1st Edition

Untranslatability Interdisciplinary Perspectives

236 Pages
by Routledge

236 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

236 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This volume is the first of its kind to explore the notion of untranslatability from a wide variety of interdisciplinary perspectives and its implications within the broader context of translation studies. Featuring contributions from both leading authorities and emerging scholars in the field, the book looks to go beyond traditional comparisons of target texts and their sources to more... Read more

Introduction



Duncan Large, Motoko Akashi, Wanda Józwikowska and Emily Rose



Part I: Theory and Philosophy



1. Humboldt, Translation and the Dictionary of Untranslatables



Barbara Cassin



2. Untranslatability, Entanglement and Understanding



Theo Hermans



3. On the (Im)possibility of Untranslatability



Kirsten Malmkjær



4. The Untranslatable in Philosophy



Duncan Large



5. Against the "Un-" in Untranslatability: On the Obsession with Problems, Negativity and Uncertainty



Klaus Mundt



6. The Affront of Untranslatability: Ten Scenarios



David Gramling



Part II: Poetry and Prose



7. Translation and Mysticism: Demanding the Impossible?



Philip Wilson



8. Remembered Hills: Tonal Memory in English Translations of Chinese Regulated Verse Simon Everett



9. "An English that is Sometimes Strangely Interesting": Ciaran Carson Mining Linguistic Resources Using Translation



Helen Gibson



10. Surmounting the "Insurmountable" Challenges of Translating a Transgender Memoir Emily Rose



11. Is ‘Fajront’ in Sarajevo the Same as ‘Closing Time’ Elsewhere? On the Translatability of the Yugoslav Age of Rock and Roll into English



Andrea Stojilkov



12. Resistance to Translation as Cultural Untranslatability: Inter-War Polish-Jewish Fiction in English



Wanda Józwikowska



Envoi: Beyond Literature



13. Untranslatability in Practice: Challenges to Translation and Interpreting



Joanna Drugan

Biography

Duncan Large is Professor of European Literature and Translation at the University of East Anglia, and Academic Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation. His philosophy translations are published by OUP and Continuum; he is also joint General Editor of The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche.





Motoko Akashi completed her MA in Applied Translation Studies at the University of East Anglia in 2013 and is currently completing a PhD in Translation Studies there. Her research focuses on the phenomenon of celebrity translators, and asks how their existence problematises our understanding of translator visibility.





Wanda Józwikowska completed her PhD in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia in 2016, with a dissertation on "Polish-Jewish Fiction Before the Second World War: A Testing Ground for Polysystem Theory." She is currently working for SDI Media, a Warsaw-based localising company.





Emily Rose finished her PhD in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia in 2018. Her thesis explores the translation of trans identity from English, French and Spanish. Her work has been included in Queer in Translation (Routledge, 2017) and a special issue of Transgender Studies Quarterly (November 2016).

"However diverse its contributions, the book’s quality is consistent, singular and assured. While many collections aim for such standards, its diversity never feels forced, nor does the topic ever feel stretched beyond its scope of relevance. All the contributions are referring and responding to Apter and Cassin’s work, nevertheless in ways that are diverse and original each time."

- Byron Taylor, University College London, Oxford Comparative Criticism & Translation