Words, Images and Performances in Translation

Description

This volume presents fresh approaches to the role that translation - in its many forms - plays in enabling and mediating global cultural exchange. As modes of communication and textual production continue to evolve, the field of translation studies has an increasingly important role in exploring the ways in which words, images and performances are translated and reinterpreted in new socio-cultural contexts. The book includes an innovative mix of literary, cultural and intersemiotic perspectives and represents a wide range of languages and cultures. The contributions are all linked by a shared focus on the place of translation in the contemporary world, and the ways in which translation, and the discipline of translation studies, can shed light on questions of inter- and hypertextuality, multimodality and globalization in contemporary cultural production.

Rita Wilson is Associate Professor and teaches in the Translation and Interpreting Studies Program at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Brigid Maher is a Lecturer in the Italian Program at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, where she teaches Italian language, culture and translation.

This collection comprises a lucid and engaging discussion of all the ways translators may (or perhaps necessarily must) "nudge", "tickle" or even "sabotage" a source text. Wilson and Maher have brought together a diverse group of researchers who each creatively challenge the dominion of the original, question the directionality of global cultural flows, and above all highlight the many complexities to be negotiated. Translation, rightly conceived of as a means of both underscoring and eliding difference, is presented here as a form of mediation that serves a deep hermeneutic purpose while offering scope for "play", "replay" and "interplay". The notion of text is helpfully given the broadest possible definition: with examples drawn from print ads to football to theatrical performance, these essays delve insightfully into the international circulation of various cultural products. A worthy addition to the Translation Studies library. -- Valerie Henitiuk, Director, British Centre for Literary Translation, University of East Anglia, UK In line with the relentless, positive expansion of the boundaries of Translation Studies, this book explores the infinite possibilities of translation as intersemiotic transfer, with reference to mature and new art forms ranging from advertising and cinema to journalism and contemporary theatre. All contributions offer original viewpoints and reflections, bringing forth new forms of textuality and, most significantly, new concepts of translation. The latter actually loses shape in this book, to be reborn under new guises: transcoding, transduction, guerrilla translation, translingual narratives, performing translation are but some of the expressions used by the contributors to this book to highlight the creative potential of translingual, transcultural activities, as well as their contribution to the (re-)shaping of power relations and cultural interactions. This book offers a variety of stimuli to scholars and students interested in exploring some of the most innovative and productive paths in translation research. -- Elena Di Giovanni, Lecturer in English Language and Translation, University of Macerata, Italy