This paper addresses the translator’s role from an ideological standpoint and seeks to show that the actions of translators are not completely arbitrary and may be influenced by a wide array of ...factors and especially ideologies. The basic assumption is that translators can detach texts neither from the ideologies of the source nor the target culture. This study results from qualitative research, namely a critical conceptual analysis of the selected theories of translation studies (Baker, 2006; Lefevere, 1992; Venuti, 1995). The conceptual reflection implies that translations serve as an infinite source of culture and history, serving the target but not the source culture. The critical discourse analysis of English translations of two selected novels that contain the ideologies of socialist and post-socialist era, and the Nazi ideology, suggests that the tendencies in translation strategies vary depending on diffusion of the languages, and awareness of the target culture and history.
El artículo profundiza en el rol del traductor desde un punto de vista ideológico y pretende mostrar que las acciones de los traductores no están completamente en sus manos y que se ven influenciadas por una amplia gama de factores, especialmente ideológicos. La suposición básica es que los traductores no pueden separar los textos ni de las ideologías de origen ni de la cultura de destino. Este estudio es el resultado de una investigación cualitativa, concretamente, un análisis conceptual crítico de las teorías seleccionadas de los estudios de traducción (Baker, 2006; Lefevere, 1992; Venuti, 1995). La reflexión conceptual insinúa que las traducciones sirven como una fuente infinita de cultura e historia, que sirve a la cultura del destino y no a la cultura de origen. El análisis crítico del discurso de las traducciones al inglés de dos novelas que llevan las ideologías de la era socialista y postsocialista, y la ideología nazi, sugiere que las tendencias en las estrategias de traducción varían según la difusión de los idiomas y la conciencia de la cultura y la historia de destino.
This article analyses the 2006 novel Wizard of the Crow by Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o in a post-Cold War context as a postcommunist picaresque novel. Using the instruments of postcommunist and ...world-systems theory and comparing the novel to Eastern and Central European postcommunist writing, it shows how the concerns and aesthetics of both post-totalitarian discourses overlap. It is argued that postcolonial and postcommunist literature describes a crisis of identity symptomatic of all post-dependence cultures and represents discursive resistance to global capitalist modernity in which the meaning of the truth (historical, moral, cultural) has been destabilized. Emphasizing that any ideology can be a source of violence and colonization, Ngũgĩ's novel, like the novel of his Slovakian counterpart Peter Pišťanek, calls for the breaking down of the traditional political binaries - Marxist/liberal, communist/fascist, socialist/capitalist, patriarchal/feminist - opening up space for new meanings.
The paper interprets the novel Rivers of Babylon (1991) by Peter Pišťanek in the context of the postmodernism analysis by Frederick Jameson and the statements on the End of History by F. Fukuyama. It ...does not only reconstruct the reception of the novel but also the period discussions about the stratification of the genres of contemporary Slovak prose, which was conditioned by challenging historicity as well as historical awareness. The novel by P. Pišťanek is here characterized as a text which in the context of period Slovak literature manifested the attributes of postmodernism in the way they were defined by F. Jameson in his book Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991) – these include „historical deafness“, „depthlessness“, „waning of effect“, as well as postmodern irony created in the form of pastiche. At the same time it also thematizes the situation of Slovak society at the moment of the political transformation when the structures of the old system are collapsing and a new one is being established. This is the moment which defines the modification of the genre structures of the novel which control the central syuzhet line of the novel linked to the protagonist, Rácz. Pišťanek´s text can be regarded as a travesty of Bildungsroman, based on a story of integrating in society, on accepting the state of the world. In this case the integration of the protagonist takes place in the era of „the End of History“, the loss of trustworthiness of any norms. In the novel there are parallels in Fukuyama´s reflections on society after the End of History, especially in those points that do not sound so triumphant or optimistic as their fundamental proposition, saying that what will stir the social process is the struggle for recognition. In these moments the central theme of the novel can be interpreted in the context of Hegel´s master-slave dialectic.
Štúdia interpretuje román Petra Pišťanka Rivers of Babylon (1991) v kontexte analýz postmodernizmu Fredericka Jamesona a téz o konci dejín F. Fukuyamu („The End of History“). Rekonštruuje nielen ...recepciu románu, ako aj dobové diskusie o stratifikácii žánrov v súdobej slovenskej próze, ktorá bola podmienená spochybnením historicity, resp. historického povedomia. Román P. Pišťanka je tu charakterizovaný ako text, ktorý v kontexte dobovej slovenskej literatúry manifestoval atribúty postmodernizmu, tak ako ich vymedzil vo svojej knihe Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991) F. Jameson – ide o „historical deafness“, „depthlessness“, „wanning of effect“, ako aj postmodernú iróniu realizovanú formou pastišu. Zároveň však tematizuje i situáciu slovenskej spoločnosti v momente politickej transformácie, keď sa štruktúry jedného systému rúcajú a nastoľuje sa nový. Práve tento moment určuje modifikáciu žánrových štruktúr románu, ktoré riadia ústrednú sujetovú líniu románu spojenú s jeho protagonistom, Ráczom. Pišťankov text môžeme považovať za travestiu Bildungsromanu, založenom na príbehu začlenenia sa do spoločnosti, na prijatí pomerov sveta. V tomto prípade sa toto začlenenie protagonistu koná v ére „konca histórie“, straty dôveryhodnosti akýchkoľvek noriem. V románe môžeme nájsť paralely k Fukuyamovým úvahám o spoločnosti po konci dejín, a to k tým ich polohám, ktoré už nevyznievajú tak triumfálne, resp. optimisticky ako ich východisková téza, podľa ktorých sa hýbateľom spoločenského procesu stane boj o uznanie. V týchto momentoch môžeme ústredný naratív románu interpretovať v kontexte Heglovho podobenstva o pánovi a otrokovi.
Revenge on Babylon Runions, Erin
The Babylon Complex,
04/2014
Book Chapter
This chapter analyzes the use of the Bible in torture. Boney M’s song “Rivers of Babylon”—which sets the biblical Psalm 137 to music—was played at ear-splitting volume in the attempts to break ...prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Examination of this generally overlooked detail reveals much about why torture has been considered both permissible and necessary in the war on terror. The use of this particular psalm as a form of torture—ending with revenge as it does—calls for an interrogation of the relationship of revenge to torture. The chapter traces the interpretive tradition that promotes violence and revenge toward Babylon. It suggests that an apocalyptically inflected form of biblical interpretation, involving a literalist reading of allegory, allows this text to be used as torture. “Rivers of Babylon” at Abu Ghraib reveals how allegory, scripture, torture, and revenge are used to establish the truth of U.S. sovereignty and to diminish any threat to it in the future.
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