thesis on literary translation

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. By continuing to browse this repository, you give consent for essential cookies to be used. You can read more about our Privacy and Cookie Policy .

• Departments
• University Research
• About the University

A Literary Translation as a Translation Project: A Case Study of Arthur Waley's Translation of Journey to the West

LUO, WENYAN (2018) A Literary Translation as a Translation Project: A Case Study of Arthur Waley's Translation of Journey to the West. Doctoral thesis, Durham University.

Over the last decade, researchers have been applying social theories to study translation as a social phenomenon. Actor-network theory (ANT) is one of the approaches adopted to explore translation production, as carried out in practical circumstances. Studies that focus on everyday translation activities that take place throughout a single translation project, leading to the production of an English translation of a Chinese novel, are few in number. In addition, few have adapted the ideas, concepts, and methodology of ANT to this type of study, and nonhuman actors have never been examined as active participants in translation production. Understanding of the development of translation projects, and translation actor and actions, is also still limited. The aim of this thesis, therefore, is to attempt to fill in the above-mentioned blanks, by applying ANT, as the sole theory, to the study of the production of Monkey, translated from Journey to the West by Arthur Waley. A theoretical framework is built based on not only Latour's theories (1986, 1987, 1988a, 1988b, 1999, 2007), but also those of Callon (1986a, 1986b, 1999), and Law (1986a, 1986b, 1992). The objectives of this thesis include 1) to test the applicability of ANT to translation production research, 2) to develop a system of methods that can guide and regulate the research, 3) to present an in-depth description of the translation project, which is as clear and comprehensive as possible, and 4) to go beyond the descriptive, by developing extensive discussions and analyses concerning the main translation actors, both human and nonhuman, and their actions which shaped the overall literary translation project. The materials that uphold this thesis come from multiple sources. At the core, there are more than 200 letters exchanged between the main contributors of the translation project, which are available as the Records of George Allen & Unwin Ltd. in the University of Reading, Special Collections. Supporting materials include copies of the translation (Monkey) including the associated paratexts, articles written by the translator on translation, the autobiography of the publisher, advertisements and book reviews on the translation retrieved from Gale Primary Sources. Practical methods, such as web searches and archival research, are used to collect as much data regarding the production of the translation as possible. In addition, a system of methodological rules is adapted from the 'three principles' proposed by Callon (1986a) and the 'rules of method' put forward by Latour (1987), which is used to screen data, to judge if sufficient data was collected, and to determine how that data should be analysed. The main body of the thesis is composed of six chapters. The aim of Chapter 1 is to provide an in-depth introduction to ANT and build a theoretical framework. In Chapter 2 a context is provided for the research by mainly explaining the reasons behind, and the process of, choosing Monkey as the translation under study, placing the proposed research within the existing literature, and reviewing the research methodology. Chapter 3 comprises a thick description of the translation project, focusing on its major contributors and its different phases. The two chapters that follow, Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, consist of discussions concerning the identified translation actors, and in particular, how their roles and positions were continually (re)defined by their actions throughout the translation production process. The last chapter explores the dynamics that empowered the translation production network, through categorising the interactions of translation actors according to four moments of translationANT (Callon, 1986a), and in addition, the modes of interessement, i.e. the particular methods or devices used to persuade actors to join the project, which are analysed based on Latour's modes (1987). The main findings of this study contain 1) a system of methods can be established based on previous studies conducted by ANT theorists and translation researchers. 2) The translation project is discovered to be long-term, with over 25 years of recorded history, large-scale, i.e. with numerous people and resources involved and at least 25 versions of the translation as the end products, and multi-faceted, i.e. with no fewer than 8 phases of production which often overlap with each other. 3) The translation actors were heterogeneous, including humans, example of which are the translator, publisher, and designer, and nonhumans, such as the war, letters, and a system of texts. Some of these actors have not been identified before. 4) Actions frequently defined actors, as well as their roles and positions in translation. The roles played by an actor in the single translation project were often multiple and their positions within the network constantly changing. 5) Claims made by Law, an ANT theorist, that control is a process instead of a result, and that successful long distance control depends on a triad of professionals, inscriptions/texts and devices (Law, 1986a, 1986b) are also true for this study. 6) More than 200 translationsANT occurred throughout the translation project, and moreover, the four moments of translationANT developed in a variety of patterns instead of taking place sequentially (cf. Callon 1986a). 7) The modes of translating actors - modes of interessement - discerned in this project, differ in various ways and degrees from the existing modes (see Latour, 1987), but nevertheless increase the variety of the existing modes. In view of the above, therefore, 8) ANT, as a social theory, is perfectly applicable to study the practical circumstances and evolution of the production of the translation of Monkey.

Quick links

• Latest additions
• Browse by year
• Browse by department
• Deposit thesis
• Usage statistics

Prospective students

• International students
• Research degrees
• Durham e-Theses
• Deposit Guide

Last Modified: Summer 2013 | Disclaimer | Trading name | Powered by EPrints 3

St Andrews Research Repository

•   St Andrews Research Repository
• Modern Languages (School of)
• Modern Languages Theses
• Register / Login

The dynamics of literary translation : ‎a case study from English to Persian

Collections.

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Related items

Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

Some literary translation problems posed by Salman Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses' : with special reference to a published German translation 

Meaning and translation : theory and practice of machine translation as exemplified by applicative and cognitive grammars , automatic classification of human translation and machine translation : a study from the perspective of lexical diversity .

• DOI: 10.2307/3189937
• Corpus ID: 60631487

Translating Literature: Practice and Theory in a Comparative Literature Context

• L. V. Flotow , A. Lefèvere
• Published 24 January 1993
• Linguistics

242 Citations

Literature in translation: teaching issues and reading practices, feminist translation: a first exploration, literary translation and interculturality, bibliography of contextual (systemic and empirical) approaches in the study of literature and culture, translation in a borderless world, generic analysis of literary translation: a case study of contemporary english short stories, culture in arabic to english literary translation.

• Highly Influenced

A Translation Quality Assessment of the English Translation of the Hilali Epic

A new approach to the study of translation : from stage to screen 1, the translation of lexical collocations in literary texts, one reference, related papers.

Showing 1 through 3 of 0 Related Papers

(Stanford users can avoid this Captcha by logging in.)

• Send to text email RefWorks EndNote printer

Constructing cultures : essays on literary translation

Available online.

• EBSCO Academic Comprehensive Collection

More options

• Find it at other libraries via WorldCat
• Contributors

Description

Creators/contributors, contents/summary.

• Chinese and Western thinking on translation, Andre Lefevere
• when is a tranlsation not a translation, Susan Bassnett
• translation practice(s) and the circulation of culturual capital - some "Aeneids" in English, Andre Lefevere
• transplanting the seed - poetry and translation, Susan Bassnett
• the gates of analogy - the "Kalevala" in English, Andre Lefevere
• still trapped in the labyrinth - further reflection on tranlsation and theatre, Susan Bassnett
• acculturating Bertolt Brecht, Andre Lefevere
• the tranlation turn in cultural studies, Susan Bassnett.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Bibliographic information

Browse related items.

• Stanford Home
• Maps & Directions
• Search Stanford
• Emergency Info
• Terms of Use
• Non-Discrimination
• Accessibility

© Stanford University , Stanford , California 94305 .

• Book Series
• Online Resources
• Collections
• Art & Art History
• Communication Studies
• Consciousness Research
• Interaction Studies
• Linguistics
• Literature & Literary Studies
• Miscellaneous
• Terminology & Lexicography
• Translation & Interpreting Studies
• View Shopping Cart
• Translation Spaces
• Online First Articles
• Online First Article
• Navigate this Journal
• Online First
• Current issue
• Previous issues
• Submit a paper
• Editorial information

Revising a literary translation for publication

Insights from an autoethnographic study.

• View Affiliations Hide Affiliations Affiliations: 1 University of Malta
• Source: Translation Spaces Available online: 04 April 2024
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.23040.bor
• Received: 01 Sept 2023
• Accepted: 31 Jan 2024
• Version of Record published : 04 Apr 2024

Despite the surge of interest in translation revision and its ubiquitousness in translation processes, minimal scholarly research has been carried out into the revision of literary translations (Koponen et al. 2021, 10). This article responds to calls in the literature for empirical studies examining the creation of actual published translations. It aims to partially address this gap by reporting on the processes and practices occurring during the revision of my Maltese translation of Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s Concerto à la mémoire d’un ange . Although numerous translation scholars are also practising translators, we rarely look at our own processes and practices. Not only is this reality of translation revision largely overlooked but also the wealth of empirical data generated during the translation process remains unexploited. Drawing on my own translation practice, this study adopts an autoethnographic approach to provide insights into how revision materialised in this specific literary translation. Meticulously conserved real-life data are analysed in order to shed light on the agents involved in the revision process, their role and power.

Article metrics loading...

From This Site

Full text loading...

• Anderson, Alison (trans.) 2011   Concerto to the Memory of an Angel by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt 2010 New York: Europa Editions. [Google Scholar]
• Atkinson, Paul 2006  “Rescuing Autoethnography.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography (): –. Accessed May 27, 2023. 10.1177/0891241606286980 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241606286980 [Google Scholar]
• Bogic, Anna 2010  “Uncovering the Hidden Actors with the Help of Latour: The ‘making’ of the Second Sex.” Monografías De Traducción E Interpretación : –. Accessed April 14, 2023. 10.6035/MonTI.2010.2.9 https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2010.2.9 [Google Scholar]
• Borg, Claudine 2022   A Literary Translation in the Making. A Process-Oriented Perspective . London: Routledge. 10.4324/9781003150909 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003150909 [Google Scholar]
• Borg, Claudine (trans.) 2021   Kunċert b’Tifkira ta’ Anġlu [Concert in Memory of an Angel] by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt 2002 Rabat: Faraxa Publishing. [Google Scholar]
• Borg, Claudine (trans.) 2015   Oscar u s-sinjura r-roża [Oscar and the pink lady] by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt. Rabat: Faraxa Publishing. [Google Scholar]
• Bouton-Kelly, Ludivine 2020  “La Traduction Au Brouillon : Une Écriture À L’ouvrage.” Palimpsestes (): –. Accessed April 27, 2023. 10.4000/palimpsestes.6072 https://doi.org/10.4000/palimpsestes.6072 [Google Scholar]
• Buzelin, Hélène 2007  “Translations in the ‘Making’.” In Constructing a Sociology of Translation , edited by Michaela Wolf, and Alexandra Constructing a Sociology of Translation , –. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/btl.74.11buz https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.74.11buz [Google Scholar]
• Chang, Heewon 2008   Autoethnography as Method . London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
• Ellis, Carolyn 2008  “Autoethnography.” In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods , edited by Lisa M. Given, –. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. [Google Scholar]
• Ellis, Carolyn, Tony E. Adams, and Arthur P. Bochner 2010  “Autoethnography: An Overview.” Forum, Qualitative Social Research (): paragraphs. Accessed July 02, 2010. nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101108 [Google Scholar]
• Feinauer, Ilse, and Amanda Lourens 2017  “The Loyalty of the Literary Reviser: Author, Source Text, Target Text Or Reader?” Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus : –. 10.5842/53‑0‑735 https://doi.org/10.5842/53-0-735 [Google Scholar]
• Feinauer, Ilse, and Amanda Lourens 2021  “Another Look at Revision in Literary Translation.” In Translation Revision and Post-Editing , edited by Maarit Koponen, Brian Mossop, Isabelle S. Robert, and Giovanna Scocchera, –. London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
• Feinauer, Ilse, and Amanda Lourens 2022  “Panel 25. the Reality of Revision. Conference Panel.” Abstract Booklet . EST 2022 Oslo, –. [Google Scholar]
• Flick, Uwe 2018   An Introduction to Qualitative Research . 6th edition. Los Angeles: Sage. [Google Scholar]
• Franco Aixelá, Javier 2001–2022   BITRA (Bibliography of Interpreting and Translation) . Open-access database. Accessed July 31, 2023. dti.ua.es/en/bitra/introduction.html [Google Scholar]
• Fryer, Louise 2020  “Audio Describing Ocean’s Eleven Scene 12 Out of Context: Decision Points in AD Drafting.” Perspectives, Studies in Translatology (): –. Accessed June 23, 2023. 10.1080/0907676X.2020.1712442 https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2020.1712442 [Google Scholar]
• Geertz, Clifford 1973   The Interpretation of Cultures . New York: Basic Books. [Google Scholar]
• Hokkanen, Sari 2016  To Serve and to Experience: An Autoethnographic Study of Simultaneous Church Interpreting. PhD Thesis, Tampere University. [Google Scholar]
• Kolb, Waltraud 2013  “‘Who are they?’ Decision-Making in Literary Translation.” In Tracks and Treks in Translation Studies , edited by Catherine Way, Sonia Vandepitte, Reine Meylaerts, and Magdalena Bartlomiejczyk, –. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/btl.108.11kol https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.108.11kol [Google Scholar]
• Koponen, Maarit, Brian Mossop, Isabelle S. Robert, and Giovanna Scocchera (eds) 2021   Translation Revision and Post-Editing . London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
• Marin-Lacarta, Maialen and Mireia Vargas-Urpi 2019  “Translators Revising Translators: A Fruitful Alliance.” Perspectives, Studies in Translatology (): –. Accessed June 22, 2023. 10.1080/0907676X.2018.1533569 https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2018.1533569 [Google Scholar]
• McIlveen, Peter 2008  “Autoethnography as a Method for Reflexive Research and Practice in Vocational Psychology.” Australian Journal of Career Development (): –. 10.1177/103841620801700204 https://doi.org/10.1177/103841620801700204 [Google Scholar]
• Mossop, Brian 2007  “Empirical studies of revision: What we know and need to know”. Journal of Specialised Translation : –. Accessed January 02, 2024. https://www.jostrans.org/issue08/art_mossop.pdf [Google Scholar]
• Rajalakshmi, Ratnavel, Varsha Sharma, and Anand Kumar M 2023  “Context Sensitive Tamil Language Spellchecker Using RoBERTa.” In Speech and Language Technologies for Low-Resource Languages , edited by Anand Kumar M, , –. Cham: Springer. Accessed December 30, 2023. 10.1007/978‑3‑031‑33231‑9_4 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33231-9_4 [Google Scholar]
• Risku, Hanna, Florian Windhager, and Matthias Apfelthaler 2013  “A Dynamic Network Model of Translatorial Cognition and Action.” Translation Spaces : –. Accessed August 17, 2023. 10.1075/ts.2.08ris https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.2.08ris [Google Scholar]
• Risku, Hanna, Maija Hirvonen, Regina Rogl, and Jelena Milošević 2022  “Ethnographic Research.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Methodology , edited by Federico Rundle Zanettin Christopher, –. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9781315158945‑24 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315158945-24 [Google Scholar]
• Schmitt, Éric-Emmanuel 2010   Concerto À La Mémoire D’un Ange [Concert to the Memory of an Angel]. Paris: Albin Michel. [Google Scholar]
• Scocchera, Giovanna 2016  “Computer-Based Collaborative Revision as a Virtual Lab of Translation Genetics.” Linguistica Antverpiensia: New Series: Themes in Translation Studies : –. Accessed June 22, 2023. 10.52034/lanstts.v14i0.347 https://doi.org/10.52034/lanstts.v14i0.347 [Google Scholar]
• Stratford, Madeleine 2020  “From Voluptuous Pleasure to Voluptés: Delving into the Literary Translation Process.” Palimpsestes : –. Accessed June 23, 2023. 10.4000/palimpsestes.5843 https://doi.org/10.4000/palimpsestes.5843 [Google Scholar]

Data & Media loading...

• Article Type: Research Article

Most Read This Month

Translation as human–computer interaction, making sense of neural machine translation, the turn of audiovisual translation: new audiences and new technologies, ergonomics of the translation workplace: potential for cognitive friction, translators’ perceptions of literary post-editing using statistical and neural machine translation, cognitive translation studies and the merging of empirical paradigms: the case of ‘literal translation’, “a tiny cog in a large machine”, human factors in machine translation and post-editing among institutional translators, a dynamic network model of translatorial cognition and action, training citizen translators.

English and Comparative Literary Studies

Ma in literary translation studies dissertation.

All students doing the MA in Literary Translation Studies Studies are required to complete a dissertation of approximately 16,000 words . The MA dissertation offers students the chance to undertake and complete one of two forms of sustained research project: either a) a dissertation of the more conventional variety, where the student undertakes research into an area of translation theory and practice and argues a thesis, supporting it with evidence or b) a literary translation accompanied by an extended piece of critical writing (a translation commentary).

The dissertation represents a substantial piece of work, and you should be aware of the fact that it will require significant input from you throughout the year. You should start thinking about the general area in which you would like to do your research from the beginning of the academic year and discuss it with the MALTS Convenor (and, where appropriate, with other members of staff) as soon as possible, since you will be expected to submit a dissertation proposal to the MALTS Convenor ([email protected]) by the end of Week 9 in Term 1. Students who opt to do a dissertation in the form of a literary translation accompanied by an extended commentary should begin to identify an appropriate source text or texts at an early stage. Depending on the language from which you work, source texts may be difficult to access; for this reason, you should plan ahead to allow time for delivery/access.

If the student opts for b) then the translation should be a minimum of 5000 and a maximum of 6000 words (which is approximately one-third of the total length of the dissertation), with the commentary constituting the bulk of the dissertation length at a minimum of 10,000 and a maximum of 11,000 words. Students who wish to translate poetry may agree a different weighting of translation and commentary with their supervisor(s). The translation should be into a language that can be read by the dissertation supervisor(s). This will normally mean that the translation will be into English. The student should include a copy of the source text as an appendix to the completed translation with commentary, clearly marking the appendix as such. Please note that the source text does not count towards the length of the dissertation.

There will be a compulsory workshop on the translation with commentary in Term 1. Please note that the commentary, for the purposes of the MALTS dissertation, is not a series of notes or annotations to a text, nor a chronological narrative of translating a text, rather it should do the following: contain an argument or a set of arguments that are illustrated by the translation; demonstrate the theoretically informed reflection that lies behind the creation of a translation product; address relevant issues of translation theory and practice. The link between the translation and the commentary, i.e. how far the translation bears out what is said in the commentary, will be central to the success of this piece of work. You should therefore select your source text or texts with a particular research focus in mind, rather than selecting a source text at random.

The document ' How to write a translation commentary ’ sets out the expectations for this type of dissertation.

Writing the dissertation proposal (Term 1)

Only projects deemed viable will be allowed to proceed, so it is important to get the proposal right. To be accepted, a proposal should • be intellectually viable; • be achievable within the stipulated time and word limit; • be feasible given the resources; • fall within the areas of expertise of members of academic staff.

See an example of a successful proposal for dissertation type a) and b). Proposals should be between 300 and 500 words in length and include an initial bibliography.

In addition, it is important that the content of your dissertation does not have a significant overlap with any of the essays you submit for your option modules.

To help you write a strong proposal, the English Department will be offering a series of workshops in the Autumn Term, and you will be expected to attend these. Time and place will be confirmed at the start of the academic year.

As you begin work on your proposal during Term 1, you will need to speak to members of academic staff with an interest in the area you wish to work in. All members of staff keep regular office hours during the term, and you should speak to several of them. It is your responsibility to seek them out. Use your contact with them to present and discuss your ideas. Listen to their advice and suggestions, read the books or articles they may point you to, and incorporate what is appropriate into your proposal. As you discuss your project, you will quickly pick up which aspects are worth pursuing and which are not. This is part of the research process. If you would like advice on whom to approach, speak to the MALTS Convenor. Remember when you submit your proposal to mention the names of staff with whom you have spoken.

You will be required to submit your proposal to the MALTS Convenor by the end of Week 9 in Term 1 , shortly before the winter holiday therefore. The MALTS Convenor will consider all applications and assign a supervisor for each successful proposal. You will be notified of decisions by the first week of Term 2. If your proposal has been declined, the MALTS Convenor will meet with you and explain the reasons for the decision, and provide advice and support on reworking the proposal into an acceptable one. It is expected that most proposals submitted by students who have attended all the workshops will be accepted.

Writing the dissertation progress report (Term 2)

Students must begin work on their dissertation research in Term 2. It can take time to work out exactly how to focus your project and decide on what you need to look at and read, so it’s important to start early. In Week 9 of Term 2 you must submit a Progress Report to the MALTS Convenor ([email protected]), copying in the Postgraduate Programmes Officer ([email protected]). The report consists of the following:

• Dissertation Progress Report form • title and chapter breakdown • an abstract of 1000 words • a bibliography.

Progress reports will be reviewed by the MALTS Convenor. If there are concerns about progress, the MALTS Convenor will contact you.

Research, writing and contact with your supervisor (Terms 2 and 3)

You can expect to meet with your supervisor for an initial supervision within the first two weeks of Term 2 and again in Week 8 or 9 shortly before submission of the dissertation progress report. You can also expect to meet with your supervisor three times in Term 3. Supervisions will generally be 45-60 minutes in length, although Term 2 supervisions may well be shorter than this. Your supervisor will read one rough draft of your dissertation, which must be sent by the end of Term 3. You are welcome to contact your supervisor by e-mail. As with all the department's staff, you can usually expect a supervisor to respond within about 3 working days (excluding weekends) if your query is straightforward. For more complex requests, supervisors will need more time to respond and you need to keep in mind that an e-mail exchange is no substitute for a face-to-face meeting. Face-to-face supervision of dissertations concludes at the end of term 3. Over the summer months of July and August, when staff undertake their own research activities, e-mail contact is at the supervisor's discretion and it will very likely take longer for them to respond to any message you send.

Submission (Summer)

The following reminders may be useful:

• You must be consistent in the style convention used (preferably either MLA, MHRA, Chicago or Harvard). Note that Harvard is the standard referencing style for scholarly work in Translation Studies.
• Footnotes/Endnotes are included in the final word count; the 'Bibliography' is not included in the final word count
• An abstract is not required in the final submission
• A margin of up to 10% over or under length is allowed, but dissertations that are between 10-24% over-length will incur a penalty of 3 marks
• Work that is more than 25% over-length will be refused

• Bibliography
• More Referencing guides Blog Automated transliteration Relevant bibliographies by topics
• Automated transliteration
• Relevant bibliographies by topics
• Referencing guides

INTERPRETING THE UNTRANSLATABLE: REPRESENTATIONS OF VLADIMIR NABOKOV'S SELF-TRANSLATIONS IN WORLD LITERATURE

The model for most mass-market literary translation is that this takes place through an outside translator’s interpretation from a source text to recreate its words in a target language, while a smaller, but no less important, fraction of texts has been self-translated by their original authors. Self-translation is far from an irrelevant anomaly to translation studies—Vladimir Nabokov’s career as an author and translator has demonstrated that the product of a self-translation increases the author’s agency, marking their translation as the most authoritative while lending comparative scholars insight into those passages that create dilemmas of interpretation for third-party translators. In this thesis, I argue that self-translation constitutes an important component of understanding cultural circulation and literary markets—first, through paratextual features of Nabokov’s novels, taking shape in techniques of self-marketing, and second, through the textual features that illuminate the transnational reception of his work. I examine Nabokov’s self-translated novels via the texts themselves and in adaptation to argue that in the transfer of literary knowledge from the source to the target language, new facets of the text and author emerge more vividly in a self-translation than in an outside translation.

1_Skidmore_Grace_2020_MA.pdf

Uploaded: November 30, 2020

Downloads: 726