1 / 11

Defining “Political” texts

Defining “Political” texts. Alone, on a piece of paper, jot down some ideas about following questions: What makes something a “political” text? What kinds of texts are “political”?. Now, discuss your responses with a partner. Translation theorists weigh in.

jgum
Télécharger la présentation

Defining “Political” texts

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Defining “Political” texts Alone, on a piece of paper, jot down some ideas about following questions: • What makes something a “political” text? • What kinds of texts are “political”? Now, discuss your responses with a partner

  2. Translation theorists weigh in... • Texts primarily related to political activities, ideas, relations • Often associated with institutional politics (e.g. Political/Parliamentary debates, speeches, documents) (see Schäffner 2007: 143)

  3. Translation theorists weigh in... • “Prototypical” political texts a) discuss political ideas, beliefs, practices • e.g. Textbooks, academic papers, essays b) are used to establish political communities/ groups • e.g. Treaties, manifestos, speeches (see Schäffner 2004: 117-119)

  4. Applying translation theory Text types Text genres Reiss: informative, expressive, operative Hatim & Mason: argumentative, expository, instructive Correspondence, essays, manifestos, interviews, biographies, advertisements, speeches, policy papers, treaties, etc.

  5. Translation theorists weigh in... Political texts range from: Very culture-bound texts (e.g. speeches, statements by politicians) To: Interactive, multinational texts (e.g. standardized treaties, NATO or EU documents) (See Trosborg 1997: 145)

  6. Discussion break In groups of 3-4 discuss the following questions: What is “political discourse”? What is the style of political texts? Be prepared to share your answers with the class in 5 minutes.

  7. Translation theorists weigh in... Political discourse can have different strategic functions: i) coercion ii) resistance, opposition, protest iii) dissimulation iv) legitimization/delegitimization See Schäffner (2004: 119)

  8. Translation theorists weigh in... Political language is used to: Formulate policies Create alliances Shape/disseminate the values of political associations Establish legal systems Identify forms of government (See Romagnuolo 2009: 2)

  9. Translation theorists weigh in... Features of political language: Abstract conceptual terms (e.g. capitalism, communism, socialism, democracy, revolution) Political jargon Euphemisms Metaphors Neologisms Acronyms Collocations (which may border on clichés) (See Newmark 1991: 147-161)

  10. Some parting thoughts... Does a text become more or less political over time?

  11. References • Hatim, Basil & Ian Mason. (1990). Discourse and the Translator. London; New York: Longman. • Newmark, Peter. (1991). About Translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. • Reiss, Katerina. (1971/2004). Type, Kind and Individuality of Text: Decision-Making in Translation. (Susan Kitron, trans.) In Lawrence Venuti, ed. The Translation Studies Reader (2nd ed.). New York; London: Routledge. • Romagnuolo, Anna. (2009). Political discourse in translation: A corpus-based perspective on presidential inaugurals. Translation and Interpreting Studies 4(1): 1-30. • Schäffner, Christina. (2004). Political discourse analysis from the point of view of Translation Studies. Journal of Language and Politics 3(1): 117-150. • Schäffner, Christina. (2007). Politics and Translation. In Piotr Kuhiwczak and Karin Littau, (Ed.), A Companion to Translation Studies (pp. 134-147). Clevedon; Tonawanda; North York: Multilingual Matters. • Trosborg, Anna. (1997). Translating Hybrid Political Texts. In Anna Trosborg (Ed.) Text Typology and Translation (pp. 145-158). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

More Related