Comparative Literature Commons^™

Transference Vol. 2, Fall 2014, Molly Lynde-Recchia

Transference

Transference is published by the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Western Michigan University. Dedicated to the celebration of poetry in translation, the journal publishes translations from Arabic, Chinese, French and Old French, German, classical Greek, Latin, and Japanese, into English verse. Transference contains translations as well as commentaries on the art and process of translating.

The Art Of Lebanese Verbal Dueling: The Battle Of Beit Mery And Beyond, Paula Marie Haydar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the living and vibrant oral tradition of verbal dueling in Lebanon, also known as Lebanese zajal. The introductory chapter explores the historical, sociolinguistic, and musical-metrical roots of today's Lebanese zajal contests and festivals, which feature teams of up to four poets who compete against each other in improvised, sung verse in colloquial Lebanese, carrying a sort of dialogue within which they argue opposing sides of universal themes and topics of current social interest. Though time, tradition, and culture in the Lebanese mountainside have nurtured the development of sung oral poetry into its current form and status …

On The Dimension Of Narrative: Zhang Ailing’S Self Translation Of Her Novel, Spring-Sprout Song, Xiaoqing Liu

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Zhang Ailing, in her self-translation of The Rice-Sprout Song from English to Chinese, made a special effort to adopt a Chinese narrative style. This style includes the Chinese way of depicting events, an emphasis on the narration of non-events, the addition and highlighting of the technique of irony, a strong lyrical tone, a simple and straightforward way of portraying characters, and the tailoring of narrative structure. Nevertheless, Zhang did not make her Chinese translation depart significantly from her "original" English writing, except for the last chapter, which was changed for other reasons. Rather, she made the changes in a subtle …

Navigating 18th Century Haiku: Translating The Poetry Of Yosa Buson, Allan Persinger

2013 New England Association for Asian Studies Conference

One of the difficulties in translating the poetry of Yosa Buson, an 18th century Japanese poet and painter is negotiating the cultural differences between time and place, and still writing a translation that moves the audience within the limits of a haiku without doing any violence to the original text. My presentation is on the difficulties in translating a literary master from the Edo Era, Yosa Buson, especially when the poems contain embedded cultural references that the average American reader would not be familiar with as it is important to convey all of the information in a meaningful way and …

Dr. Nancy Debloois’ Translation Of Seneca’S Agamemnon, Frank E. Kelland, Dr. Roger Mcfarlane

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Under Dr. Roger Macfarlane’s tutelage, I have established the baseline Latin text that serves as the foundation for Dr. DeBloois’ translation.

The Evolution Of Broadway Musical Entertainment, 1850-2009: Interlingual And Intermedial Interference, Dj Kaiser

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Itamar Even-Zohar's polysystem theory: 1978, revised 1990) postulates that translated literature occupies a central location in a young literature and serves an "innovative" function until the literature matures, at which time translated literature is pushed to the periphery and is "conservative": approximating the native repertoire). Using a "distant reading" approach: Moretti 2005), this project explores the position of both translated and adapted literature in the evolution of Broadway musical entertainment. Using an original database of more than four thousand productions of musical entertainment from professional New York playhouses associated with the history of Broadway from 1850 through 2009, various waves …

No Anxiety Of Influence: Ethics In Poetry Retranslation After Analogical Form, Gregary Racz

Faculty of Foreign Languages Publications

No abstract provided.

Oscillations Of Romantic Irony : Percy B. Shelley's "Defence Of Poetry" And Friedrich Schlegel's Model Of Understanding, Sabine H. Seiler

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract

A Poetics Of Complicity: Translating Luis García Montero, Alice Mcadams

Honors Papers

The work of Luis García Montero, one of Spain's most lauded poets of the past three decades, is marked most strongly by a desire to dissolve hierarchies between generations, between artists and ordinary citizens, and, above all, between the self and the other. He frequently realizes this goal through his metaphoric technique, employing personification almost ubiquitously to equalize the emotional power of animals, landscape, and inanimate pieces of technology. Though his poetry is romantic, he takes a significant departure from traditional forms of the genre by assigning little more importance to the lover than he does to the many facets …

Translated Literature In Your Library: The Mildred L Batchelder Award, Kasey L. Garrison, Danielle E. Forest, Sue C. Kimmel

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Translated books represent a unique bridge between cultures for young readers. This article discusses recent trends and practical applications for award-winning literature that has been translated into English and published in the United States. Winner and honour titles earning the Mildred L Batchelder Award for their publishers often include European languages of origins and settings. Despite this homogeneity, the books represent a quality option as a way to diversify a library collection for English-speaking patrons, particularly young adults, and to enhance teaching lessons with the integration of this global literature.

Metaphor Translation As A Tool Of Intercultural Understanding, Ipshita Chanda

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Metaphor Translation as a Tool of Intercultural Understanding" Ipshita Chanda takes up specific cases of metaphor translation as a methodological exercise towards understanding intercultural exchange. Chanda's study is based on a semiotic and linguistic understanding of metaphor as a signifying and cognitive device. When a metaphor is translated from one linguistic-literary field into another, the process of translation itself yields some specific operational steps for studying inter- and cross-cultural relations. Here, translation is not proposed as a framework but as practical method: the translation of metaphor becomes an exercise in strategy for the pedagogy of …

Whores & More: Selected Stories By Hernán Migoya, Nikki Noreen Settelmeyer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a collection of short stories written by Hernán Migoya from the books, Todas putas and Putas es poco. The stories have been translated from the original Spanish to English. The selected stories demonstrate the humor, style, and neurosis typical of Migoya's writing.

Konsep Skopos Dan Aspek Fungsionalnya Dalam Penerjemahan, Masduki Masduki

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

It is often said that Skopos theory has abolished the position of the source text. Nevertheless, translators still have to translate source texts, and to do this, they must identify translation units and decide what to do with them in the translation process. The same applies to translation description and criticism or even quality assessment. In order to compare source and target texts and achieve a fair judgment of a translation, translators need the communicative function of the translation unit. This article deals with the basic concept of Skopos and the functional aspects that come into play both in translation …

Walters Ms W720: Chapters To Be Observed By The Singers Of The Cappella Giulia (1574), Ilona Klein

Faculty Publications

The manuscript W720 that bears the title Capitoli che hanno da osseruare gli Cantori della Cappella di San Pietro is an unstudied and unpublished document held in the archives of the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland. As one of the earliest surviving written texts of its kind, W720 documents in detail the rules that the singers of the Julian Chapel had to obey during the year 1574. The following critical edition of the manuscript and the accompanying English translation are intended to provide materials that will assist Renaissance specialists in a number of areas (art history, philology, history, musicology, …

The Mother Tongues Of Modernity: Modernism, Transnationalism, Translation, Roland K. Végső

Department of English: Faculty Publications

The relation of modernism to immigrant literatures should not be conceived in terms of an opposition between universalistic and particularistic discourses. Rather, we should explore what can be called a modernist transnationalism based on a general universalist argument. Two examples of this transnationalism are explored side by side: Ezra Pound’s and Anzia Yezierska’s definitions of the aesthetic act in terms of translation. The readings show that the critical discourses of these two authors are structured by a belief in universalism while showing opposite possibilities, both generated by modernist transnationalism. The essay concludes that we now need to interpret the cultures …

Latin America Translated (Again): Roberto BolañO'S The Savage Detectives In The United States, Sarah S. Pollack

Publications and Research

This essay addresses the cultural and political agendas that influence the selection of Latin American novels to be translated by U.S. publishers and the reception of these novels by U.S. readers. Focusing on two Latin American writers who have had enormous success in the U.S., the author traces the shift from the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, to the gritty realism of Roberto Bolaño, and asks what these different paradigms can tell us about stereotypical U.S. notions of Latin American cultural and political realities. Although Bolaño's work ostensibly realigns the coordinates of the …

Innovation By Translation: Yiddish And Hasidic Hebrew In Literary History, Ken Frieden

Religion - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Boudjedra, Écrivain De Langue Arabe?, Touriya Fili-Tullon

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This paper is devoted to bilingualism in R. Boudjedra’sliterary practice. Our aim is to show how French and Arabic versions of his books may be read as hypertexts of metadiscoursive value. Considered from this point of view, the differing versions neutralize any genetic approach and make the rules of an “authoritative” translation obsolete.

Orientalism And Religion In The Romantic Era-Rammohan Ray’S Vedanta(S), Amit Ray

Articles

Abstract:

This chapter examines how Raja Rammohan Ray utilized Vedanta philosophy as a strategic response to colonial critiques of Hinduism during the early nineteenth century. Ray emerged as a pivotal figure who navigated between British orientalist discourse and Indian religious reform, employing Advaita Vedanta to counter accusations of idolatry and polytheism leveled against Hindu practices. The analysis demonstrates how Ray's translations of the Upanishads and his promotion of Vedantic monotheism served dual purposes: defending indigenous civilization against missionary attacks while accommodating European notions of rational religion. Ray's approach involved significant textual interventions, including rendering the neuter brahman as masculine "God" …

Review Essay: Jean Renart: The Romance Of The Rose Or Of Guillaume De Dole (Roman De La Rose Ou De Guillaume De Dole), Kathy M. Krause

Quidditas

Jean Renart: The Romance of the Rose or of Guillaume de Dole (Roman de la Rose ou de Guillaume de Dole). Ed. and trans. Regina Psaki. Garland Library of Medieval Literature 92A. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995. xli + 280 pp.

On The Virtues Of Not Understanding, James Boyd White

Book Chapters

Because every attempt distorts the original perfect translation is impossible. Is it the cask of the translator to make this impossibility seem to disappear, to produce a text that flows effortlessly in the new language, presenting no problems of understanding, or should the translator somehow find a way to bring the reader to share a sense of the foreignness of what he is reading, and hence this much of the reality of the unknown text, its language, and its world? Several of the authors in this volume raise this issue one way or another, especially Indira Karamcheci, who argues for …

Review Essay: Bodin, Jean. On The Demon-Mania Of Witches, Hans Sebald

Quidditas

Bodin, Jean. On the Demon-Mania of Witches. Trans. Randy A. Scott. Intro. Jonathan L. Pearl. Toronto Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University, 1995. 218 pp. Paperback. U.S.$ 12.00. Cdn$ 15.00.

Review Essay: Robert Levine, Trans., France Before Charlemagne: A Translation From The Grandes Chroniques, Harry Rosenberg

Quidditas

Robert Levine, trans., France before Charlemagne: A Translation from the Grandes Chroniques, Studies in French Civilization 3, Edwin Mellen Press, 1990, 287 pp., $89.95.

Review Essay: Barry Tharaud, Trans., Beowulf, Anita Obermeier

Quidditas

Barry Tharaud, trans., Beowulf, University of Colorado Press, 1990, 187 pp., ill., map, charts, $14.95.

Review Essay: Juan Luis Vives, The Passions Of The Soul: The Third Book Of De Anima Et Vita, Anthony J. Cárdenas

Quidditas

Juan Luis Vives, The Passions of the Soul: The Third Book of De Anima et Vita, trans. and intro. by Carlos G. Noreña, Studies in Renaissance Literature 4, Edwin Mellen Press, 1990, xv, 121 pp., $49.95

Review Essay: Leon Battista Alberti, Dinner Pieces: A Translation Of The Intercenales, W. Scott Blanchard

Quidditas

Leon Battista Alberti, Dinner Pieces: A Translation of the Intercenales, trans. and ed. David Marsh, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies and The Renaissance Society of America, 1987, ix, 268 pp., ill., biblio., index, $20.00.

Review Essay: Uta-Renate Blumenthal, The Investiture Controversy: Church And Monarchy From The Ninth And Twelfth Century, Glenn W. Olsen

Quidditas

Uta-Renate Blumenthal, The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.

Review Essay: Philippe Contamine, War In The Middle Ages, K. G. Madison

Quidditas

Philippe Contamine, War in the Middle Ages, trans. Michael Jones, Basil Blackwell, 1984.

Review Essay: Umberto Eco, Art And Beauty In The Middle Ages, Martine P. Rey

Quidditas

Umberto Eco, Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages, trans. Hugh Bredin, Yale University Press, 1986.

Review Essay: Marta Sordi, The Christians And The Roman Empire, Janine Marie Idziak

Quidditas

Marta Sordi, The Christians and the Roman Empire, University of Oklahoma Press, 1986.