Reflexive Translation Studies

In the past decades, translation studies have increasingly focused on the ethical dimension of translational activity, with an emphasis on reflexivity to assert the role of the researcher in highlighting issues of visibility, creativity and ethics. In Reflexive Translation Studies, Silvia Kadiu investigates the viability of theories that seek to empower translation by making visible its transformative dimension; for example, by championing the visibility of the translating subject, the translator’s right to creativity, the supremacy of human translation or an autonomous study of translation. Inspired by Derrida’s deconstructive thinking, Kadiu presents practical ways of challenging theories that argue reflexivity is the only way of developing an ethical translation. She questions the capacity of reflexivity to counteract the power relations at play in translation (between minor and dominant languages, for example) and problematises affirmative claims about (self-)knowledge by using translation itself as a process of critical reflection

David Bellos’ indirect translation of Ismail Kadare’s The file on H : a contextual analysis

This article is a linguistic study of David Bellos’ indirect translation of Ismail Kadare’s The File on H (1997), a novel first published in 1980-1981 in the Albanian literary review Nëntori, and translated into English on the basis of Jusuf Vrioni’s French version, Le Dossier H (1989). Also called "double", "mediated" or "second-hand", indirect translation is an understudied phenomenon, often criticised by scholars because of its greater distance to the original. Cay Dollerup (2000: 23), for example, argues that the grammatical structure of the mediating language (ML) obscures the distinctions made in the source language (SL), and that possible "mistakes" in the ML may be repeated in the target language (TL). Do fidelity and loyalty to the author become weakened in Bellos’ indirect translation? To what extent is such weakening discernible linguistically? And does this particular case of indirect translation reveal notable patterns or recurring types of linguistic shifts between ST and TT? Showing that some of the features specific to Kadare’s Albanian writing are tempered in the doubly-translated English text, yet highlighting that similar shifts occur in the three language directions involved, this article demonstrates that changes between ST and TT may occur in indirect translation regardless of the strategies adopted by MT – thus challenging the hypothesis that linguistic shifts in indirect translation follow a single or consistent pattern

Des zones d’indécidabilité dans la traduction automatique et dans la traduction humaine

Cet article examine le concept d’indécidabilité de Jacques Derrida dans la traduction automatique et dans la traduction humaine. Définie comme la condition même de toute possibilité d’action et de décision (Caputo 1997 : 137), l’indécidabilité est la composante structurelle de toute décision. S’appuyant sur le concept de Derrida pour penser la complexité des processus décisionnels à l’oeuvre dans l’acte traductif, cet article explore les zones d’indécidabilité dans les traductions d’un extrait de Traduire au xxie siècle d’Henri Meschonnic (2008). Délibérément choisi pour sa résonance directe avec la notion d’indécidabilité, le commentaire de Meschonnic soutient que, mis à part les traductions automatiques, aucune pratique de la traduction n’est possible sans prise de décision réflexive (Meschonnic 2008 : 60). Les observations traitées dans cet article remettent en question l’opposition homme-machine en traduction en montrant que la programmabilité et l’indécidabilité sont des caractéristiques communes à la traduction automatique et à la traduction humaine. Cette étude semble ainsi indiquer que, comme condition préalable à toute prise de décision éthique, l’incertitude doit être développée au sein même des systèmes de traduction automatique et qu’une formation approfondie des traducteurs aux technologies de la traduction est indispensable pour un usage responsable de la traduction automatique.This article examines Jacques Derrida’s concept of undecidability in machine and human translation. Defined as the very condition of possibility of acting and deciding (Caputo 1997: 137), undecidability is an essential component of decision-making. Using Derrida’s concept as a starting point for thinking the intricacies of translation decision processes, this article explores manifestations of undecidability in the translations of an extract from Henri Meschonnic’s Traduire au XXIe siècle (2008). Deliberately selected because of its direct resonance with the notion of undecidability, Meschonnic’s comment claims that, except for automated translations, no practice of translation is possible without reflexive decision-making (Meschonnic 2008: 60). The observations discussed in this article challenge clear-cut distinctions between human and automated translations by showing that programmability and undecidability are features shared by both humans and machines in translation. As such, this study suggests that uncertainty, as a pre-condition of ethical decision-making, must be fostered within mechanical translations themselves, and that in-depth training in translation technology is necessary for a responsible use of machine translation

Reflexive Translation Studies

In the past decades, translation studies have increasingly focused on the ethical dimension of translational activity, with an emphasis on reflexivity to assert the role of the researcher in highlighting issues of visibility, creativity and ethics. In Reflexive Translation Studies, Silvia Kadiu investigates the viability of theories that seek to empower translation by making visible its transformative dimension; for example, by championing the visibility of the translating subject, the translator’s right to creativity, the supremacy of human translation or an autonomous study of translation. Inspired by Derrida’s deconstructive thinking, Kadiu presents practical ways of challenging theories that argue reflexivity is the only way of developing an ethical translation. She questions the capacity of reflexivity to counteract the power relations at play in translation (between minor and dominant languages, for example) and problematises affirmative claims about (self-)knowledge by using translation itself as a process of critical reflection