Sue-Ann Harding

Translating Violent Conflict

Abstract The role of interpreters and translators in relation to violent conflicts is a complex, dynamic and multi-faceted one, whether they participate directly in war zones or more indirectly in legal or humanitarian contexts or in relation to written texts. Because of the physical, cultural or linguistic proximity of interpreters and translators to one side or the other in a given conflict, there is a powerful tendency by the different parties, including the public, to position interpreters and translators as loyal to one side and opposed to another. The contributing authors to this special issue apply a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to a number of relevant issues across a range of conflict situations, drawing on fictional and non-fictional texts, legal and peacekeeping settings and reports from war zones themselves. In different ways, the papers presented here explore the overlapping themes of mediation, agency and ethics in relation to translators and interpreters as they negotiate the political, social, cultural, linguistic and ethical factors that converge, often dangerously, in situations of armed conflict.

Sketching landscapes in translation studies: A bibliographic study

This paper investigates how subfields within translation studies have been defined and how research interests and foci have shifted over the years, using data from the Translation Studies Abstracts (TSA) online database. We draw on the notions of ‘landscape’ and ‘sketch maps’ in an attempt to reflect on the role that TSA editors, as well as writers of papers and abstracts, have had on the dynamics of the field. We start by offering an overview of the contents of the database, and reflect on how bibliographical tools ultimately represent partial views of a disciplinary landscape. We look at how different bibliographies devise categories for describing topics of research and thus create maps to navigate that landscape. However, maps are static devices, unable to represent how the landscape was shaped historically. Thus, we also use a TSA corpus to observe how classifications and the frequencies of keywords have changed at different points in time, while reflecting on how, as inhabitants of this landscape, editors of bibliographies affect the extent to which the data is both representative of and informed by the field, and as colonizers, they impose their order upon it.

Making a difference?: Independent online media translations of the 2004 beslan hostage disaster

Abstract With increasingly fewer independent media outlets operating in the Russia Federation over the past decade, the Internet is one of the rare remaining sites where alternatives to mainstream news and opinion can be voiced. In spite of repeated government interference and, in some cases, prosecution, fringe media websites connected to non-governmental organizations, grassroots civic movements and separatist factions have developed into persistent, if marginalized, media alternatives. This paper examines the online reportage and translations generated in response to the 2004 hostage-taking in Beslan published by ‘non-professionals’ on two websites, using a case study approach and drawing on socio-narrative theory. It discusses the elements and characteristics of these fringe narratives that distinguish them as significant alternatives to the mainstream, contrasting the Beslan narratives constructed by the two independent sites with those elaborated by a large, mainstream Russian news agency. It then considers the translations of this material into English to determine the extent to which the specific features that characterize the alternative narratives are also present in translation. The study finds that the restricted use of translation on these websites led to the reinforcement of simplistic, reductionist narratives and weakened or eliminated the more complex and multivalent alternative ones that had been present in the Russian originals. It concludes by considering how ‘non-professional’ translators might avoid a similar outcome.

Training for the viva examination: A translation studies student perspective

Abstract Myth and mystery often surround the doctoral examination process, not just for students but also for supervisors and examiners. Yet it need not be so. Recent publications informed by current empirical research and addressed primarily to doctoral students but also relevant to both supervisors and examiners discuss the nature and purposes of the viva and offer detailed strategies for viva preparation. For one Translation Studies doctoral student in her final year, the idea that mystery could be exchanged for sound and informed preparation has proved empowering. This paper, in a reflection on that empowering experience, discusses a selection of resources on viva culture and preparation; the integral connection between written thesis and oral examination; the opportunities for training and practice in the oral communication of ideas, arguments and conclusions; the opportunities for acculturation and induction into the academic community or ‘tribe’ during doctoral study, which culminate in the viva; and the complex nature of the oral examination, which requires complex, imaginative, proactive preparation rather than a search for simplistic solutions. The paper includes a number of concrete examples and useful suggestions for viva preparation, relevant to both staff and students, and applicable throughout the doctoral programme.

The Translator: Creativity, Continuity and Change

As part of the new team of editors, it is a great honor for me to represent The Translator at this, the first International Conference of Journals and Translation here at Jinan University. It gives me great pleasure to address you all today. Thank you for the invitation, the opportunity to speak, and for all you have done to welcome me here.

‘But we don't read, Professor!’ Translation, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, and building a ‘vibrant literary culture’

Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (BQFP) is Qatars first and only publishing house, established with the stated aim of developing a vibrant literary culture in the country. Producing books in Arabic and English, a large proportion of which are translations, this paper is a preliminary, localised study of BQFP as a translating institution that not only has its own remit, but, as part of Qatar Foundation, is firmly ensconced within the broader societal narrative of transformation elaborated by Qatars government. Widely circulated and reiterated in the public sphere, this narrative is also articulated in specific documents, including the Qatar National Vision 2030 and its ‘action plan’, the Qatar National Development Strategy (QNDS) 2011–2016. Drawing on a collocational analysis of the word ‘culture’ in the QNDS, a quantitative and qualitative initial analysis of BQFP book titles, and a brief foray into the first Qatari novel, including an interview with the Qatari author, this paper aims to initiate investigation into the relationships between official transformation narratives of culture and BQFP narratives as reflected in the institutions output of cultural products. It finds that, while areas of overlap predominate, there are also areas of misalignment, suggesting that there also exist spaces for alternative narratives and interpretations of ‘culture’.