Roger Baines

Translation, Globalization and the Elite Migrant Athlete

Abstract In professional sports, processes of globalization have triggered an upsurge in mobile elite migrant athletes who acquire status and power through their talent and increasing wealth. In elite football competitions in particular, this has led to a newly constructed power dynamic between host country institutions and elite athletes that is observable in translation and interpreting events. The linguistic diversity created by the presence of elite migrant athletes in national football leagues has created a need for translation and interpreting in sporting contexts, a need further defined by the extent to which these athletes have acculturated to the culture and language of the host environment, or are dependent on translation and interpreting to communicate in their professional environment. The events examined in this paper demonstrate how newly constructed power relationships between elite migrants and host institutions are realized in translated and interpreted communication. Through two case studies of Latin American footballers in the English Premier League, the article analyzes the attempted resolution of misunderstandings of communication arising in the course of play and involving translation and interpreting. Negotiations over intended meaning are lent a particular complexity by the power-through-wealth of these particular athletes, challenging the binary positionings of established-insider/migrant-outsider and acculturated/assimilated migrants.

A Text on Trial: The Translation and Adaptation of Adel Hakim's Exécuteur 14

This paper deals with the problem of translation for the stage, of translation–adaptation and its subsequent production. It evidences the complexity of this type of practice, given the complex interplay of signs involved not only in translating the text for the stage, but also at the level of performance. The implications for translation theory and practice are discussed through discussion of the translation and performance of a text that is politically engaged, Adel Hakims Exécuteur 14. This paper also problematizes the relation among different languages within the same text, the role of foreign terms, of syntax, and rhythm in the construction of discourse, and implications for translation. In particular the focus is on the problem of the relation between intertextuality, translation, performance, communication, and value systems.

Interview with Christopher Hampton

Christopher Hampton is a playwright, screenwriter, director, producer and translator. His stage translation and adaptation work has won numerous awards and includes Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (1971), 1 Three Sisters (2005), and The Seagull (2007), von Horvath’s Tales from The Vienna Woods (1977), Don Juan Comes Back From The War (1978), Faith, Hope and Charity (1989), and Judgement Day (2009), Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1972), Hedda Gabler (1972), The Wild Duck (1980) and Ghosts (1983), Laclos’ Les Liasions Dangereuses (1985), Marai’s Embers (2006), Moliere’s Don Juan (1973) and Tartuffe (1984), and Reza’s Art (1996), Life x 3 (2001), Conversations After A Burial (2007), and God of Carnage (2008). Interview by Roger Baines and Manuela Perteghella (autumn 2008).

Musical Realisations: a Performance-based Translation of Rhythm in Koltès’ Dans la solitude des champs de coton

This essay provides an account and analysis of an experimental method focusing on the performance of rhythm and sonorities to produce a new translation into English of Dans la solitude des champs de coton (1985) by Bernard-Marie Koltes (1948–89). Koltes’ works have continued to grow in popularity in Europe since his death in 1989 and he is now considered one of the most original and influential French playwrights of recent decades. Dans la solitude des champs de coton (hereafter Solitude) is an encounter between two characters, a Dealer and a Client, in an ill-defined nocturnal space. On his way from A to B, from one lit window at the top of a building to another, the Client enters the territory of the Dealer. They circle around each other for the duration of the play, but the Client will not reveal what he desires and the Dealer will not reveal what he has to offer to satisfy the Client’s desires; the play unfolds until it ends in a moment of inconclusive potential violence.

Employability as an ethos in translator and interpreter training

ABSTRACT ‘Employability’ is now a key term in university strategies in the UK and increasingly across Europe. Pressure to implement such strategies can lead to bolted-on rather than embedded activities within curricula. This paper argues that employability should be an embedded ethos, particularly for translation and interpreting courses. Employability can be addressed effectively by using real-world applications of learning, to enrich the discipline but also to provide distinct types of intellectually stimulating content. The University of East Anglia (UEA) has a long history of this approach. We outline UEA case studies of effective practice at Masters and undergraduate level, including students working for real clients. Such an endeavour poses logistical and ethical challenges: how can we integrate real-world contexts without taking work away from professionals? This issue can be unwisely ignored or a source of academics’ reluctance to engage in such activities. Using original data from a recent alumni survey and semi-structured interviews, we map the outcomes of such an ethos and ask whether engaging in real-world oriented activities as students affects the professional paths of alumni.