Exorcising Translation, a new volume in Bloomsbury's Literatures, Cultures, Translation series, makes critical contributions to translation as well as to comparative and postcolonial literary studies. The hot-button issue of Eurocentrism in translation studies has roiled the discipline in the past few years, with critiques followed by defenses and defenses followed by enhanced critiques. Douglas Robinson identifies Eurocentrism in translation studies as what Sakai Naoki calls a "civilizational spell." Exorcising Translation tracks two translation histories. In the first, moving from Friedrich Nietzsche to Harold Bloom, we find ourselves caught, trapped, cursed, haunted by the spell. In the second, focused on English translations and translators of Chinese literature, Robinson explores accusations against American translators not only for their inadequate (or even totally absent) knowledge of Chinese and Daoism, but for their Americanness, their trappedness in individualistic and secular Western thought. A closer look at that history shows that Western thought and Chinese thought are mutually shaped in fascinating ways. Exorcising Translation presents a major re-envisioning of translation studies, and indeed the literary relationship between East and West, by a pioneering scholar in the field.

This book celebrates experimental translation, taking a series of exploratory looks at the hypercyborg translator, the collage translator, the smuggler translator, and the heteronymous translator. The idea isn't to legislate traditional translations out of existence, or to "win" some kind of literary competition with the source text, but an exuberant participation in literary creativity. Turns out there are other things you can do with a great written work, and there is considerable pleasure to be had from both the doing and the reading of such things. This book will be of interest to literary translation studies researchers, as well as scholars and practitioners of experimental creative writing and avant-garde art, postgraduate translation students and professional (literary) translators.

The book ranges widely through eight different keywords in current Translation Studies: Agency, Difference (the ethics of), Eurocentrism (attitudes toward), Hermeneutics, Language, Norms, Rhetoric, and World Literature. It features an expanded behavioral-economic exploration of attitudes of and toward Masculine and Feminine Econs, Masculine and Feminine Humans, and Queer Humans. It draws heavily on crip-queer disability studies, especially autists/allists as translators. It features literary case studies that complicate the main arguments in each keyword.

Priming Translation combines an expanded cognitive (including social and affective) theory of translation with a practical research guide for empirical scholars Each section in the book is labeled either in italics as an "Empirical Research Review," "Theory," or "Anecdote," or in bold as "Ideas for Research." It draws on the latest findings in social and affective neuroscience (Michael Gazzaniga, Joseph LeDoux) It extends Gazzaniga's neuroscientific theory of the Left-Brain Interpreter into the realms of the Right-Brain Interpreter and the Collective Full-Brain Interpreter It includes pedagogical as well as literary explorations of its theoretical and empirical suggestions

This is the first full commentary on Walter Benjamin's "The Task of the Translator,". the essay is very popular and widely taught at p/g level, but is also cryptic and misunderstood, hence the need for this detailed and nuanced treatment. It is also the only commentary on Benjamin's essay at book or article length ever to experiment with the mode of translating that he himself championed.

This is the first full commentary on Walter Benjamin's "The Task of the Translator,". the essay is very popular and widely taught at p/g level, but is also cryptic and misunderstood, hence the need for this detailed and nuanced treatment. It is also the only commentary on Benjamin's essay at book or article length ever to experiment with the mode of translating that he himself championed.

One of the most exciting theories to emerge from cognitive science research over the past few decades has been Douglas Hofstadter's notion of "strange loops," from Goedel, Escher, Bach (1979). Hofstadter is also an active literary translator who has written about translation, perhaps most notably in his 1997 book Le Ton Beau de Marot, where he draws on his cognitive science research. And yet he has never considered the possibility that translation might itself be a strange loop. In this book Douglas Robinson puts Hofstadter's strange-loops theory into dialogue with a series of definitive theories of translation, in the process showing just how cognitively and affectively complex an activity translation actually is.

This book defines "translationality" by weaving a number of sub- and interdisciplinary interests through the medical humanities: medicine in literature, the translational history of medical literature, a medical (neuroscience) approach to literary translation and translational hermeneutics, and a humanities (phenomenological/performative) approach to translational medicine. It consists of three long essays: the first on the traditional medicine-in-literature side of the medical humanities, with a close look at a recent novel built around the Capgras delusion and other neurological misidentification disorders; the second beginning with the traditional history-of-medicine side of the medical humanities, but segueing into literary history, translation history, and translation theory; the third on the social neuroscience of translational hermeneutics. The conclusion links the discussion up with a humanistic (performative/phenomenological) take on translational medicine.

The Dao of Translation sets up an East-West dialogue on the nature of language and translation, and specifically on the "unknown forces" that shape the act of translation. To that end it mobilizes two radically different readings of the Daodejing (formerly romanized as the Tao Te Ching): the traditional "mystical" reading according to which the Dao is a mysterious force that cannot be known, and a more recent reading put forward by Sinologists Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall, to the effect that the Dao is simply the way things happen. Key to Ames and Hall's reading is that what makes the Dao seem both powerful and mysterious is that it channels habit into action-or what the author calls social ecologies, or icoses. The author puts Daoism (and ancient Confucianism) into dialogue with nineteenth-century Western theorists of the sign, Charles Sanders Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure (and their followers), in order to develop an "icotic" understanding of the tensions between habit and surprise in the activity of translating. The Dao of Translation will interest linguists and translation scholars. This book will also engage researchers of ancient Chinese philosophy and provide Western scholars with a thought-provoking cross-examination of Eastern and Western perspectives.

Arising from cultural anthropology in the late 1980s and early 1990s, postcolonial translation theory is based on the observation that translation has often served as an important channel of empire. Douglas Robinson begins with a general presentation of postcolonial theory, examines current theories of the power differentials that control what gets translated and how, and traces the historical development of postcolonial thought about translation. He also explores the negative and positive impact of translation in the postcolonial context, reviewing various critiques of postcolonial translation theory and providing a glossary of key words. The result is a clear and useful guide to some of the most complex and critical issues in contemporary translation studies.

This book presents an East-West dialogue of leading translation scholars responding to and developing Martha Cheung's "pushing-hands" method of translation studies. Pushing-hands was an idea Martha began exploring in the last four years of her life, and only had time to publish at article length in 2012. The concept of pushing-hands suggests a promising line of inquiry into the problem of conflict in translation. Pushing-hands opens a new vista for translation scholars to understand and explain how to develop an awareness of non-confrontational, alternative ways to handle translation problems or problems related to translation activities that are likely to give rise to tension and conflict. The book is a timely contribution to celebrate Martha's work and also to move the conversation forward. Despite being somewhat tentative and experimental, it probes into how to enable and develop dynamic interaction between and reciprocal determinism of different hands involved in the process of translation.

Douglas Robinson offers the most comprehensive collection of translation theory readings available to date, from the Histories of Herodotus in the mid-fifth century before our era to the end of the nineteenth century. The result is a startling panoply of thinking about translation across the centuries, covering such topics as the best type of translator, problems of translating sacred texts, translation and language teaching, translation as rhetoric, translation and empire, and translation and gender. This pioneering anthology contains 124 texts by 90 authors, 9 of them women. Sixteen texts by 4 authors appear here for the first time in English translation; 17 texts by 9 authors appear in completely new translations. Every entry is provided with a bibliographical headnote and footnotes. Intended for classroom use in History of Translation Theory, History of Rhetoric or History of Western Thought courses, this anthology will also prove useful to scholars of translation and those interested in the intellectual history of the West.

The Dao of Translation sets up an East-West dialogue on the nature of language and translation, and specifically on the "unknown forces" that shape the act of translation. To that end it mobilizes two radically different readings of the Daodejing (formerly romanized as the Tao Te Ching): the traditional "mystical" reading according to which the Dao is a mysterious force that cannot be known, and a more recent reading put forward by Sinologists Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall, to the effect that the Dao is simply the way things happen. Key to Ames and Hall's reading is that what makes the Dao seem both powerful and mysterious is that it channels habit into action-or what the author calls social ecologies, or icoses. The author puts Daoism (and ancient Confucianism) into dialogue with nineteenth-century Western theorists of the sign, Charles Sanders Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure (and their followers), in order to develop an "icotic" understanding of the tensions between habit and surprise in the activity of translating. The Dao of Translation will interest linguists and translation scholars. This book will also engage researchers of ancient Chinese philosophy and provide Western scholars with a thought-provoking cross-examination of Eastern and Western perspectives.

In this “thought-provoking blend of history, biography, women’s studies, and travelogue� (Library Journal) Mia Kankimäki recounts her enchanting travels in Japan, Kenya, and Italy while retracing the steps of ten remarkable female pioneers from history. What can a forty-something childless woman do? Bored with her life and feeling stuck, Mia Kankimäki leaves her job, sells her apartment, and decides to travel the world, following the paths of the female explorers and artists from history who have long inspired her. She flies to Tanzania and then to Kenya to see where Karen Blixen—of Out of Africa fame—lived in the 1920s. In Japan, Mia attempts to cure her depression while researching Yayoi Kusama, the contemporary artist who has voluntarily lived in a psychiatric hospital for decades. In Italy, Mia spends her days looking for the works of forgotten Renaissance women painters of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and finally finds her heroines in the portraits of Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, and Atremisia Gentileschi. If these women could make it in the world hundreds of years ago, why can’t Mia? The Women I Think About at Night is “an astute, entertaining…[and] insightful� (Publishers Weekly) exploration of the lost women adventurers of history who defied expectations in order to see—and change—the world.

This user-friendly introduction to a new 'performative' methodology in linguistic pragmatics breaks away from the traditional approach which understands language as a machine, operating behind the scenes without human intent. Drawing on a wide spectrum of research and theory from the past thirty years in particular, Douglas Robinson presents a combination of 'action-oriented approaches' from sources such as J.L. Austin, H. Paul Grice, Harold Garfinkel and Erving Goffman. the first time and expands them to present a new performative paradigm. Paying particular attention to language as drama, the group regulation of language use, individual resistance to these regulatory pressures and nonverbal communication, the work also explains groundbreaking concepts and analytical models, most notably 'conversational invocature' covering allusion and anticipatory completion. chapter, this book will be an extremely useful resource to students and teachers on a variety of courses, including linguistic pragmatics, sociolinguistics and interpersonal communication.

J. L. Austin famously distinguished between 'constative' utterances that convey information and 'performative' utterances that perform actions. In this groundbreaking new book, Douglas Robinson argues that Austin's distinction can be used to understand linguistic methodologies.
Robinson uses Austin's model to introduce a new distinction between 'constative' and 'performative' linguistics. Constative linguistics, Robinson suggests, includes methodologies aimed at 'freezing' language as an abstract sign system cut off from the use of language in actual speech situations. Performative linguistics, on the other hand, covers methodologies aimed at exploring how language gets used or 'performed' in those speech situations. Robinson then tests his hypothesis on the act of translation. Constative linguists of translation always face the same problem: that the translator is always another utterer of the same utterance. In his book Robinson shows that this particular problem is solved when translation is seen as a performative utterance.
Drawing on a range of language scholars and theorists including Grice, Peirce, Bakhtin, Wittgenstein, Burke and Derrida, Performative Linguistics consolidates the many disparate action-approaches to language into a single coherent new paradigm for the study of language as speech act, as performance - as doing things with words.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203222857

In this book, Douglas Robinson introduces a new distinction between 'constative' and 'performative' linguistics, arguing that Austin's distinction can be used to understand linguistic methodologies. Constative linguistics, Robinson suggests, includes methodologies aimed at 'freezing' language as an abstract sign system, while performative linguistics explores how language is used or 'performed' in those speech situations. Robinson then tests his hypothesis on the act of translation.
Drawing on a range of language scholars and theorists, Performative Linguistics consolidates the many disparate action-approaches to language into a new paradigm for the study of language.

Newspaper columnist, sports writer, and author of short stories, Ring Lardner was one of the most popular personalities of the early twentieth century. Douglas Robinson combines careful psychological and cultural analysis to present an important reappraisal of this critically neglected American author. Robinson's study offers an exploration of Lardner's life and work. He presents a long, in-depth reading of a single short story, "Who Dealt?", as well as a briefer look at several others. He explores the contradictions of Lardner's patriarchal masculinity - how such a dour, sexist alcoholic who hated humor and bad grammar could have created such a rich body of minoritarian writing, steeped in the emergent voices of women and the lower middle class - and the social functions served by Lardner's writing in twentieth-century America. Ring Lardner and the Other is so titled because it is also an investigation of the "Other", in an expanded Lacanian sense: the speaking of various unconscious voices (mother and father and child, culture and anarchy, majority and minority) through literary characters and their authors and readers. Looking at this element in Lardner's work, Robinson exfoliates Lacan's germinal concept of the Other by interweaving it with a series of theoretical formulations by Bateson, Deleuze and Guattari, and others. Steeped in masculine psychology and the emancipatory agenda of the profeminist men's movement, the book also engages in dialogue with feminist voices and features in the Appendix an essay by Ellen Gardiner. The first postmodern reading of Ring Lardner, this study emphasizes the complexity and diversity of the voices upon which Lardner drew in his writing. Thus, inaddition to the expected literary-critical readership, it will interest Americanists concerned with modernism, with vernacular humor, and with the Chicago school, as well as literary theorists interested in integrating psychoanalytic with cultural criticism.

This book presents an East-West dialogue of leading translation scholars responding to and developing Martha Cheung's "pushing-hands" method of translation studies. Pushing-hands was an idea Martha began exploring in the last four years of her life, and only had time to publish at article length in 2012. The concept of pushing-hands suggests a promising line of inquiry into the problem of conflict in translation. Pushing-hands opens a new vista for translation scholars to understand and explain how to develop an awareness of non-confrontational, alternative ways to handle translation problems or problems related to translation activities that are likely to give rise to tension and conflict. The book is a timely contribution to celebrate Martha's work and also to move the conversation forward. Despite being somewhat tentative and experimental, it probes into how to enable and develop dynamic interaction between and reciprocal determinism of different hands involved in the process of translation.

Arising from cultural anthropology in the late 1980s and early 1990s, postcolonial translation theory is based on the observation that translation has often served as an important channel of empire. Douglas Robinson begins with a general presentation of postcolonial theory, examines current theories of the power differentials that control what gets translated and how, and traces the historical development of postcolonial thought about translation. He also explores the negative and positive impact of translation in the postcolonial context, reviewing various critiques of postcolonial translation theory and providing a glossary of key words. The result is a clear and useful guide to some of the most complex and critical issues in contemporary translation studies.

This book defines "translationality" by weaving a number of sub- and interdisciplinary interests through the medical humanities: medicine in literature, the translational history of medical literature, a medical (neuroscience) approach to literary translation and translational hermeneutics, and a humanities (phenomenological/performative) approach to translational medicine. It consists of three long essays: the first on the traditional medicine-in-literature side of the medical humanities, with a close look at a recent novel built around the Capgras delusion and other neurological misidentification disorders; the second beginning with the traditional history-of-medicine side of the medical humanities, but segueing into literary history, translation history, and translation theory; the third on the social neuroscience of translational hermeneutics. The conclusion links the discussion up with a humanistic (performative/phenomenological) take on translational medicine.

This book offers an introduction for Translation Studies (TS) scholars to Critical Translation Studies (CTS), a cultural-studies approach to the study of translation spearheaded by Sakai Naoki and Lydia H. Liu, with an implicit focus on translation as a social practice shaped by power relations in society. The central claim in CTS is that translators help condition what TS scholars take to be the primal scene of translation: two languages, two language communities, with the translator as mediator. According to Sakai, intralingual translation is primal: we are all foreigners to each other, making every address to another "heterolingual", thus a form of translation; and it is the order that these acts of translation bring to communication that begins to generate the "two separate languages" scenario. CTS is dedicated to the historicization of the social relations that create that scenario. In three sets of "Critical Theses on Translation," the book outlines and explains (and partly critiques) the CTS approach; in five interspersed chapters, the book delves more deeply into CTS, with an eye to making it do work that will be useful to TS scholars.

Douglas Robinson offers the most comprehensive collection of translation theory readings available to date, from the Histories of Herodotus in the mid-fifth century before our era to the end of the nineteenth century. The result is a startling panoply of thinking about translation across the centuries, covering such topics as the best type of translator, problems of translating sacred texts, translation and language teaching, translation as rhetoric, translation and empire, and translation and gender. This pioneering anthology contains 124 texts by 90 authors, 9 of them women. Sixteen texts by 4 authors appear here for the first time in English translation; 17 texts by 9 authors appear in completely new translations. Every entry is provided with a bibliographical headnote and footnotes. Intended for classroom use in History of Translation Theory, History of Rhetoric or History of Western Thought courses, this anthology will also prove useful to scholars of translation and those interested in the intellectual history of the West.

Fusing theory with advice and information about the practicalities of translating, Becoming a Translator is the essential resource for novice and practicing translators. The book explains how the market works, helps translators learn how to translate faster and more accurately, as well as providing invaluable advice and tips about how to deal with potential problems, such as stress. The fourth edition has been revised and updated throughout, offering: a whole new chapter on multimedia translation, with a discussion of the move from "intersemiotic translation" to "audiovisual translation," "media access" and "accessibility studies" new sections on cognitive translation studies, translation technology, online translator communities, crowd-sourced translation, and online ethnography "tweetstorms" capturing the best advice from top industry professionals on Twitter student voices, especially from Greater China Including suggestions for discussion, activities, and hints for the teaching of translation, and drawing on detailed advice from top translation professionals, the fourth edition of Becoming a Translator remains invaluable for students and teachers of Translation Studies, as well as those working in the field of translation.