangci, is considered. The novelty of the study is due to the fact that the translations of Russian and Soviet ...literature by Jiang Guangci are almost not studied in scientific circles. The relevance of the study is due to the importance of building and strengthening Chinese-Russian cultural ties, including in the field of translation of fiction, in which Jiang Guangci was successful in the 20s of the XX century. It has been established that Jiang Guangci’s translations corresponded to his revolutionary ideals, which he embodied in his original works. It is noted that Jiang Guangci's worldview determined his choice of Russian and Soviet works embodying revolutionary ideals for translation. It is shown that his translations received wide support from young people due not only to the content, but also to the simple, understandable language of presentation. The participation of Jiang Guangci in the literary discussion about the translation strategy is presented. Due to his good knowledge of the Russian, he made translations from the original, and not from Japanese translations of Russian works. The authors come to the conclusion that the translation activity of Jiang Guangci has not been sufficiently studied and has prospects for study.
В статье осуществлен сравнительно-сопоставительный анализ тувинской и бурятской прозы 1960–1970-х годов, посвященной теме родины, родного края. Выделен образ дома и связанные с ним мотивы памяти, ...детства, а также образы родной природы как отражение этнокультурных ценностей и как точки соприкосновения двух литератур. Рассмотрены художественные поиски тувинских и бурятских писателей в автобиографической прозе. В решении темы родины обнаружилось как сходство в сближении специфически-бытовой и универсально-бытийной сфер, так и различия, обусловленные выбором жанровых решений и повествовательных приемов. В тувинских автобиографических произведениях на тему родины проанализировано оригинальное соединение прозы и поэзии, которое ведет к жанровому облику лирического эпоса. В бурятской прозе исследованы повествовательные традиции исторического романа с использованием структуры текста в тексте и автобиографической книги с опорой на публицистический пафос. Сделан вывод о стремлении тувинских и бурятских писателей поднять тему родины до высоты универсального культурного опыта, что дает возможность подчеркнуть общее и особенное в открытии новых жанровых модификаций, изменений в повествовательной структуре, в облике героя-повествователя, в его взаимоотношениях с автором и читателем.
In the international system of translations, English has been described as playing a “hypercentral” role. At the same time, translation is seen as playing a marginal role in the Anglo-American ...cultural and publishing scenarios. The present paper is aimed at revisiting this idea. After an overview of recent studies that have examined the role and significance of translated titles in the publishing markets of English-speaking countries, the paper reports on an exploratory analysis of records available in a database that collects information on books in translation published or distributed in the US starting from 2008. The analysis indicates that translation is enjoying a renewed attention in the US market, in terms of both the number of translated titles and the distribution of translations across different genres.
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