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6 - Discourse, Power and Ethics in Translation

6 - Discourse, Power and Ethics in Translation. Ian Mason Sichuan University, October 2013. Main approaches in the West. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) Cultural/Feminist Translation Studies Post-colonial Translation Studies The sociology of translation. Critical Discourse Analysis.

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6 - Discourse, Power and Ethics in Translation

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  1. 6 - Discourse, Power and Ethics in Translation Ian Mason Sichuan University, October 2013

  2. Main approaches in the West • Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) • Cultural/Feminist Translation Studies • Post-colonial Translation Studies • The sociology of translation

  3. Critical Discourse Analysis • Socially conscious • Direct relation to issues of power and control • Bridge to cultural studies, post-colonial studies, gender studies, etc. • Influence of, e.g., Foucault, Bakhtin, Bourdieu. • Recognition that meaning is indeterminate, socially constructed.

  4. The agenda • Critical Discourse Analysis “should describe and explain how power abuse is enacted, reproduced or legitimised by the text and talk of dominant groups or institutions” (van Dijk 1996: 84) • Mystification • Manipulation

  5. Examples • Trew in Fowler et al. (1979): • Headline in The Times (London): RIOTING BLACKS SHOT DEAD BY POLICE AS ANC LEADERS MEET Eleven Africans were shot dead and 15 wounded when Rhodesian police opened fire on a rioting crowd…

  6. Reading meaning off from text • There is no one-to-one correspondence between form and ideological meaning. • Example (re Thai survivors of tsunami): “This baby has created quite a storm about him”

  7. Reading meaning off from text • Stubbs (1997): ‘If it is not possible to read the ideology off the texts, then the analysts themselves are reading meanings into texts on the basis of their own, unexplicated knowledge’.

  8. Method critics: Fairclough’s response • (2003: 16) “Textual analysis is a valuable supplement to social research, not a replacement…” • Discourse/text analysis needs an adequate social theory • Bourdieu: Habitus, Field, Capital, Doxa…

  9. Pierre Bourdieu • Field: social network defined by a distribution of capital, determining the position agents occupy within that space. • Capital: economic, social, cultural (symbolic). • Habitus: acquired sense of how to operate in a Field, of the rules of the ‘game’. • Doxa: the rules of the ‘game’, developing out of the formation of a Field.

  10. Michel Foucault • Discourses impose constraints on what can be validly said. • In order to be effective, language users (translators) need access to recognised discourses. • Power as a network of social/discursive relations that are negotiated in interaction • Institutional power + interactional power

  11. Institutional/interactional power • In the Western world: • Conference interpreter: • Institutional power: status granted by membership of AIIC • Interactional power: constrained by strict norms (‘faithfulness’, etc.) • Community interpreter: • Very little institutional power • Considerable interactional power

  12. Blommaert (2005) Discourse • Main interest = inequality in communication (and translation) • Criticisms of: • Co-operative Principle (assumes equality) • Negotiation of meaning (assumes equality) • Critical Discourse Analysis (authority of the analyst)

  13. Key notions • Voice . “Capacity to generate uptake as close as possible to one’s own contextualisation”

  14. Key Notions • Voice . “Capacity to generate uptake as close as possible to one’s own contextualisation” • Entextualisation “the use of a discourse in a new/different setting”

  15. Key Notions • Voice . “Capacity to generate uptake as close as possible to one’s own contextualisation” • Entextualisation “the use of a discourse in a new/different setting” • Orders of indexicality “stratified meanings often called ‘norms’ or ‘rules’ of language”

  16. 1 - VOICE • A text which enjoys HIGH PRESTIGE in its own cultural environment may, when re-entextualised in another environment, become LOW PRESTIGE. • EXAMPLE: immigration interviews.

  17. OFF How is it that you’re still in this country? INT Why are you still here? IMM Because I wanted to go to school here, till now I've managed to, I had to earn money to go to schoolbecause school is quite expensive. INT I had to, my intention was to attend an English course here, but I didn't have enough money, so I had to earn the money in order to pay for the course.

  18. IMM And I still go to school, I did go to school once a week, unfortunately. INT And I have been attending an English course once a week.

  19. OFF What were you doing before that in Poland? INT And what were you doing in Poland before coming here to England? IMM I was learning at school. INT As a student? PM No, a car mechanic. INT Right, he was attending a course, a car mechanics course.

  20. 2 - ENTEXTUALISATION • In claims for asylum, refugees’ speech and writing are re-entextualised in a different (alien) context. • Translators and interpreters are the main agents of this process. • EXAMPLES: • 2.1 Asylum applicant claims he originates from Burundi. • 2.2 The accused’s story

  21. 2.1 – asylum applicant, Burundi • Belgian authorities ask for a translation. • How would you translate this text? • Translation as an act of de-legitimation.

  22. 2.2 - The accused’s story BaKANGI NGAI NAYIBI, eZALI YALOKUTA baKANGI NGAI na bilamba minei 4 Pantalon na yebi [nb]atu te moSuSu Oyo ba ZALAKI na MAGASIN te

  23. The accused’s story They caught me (because) I had stolen, that is a lie They caught me with four pieces of clothing 4 pantalons I don’t know the other people who were with me in the magasin

  24. Access • Differential access to resources • Differential access to contextual spaces • Wherever there are gaps, there is inequality. • How is the translator to deal with these problems?

  25. 3 – INSTITUTIONAL POWER versus INTERACTIONAL POWER • Example of advertising texts • Example of translators faced with unacceptable (e.g. racist) texts • Example of dialogue interpreters faced with different cultural assumptions

  26. The Translator as Gatekeeper • Dilemma: should feminist translators translate a text which “mocks women and their words”? • Feminist translating: “the subversive scribe” • Suzanne Jill Levine: “A translation should be a critical act… creating doubt, posing questions to the reader, recontextualising the ideology of the original text”

  27. The interpreter as Gatekeeper • Andrew Clifford (2007) • Healthcare interpreting case • Patient: elderly man from Hong Kong, speaks Cantonese only. • Canadian doctor: cancer specialist • Patient’s adult children • Cantonese-English interpreter

  28. The Interpreter as Gatekeeper • Dr explains to patient that he has cancer, needs to choose between two types of therapy • Interpreter prepares to translate this • Children interrupt: “Please don’t tell our father he has cancer! We don’t want him to know”.

  29. The Interpreter as Gatekeeper • Cultural differences: • Individual/group • Attitudes towards status and authority • Preferences for explicitness/implicitness • Medical ethics: informed consent. • The interpreter alone understands both perspectives.

  30. The ethics of translation • Activist translators challenge the authority of the original text. • Control over what is/is not translated • Codes of Practice: “neutrality, accuracy, fidelity…” • Tensions between impartiality and justice, especially in situations of inequality. • The translator’s responsibility.

  31. Trends in Western Translation Studies • Tymoczko: “empowering translators” • Baker: activist translator groups – Babels, Translators without Frontiers, ECOS • Inghilleri: interpreters taking control…

  32. Institutional/interactional power • What are the limits of the translator/interpreter’s control, activism? • Freelancers: can refuse a translation task on ethical grounds. • Staff translators: can ‘leak’ information but may lose their job! • Medical interpreters can assume responsibility but many prefer not to.

  33. Professional ethics • Chesterman (2001): distinguish between personal ethics (activism, etc.) and professional ethics (translator’s activity as a translator).

  34. Professional ethics • Chesterman (2001): a translators’ oath • Respect the translation profession • Maximise communication; minimise misunderstanding • Not represent source texts in unfair ways • Respect readers by making translations accessible • Respect professional secrets of clients (…)

  35. The Granada Declaration (2007) • “The work of translators and interpreters is not limited to acting solely as a neutral conveyor of ideas between cultures. • Translators and interpreters have been used throughout history not only to disseminate ideas and expand cultures beyond language barriers , but also, and only too frequently, as a tool for colonisation, and social, economic, political and gender domination.” (In Boeri & Maier 2010)

  36. Conclusion • Debate: • can interpreters and translators be strictly neutral? • Should interpreters and translators be strictly neutral?

  37. Conclusion • Important factors in the debate: • Ethics (challenge or reinforce power?) • Agency (‘empowering translators’) • Trust (monolinguals have to be able to trust bilinguals)

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