scholarly journals Discursive Mediation in Translation: Representation of the Harry Wu topic in the Chinese translations of Living History

2010 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 684-703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Wang ◽  
Chunshen Zhu
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Living History ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
Power Struggle ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Text Production ◽  
Selection Stage ◽  
Translation Representation

Abstract This paper describes how mediation in translation is realized by means of inclusion and exclusion of information at the selection stage and discursive deviations at the presentation stage in the process of target text production. It discusses the effect of mediation in relation to two types of the target text recipients, one is termed professional readers representing the censoring authorities and the other the intended reading public, and their respective socio-cultural backgrounds. Our argument in this paper is that an investigation of translation from the perspective of mediation helps reveal the power struggle underlying the translation process. The detailed description of the textual realization of mediation, in particular, helps create an awareness of the various ways the target text producer may take to mediate the translation process to achieve a compromise between the author’s interests and the professional readers’ political concerns so as to get the translation published.

Intrusões: Guimarães Rosa-Bogotá Notas para uma tradução de “Páramo”

1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bairon Oswaldo Vélez
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
The Other ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Original Version ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Spanish Translation ◽  
Translation Strategy ◽  
Mountain Sickness

This paper comments on the first Spanish translation of João Guimarães Rosa's short story "Páramo", which narrates the exile of a Brazilian lost with mountain sickness in a cold and hostile Bogotá. This translation is briefly explained in the following pages, giving special emphasis to some prominent features of the original version, in addition to the cultural context, critical and theoretical readings and the translation strategy evident in the translator‘s intervention. Finally, it is made clear how a certain perspective of the other – present in the original version as well – passes through the translation process and indicates the conditions of its presentation in the target language. The original article is in Portuguese.

scholarly journals The Biological Basis of Mathematical Beauty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Semir Zeki ◽  
Oliver Y. Chén ◽  
John Paul Romaya
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Mathematical Culture ◽  
Extensive Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Experiences ◽  
Biological Basis ◽  
Mathematical Beauty ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Biological Category

AbstractThrough our past studies of the neurobiology of beauty, we have come to divide aesthetic experiences into two broad categories: biological and artifactual. The aesthetic experience of biological beauty is dictated by inherited brain concepts, which are resistant to change even in spite of extensive experience. The experience of artifactual beauty on the other hand is determined by post-natally acquired concepts, which are modifiable throughout life by exposure to different experiences (Zeki, 2009). Hence, in terms of aesthetic rating, biological beauty (in which we include the experience of beautiful faces or human bodies) is characterized by less variability between individuals belonging to different ethnic origins and cultural backgrounds or the same individual at different times. Artifactual beauty (in which we include the aesthetic experience of human artifacts such as buildings and cars) is characterized by greater variability between individuals belonging to different ethnic and cultural groupings and by the same individual at different times. In this paper, we present results to show that the experience of mathematical beauty (Zeki et al 2014), even though it constitutes an extreme example of beauty that is dependent upon (mathematical) culture and learning, belongs to the biological category and obeys one of its characteristics, namely a lesser variability in terms of the aesthetic ratings given to mathematical formulae experienced as beautiful.

Una aproximación empírica a la ­clasificación y traducción de las figuras retóricas en la publicidad

Babel ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Calzada Perez
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
New Rhetoric ◽  
Rhetorical Figures ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The One

Since ancient times the suasive value of rhetorical figures has been vastly studied. In fact, Aristotle himself argued that the aim of rhetoric was not just to persuade but to find the best methods of persuasion (Aristotle, Retorica, ed. 1990). These methods have been frequently used in advertising, where they are employed to capture the consumer’s attention and, consequently, to sell the advertised product. However (despite the frequent appearance of rhetorical figures in advertising), there is a scarcity of studies on the role of these persuasive mechanisms in the translation of publicity. Bearing upon the “new rhetoric”, the present paper has a twofold purpose. On the one hand, it aims to import a clear taxonomy of rhetorical figures from advertising into translation studies and subsequently to illustrate the transfer of these figures. On the other hand, it analyses the behaviour of rhetorical figures in the translation process by means of an empirical investigation whose goal it is to further categorise them in a systematic and rational way. Drawing upon the seminal work of McQuarrie and his collaborators, the paper performs a quantitative analysis of a corpus of 120 matching pairs consisting of English advertisements and their existing Spanish counterparts. Results evidence that a great majority of rhetorical figures are “translated”, thus confirming the globalising tendencies of advertising.

Expanding dialogical analysis across (sub-)cultural backgrounds

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mogens Jensen ◽  
Danilo S Guimarães
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Psychological Practice ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Communication Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theoretical View

This paper aims to develop a diagram as a tool for analysing empirical data concerning the issue of difference of subcultural backgrounds and worldviews in the dialogue and its implications to the psychological practice in social work. From a theoretical view on dialogical and cultural psychology, we will trace the roots of selected contemporary dialogical and social representation theories and elaborate on it how distinct subcultures of interlocutors can produce misunderstandings when the professional interprets the utterance of the other. Focusing the social pedagogic practice, we will approach dialogues between people that belong to different cultural contexts as instances of the challenges in the communication, i.e. pedagogues and adolescents, doctors and patients, people belonging to different societies, etc. We argue that the theoretical approach presented and discussed here is part of a general understanding of communication processes, showing that despite mutual understanding will never be fully achieved in a dialogical situation, the possibility of sharing meanings and senses depends on the effort to take into consideration the worldview of the other in the background of what is presently uttered.

Pointing, Rainbows, and the Archaeology of Mind

Anthropos ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 116 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-162
Author(s):  
Robert Blust
Keyword(s):  
Index Finger ◽  
The Other ◽  
Geographical Region ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Normal Human ◽  
Other World

For over a century anthropologists and folklorists have sporadically recorded a belief that one should not point at a rainbow, lest the offending finger become permanently bent, rot, be supernaturally severed, fall off, etc. In each case the belief was reported for a particular geographical region without apparent awareness of its presence elsewhere, and in no case was an explanation for this curious idea proposed. This paper documents what is called the “Rainbow Taboo” as a global phenomenon, found among peoples of quite varied cultural backgrounds, and it argues that the universality of the belief is a product of the interaction of two independent cognitive elements: an apparently innate sense that the rainbow is associated with the “other world,” and, secondly, a similar sense that pointing with the index finger is aggressive, and should not be used either in normal human interactions or more particularly against the supernatural.

with the giraffe is not a matter of coming to terms with a new experience, so much as an exercise in matching Heliodoros’ delib­ erately eccentric formulations with what is already known about giraffes.1 Knowledge about giraffes in late antiquity will have derived from autopsy in only a very few cases, although exotic animals were regularly exhibited in the arena. However, there exist a number of descriptions in classical authors which confirm that a literate reading public could be counted upon to have at least second-hand information about the animal.2 What all this means is that the description of the giraffe func­ tions on a second level as a riddle aimed at the reader. The infor­ mation it releases at such a measured pace serves as a series of clues from which the animal can be identified, although Heliodoros does not observe the modern protocol in such games of making the clues progressively easier.3 The answer to the riddle of course is the name of the creature: the rules of riddling entail both that the answer should be postponed until all the clues have been supplied and that it must be properly given, even when it has become perfectly obvious. So although the Greek word kamilopar-dalis is introduced in a way formally consistent with the dramatic frame of the narrative (i.e., it is supplied by people within the story rather than by authorial statement), it functions to confirm to the reader that this passage truly was a riddle, and that the riddle is now over. Heliodoros has taken some pains to observe the proprieties of realism here. The use of an ignorant audience within the fiction allows the riddle to be accommodated without damage to dramatic illusion. Nevertheless, once the riddle is recognized as such it becomes a game played directly between author and reader, bypassing the dramatic situation and even the narrative structure. Perhaps we can think of two Heliodoroi, first the author, a real man sitting in a room somewhere writing this text, and second the narrating voice in the text, which is just as much part of the fiction as the events it narrates. The narrator maintains the dramatic realism, but the author grimaces over his shoulder at the reader, playing with the etymology of the word kamelopardalis in a way which is not meaningful for the Ethiopian-speaking spectators. Similarly the reader operates on two planes: one addressed by the narrator, responding to events with the immediacy of real experi­ ence, the other bookishly responding to the author’s textual game,

2014 ◽  
pp. 319-319
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
Exotic Animals

The institutional basis of anglophone western centrality

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 180-188
Author(s):  
Afonso de Albuquerque
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Global Impact ◽  
European Universities ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Personal Contribution ◽  
The One ◽  
Different Parts

Non-western scholars usually face a dilemma if they want to pursue an international scholarly career: On the one hand, mastering western media theories is mandatory for taking part in international forums and exchanging experiences with people from different parts of the world; on the other hand, these theories are, in many aspects, foreign to their cultural backgrounds and, in many cases, seem inadequate for describing their own societies. My personal contribution to the debate arises from the fact that, although having some experience in participating in Anglophonic communication meetings and publishing in international academic vehicles, I never had first-hand experience, either as a student or as a professor, in American or European universities. In consequence, I was exposed to Western Anglophonic theories without being socialized in a scholarly environment in which they are taken as ‘natural’. Based on this experience, I contend that the global impact of western theories cannot be explained only by their intrinsic merits, but as the result of the socialization of scholars from all parts on the world in western educational institutions, and the networks built around them.

Problems in Translating Culture: The Translated Titles of Fusheng Liuji1

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Kwong
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Linguistic Expression ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
European Languages ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Aesthetic Concepts

Translating culture poses fundamental problems of perception and conception far deeper than matters of linguistic expression. This essay explores some of these problems by examining Fusheng liuji (Six Records of a Floating Life), a Chinese autobiographical text that has been translated into fourteen Asian and European languages. Even without going into the details of the rendered versions, one can notice various forms of intercultural mediation and reshaping in the translated titles and added subtitles. At one end is direct, partly helpless substitution: lexically flawless “float” cannot encompass the rich matrix of philosophical connotations and artistic resonances of fu in the source culture. At the other end is active reshaping: recasting, addition and omission based on interpretive (mis)reading, including a reduction of imagistic language into abstract concept (e.g., fu becomes “fleeting”). Through examining 17 renditions of the title of Fusheng liuji, this essay offers a case study that helps to cast light on the unavoidable factor of intercultural mediation in the translation process, with special focus on the translation of philosophical and aesthetic concepts. Some forms of mediation carry more significant effects than others, and there may be differences in verbal resources and orientations in various languages worthy of notice.

Animating the Spirited

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Fine Art ◽  
World Health ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Theory To Practice ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

This volume of essays focuses on the meanings of the spirited and its navigation in the diverse, dynamic, and polarized creative environment of the 21st century. The animation medium and its related subjects including fine art, comics, children literature, folklore, religion, and philosophy lead inter-disciplinary discussions, ranging from theory to practice, within the framework of an ever-changing media landscape and social-cultural-political environment. Working on different continents and coming from varying cultural backgrounds, the contributors are like-minded scholars, artists, curators, and educators demonstrating the insights of the spirited and how the spirited-oriented sub-themes, journeys and transformations are exemplified, examined, and interpreted in the context of visual representations. The publication also aims to appeal to a broader reading public interested in the ever expanding dimensions of mental health, culture, and related expressions of human living and interactions. In 2017, the theme of World Health Day (April 7) was mental health, and the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the year-long campaign slogan as “let’s talk”. As humans, getting back in touch with our spirited and spiritual sides is a craving many are unable to express or voice. The essays discussed in this collection speak to, and provoke a desired connection with something more meaningful beyond our material world. While the book recognizes and acknowledges the particularities of the spirited across cultures, it also highlights its universality, demonstrating how it is being studied, researched, comprehended, expressed, and consumed in various parts of the world in both similar and at once unique ways.

Modality-specific auditory and visual temporal processing deficits

2002 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvador Soto-Faraco ◽  
Charles Spence
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Blink ◽  
Temporal Processing ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Visual Presentation ◽  
Attentional Selection ◽  
The Other ◽  
Repetition Blindness ◽  
Presentation Procedure ◽  
Selection Stage ◽  
Lag 1 Sparing

We studied the attentional blink (AB) and the repetition blindness (RB) effects using an audio-visual presentation procedure designed to overcome several potential methodological confounds in previous cross-modal research. In Experiment 1, two target digits were embedded amongst letter distractors in two concurrent streams (one visual and the other auditory) presented from the same spatial location. Targets appeared in either modality unpredictably at different temporal lags, and the participants’ task was to recall the digits at the end of the trial. We evaluated both AB and RB for pairs of targets presented in either the same or different modalities. Under these conditions both AB and RB were observed in vision, AB but not RB was observed in audition, and there was no evidence of AB or RB cross-modally from audition to vision or vice versa. In Experiment 2, we further investigated the AB by including Lag 1 items and observed Lag 1 sparing, thus ruling out the possibility that the observed effects were due to perceptual and/or conceptual masking. Our results support a distinction between a modality-specific interference at the attentional selection stage and a modality-independent interference at later processing stages. They also provide a new dissociation between the AB and RB.

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