Cover not available

Article published In: Target
Vol. 11:2 (1999) ► pp.201–222

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Implications of Research into Translator Invisibility

 | Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
Published online: 24 March 2000
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.11.2.02hat
Abstract
Espousal of the cultural model in translation studies has been one of the more exciting developments in recent years. In this paper, an influential ap-proach representing this trend (outlined in . 1995. The Translator’s Invisibility. London: Routledge.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar and related publications) is assessed and its many strengths indicated. Also discussed are issues which have been seen as weaknesses in the model (e.g. the minimal reliance on textual evidence and the lack of a consistent methodology). A number of proposals, primarily informed by critical linguistics and contrastive rhetoric, are put forward in an attempt to fill some of the gaps. English and Arabic provide the language pair for a set of analytic procedures which focus on the teaching of literary translation.
Résumé
Les études de traduction ont récemment mis en valeur l’importance du modèle culturel. Ce dernier (exposé e.a. par . 1995. The Translator’s Invisibility. London: Routledge.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) fait l’objet du présent article: ses nombreuses qualités sont indiquées, de même que d’autres aspects considérés comme des faiblesses (notamment l’appui minimal sur des données textuelles et l’absence de méthodologie cohérente). Un certain nombre de propositions surtout fondées sur la linguistique et la rhétorique contrastive servent à remplir certaines des lacunes évoquées. L’anglais et l’arabe forment la paire linguistique au départ d’une analyse qui se concentre sur l’enseignement de la traduction littéraire.
Article outline
  • What Kind of Linguistics?
  • Cultural Studies: The Manifesto Briefly Assessed
  • Critical Translation Studies
  • Socio-Textual Practices
  • The Case of Literature
  • Yet Another Hypothesis
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
References (34)
References
Al-Hakeem, Tawfiq. 1973. The Sultan’s Dilemma, tr. Dennis Johnson-Davies in a collection entitled Fate of a Cockroach. London: Heinemann Educational.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1978. The Sultan’s Dilemma, tr. Mohammed Badawi. Cairo: The American University of Cairo Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Mona. 1996. “Linguistics and Cultural Studies: Complementary or Competing Paradigms in Translation Studies?” Angelica Lauer, Heidrun Gerzymisch-Arbogast, Johann Haller and Erich Steiner, eds. Übersetzungswissenschaft im Umbruch: Festschrift für Wolfram Wilss zum 70. Geburtstag. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 1996. 9–19.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beaugrande, Robert de. 1978. Factors in a Theory of Poetic Translating. Assen: van Gorcum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beaugrande, Robert de and Wolfgang Dressier. 1981. Introduction to Textlinguistics. London: Longman. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bruce, Donald. 1994. “Translating the Commune: Cultural Politics and the Historical Specificity of the Anarchist Text”. TTR VII: 1. 47–76.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1987. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman. 1989. Language and Power. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fawcett, Peter. 1995. “Translation and Power Play”. The Translator 1:2. 177–192.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fowler, Roger, Bob Hodge, Gunther Kress and Tony Trew. 1979. Language and Control. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gregory, Michael. 1980. “Perspectives on Translation from the Firthian Tradition”. Meta 25:4. 455–466.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gregory, Michael and Susanne Carroll. 1978. Language and Situation: Language Varieties and Their Social Contexts. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K. 1978. Language as a Social Semiotic. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K. and R. Hasan. 1989. Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in Social-Semiotic Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hatim, Basil. 1997. Communication Across Cultures: Translation Theory and Contrastive Text Linguistics. Exeter: University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. forthcoming 1. Teaching and Researching Translation and Interpreting. London: Longman.
. forthcoming 2. “A Socio-Textual Definition of Culture from a Translation Perspective”. Diraasaat (University of Jordan).
Hatim, Basil and Ian Mason. 1990. Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. The Translator as Communicator. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
House, Juliane. 1977. “A Model for Assessing Translation Quality”. Meta 22:2. 103–109.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnston, Barbara. 1990. “Orality and Discourse Structure in Modern Standard Arabic”. Mushira Eid, ed. Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics I. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1990. 215–233.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaplan, Robert. 1966. “Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-Cultural Education”. Language Learning 16/1 and 16/2. 1–20.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther. 1989. Linguistic Processes in Socio-Cultural Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther and Robert Hodge. 1979. Language as Ideology. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mahfouz, Naguib. 1956. Bayn al-Qasrayn. Cairo. (Translated as Palace Walk by W.M. Hutchins and O.E. Kenny. New York: Anchor Books, 1990.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, J.R. 1985. Factual Writing. Melbourne: Deakin University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Munif, Abdul Rahman. 1973. Al-Ashjar wa Ightiyal al-Shaykh Marzouq. (An extract entitled “The Trees” appeared in Modern Arab Short Stories. London: The Iraqi Cultural Centre, 1980.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reiß, Katharina. 1971. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Übersetzungskritik: Kategorien und Kriterien für eine sachgerechte Beurteilung von Übersetzungen. München: Max Hueber.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon. 1980. In Search of a Theory of Translation. Tel Aviv: The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence, ed. 1992. Rethinking Translation: Discourse, Subjectivity, Ideology. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. The Translator’s Invisibility. London: Routledge.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1996. “Translation, Heterogeneity, Linguistics”. TTR IX:1. 91–115.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1998. “American Tradition”. Mona Baker, ed. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. London: Routledge, 1998. 305–316. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (10)

Cited by ten other publications

Echauri Galván, Bruno & Alicia Camelia Roca
2025. Los escritores que surgieron del frío: la visibilidad del traductor en la novela negra nórdica publicada en España. TRANS: Revista de Traductología :29 ► pp. 47 ff. DOI logo
Cussel, Mattea, Esperança Bielsa & Carmen Bestué
2023. Politics of translation: Assimilation and reflexivity in the transformation of academic texts. Social Science Information 62:4 ► pp. 465 ff. DOI logo
Scammell, Claire & Esperança Bielsa
2022. Cross-cultural engagement through translated news: A reception analysis. Journalism 23:7 ► pp. 1430 ff. DOI logo
Gagnon, Chantal, Pier-Pascale Boulanger & Esmaeil Kalantari
2018. How to approach translation in a financial news corpus?. Across Languages and Cultures 19:2 ► pp. 221 ff. DOI logo
McAuley, Thomas E.
2015. Audience Attitude and Translation Reception. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation 61:2 ► pp. 219 ff. DOI logo
Károly, Krisztina
2010. Shifts in repetition vs. shifts in text meaning. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 22:1 ► pp. 40 ff. DOI logo
Zhu, Chunshen
2005. Accountability in Translation Within and Beyond the Sentence as the Key Functional UT: Three Case Studies. Meta 50:1 ► pp. 312 ff. DOI logo
Kemppanen, Hannu
2004. Keywords and Ideology in Translated History Texts: A Corpus-based Analysis. Across Languages and Cultures 5:1 ► pp. 89 ff. DOI logo
Wu, Qing
2004. Interaction Between Language and the Mind Through Translation: A Perspective from Profile/Base Organization. Meta 47:4 ► pp. 532 ff. DOI logo
Low, Graham. D.
2002. Evaluating translations of surrealist poetry. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 14:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue