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Article published In: Target
Vol. 15:1 (2003) ► pp.1–36

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Multiple-entry visa to travelling theory

Retranslations of literary and cultural theories

 | University of Edinburgh
Published online: 20 November 2003
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.15.1.02sus
The article questions certain assumptions about retranslation which prevail rather unchallenged in Translation Studies, and discusses the terminological issues involved in retranslating theoretical texts. By presenting examples from two case studies, namely the reception of Roland Barthes’s work in Turkey and of Hélène Cixous’s work in Anglo-America, it examines the reasons underlying the abundance vs. rarity of retranslations in each case, respectively. Throughout the article, I contend that the factors of dominance, elasticity, tolerance, and power of the source and receiving systems involved determine whether travelling theory will be granted a multiple-entry visa to literary and cultural systems through retranslation.
Résumé
L’article aborde des aspects peu discutés de la retraduction et se penche sur les questions determinologie soulevées par la retraduction de textes théoriques. Deux situations sontcomparées : la réception de l’oeuvre de Roland Barthes en Turquie et celle de l’oeuvred’Hélène Cixous en l’Amérique anglophone. Cette comparaison vise à expliquer l’abondancedes retraductions dans le premier cas par rapport à la rareté dans le second. La thèse suivanteest soutenue tout au long de l’article: ce sont des jeux de domination, d’élasticité, detolérance et de pouvoir exercés par le système-source et le système-cible qui déterminent sides théories migrantes obtiennent un visa à multiples entrées par le biais de la retraduction.
Article outline
  • 1.On ‘retranslation’
  • 2.Roland Barthes’s texts retranslated into Turkish
    • 2.1Language reform and issues of terminology
      • 2.1.1Terms and concepts in literary and cultural theories
    • 2.2Terms in the retranslations of Barthes’s writings into Turkish
    • 2.3Consequences
  • 3.Hélène Cixous’s texts retranslated into English
    • 3.1Concepts in the translations of Cixous’s writings into English
    • 3.2Wordplay in the translations of Cixous’s writings into English
    • 3.3Consequences
  • 4Conclusions
    • 4.1“Staying at home”
    • 4.2Tolerance of interference
    • 4.3Modernization = translatability
    • 4.4Multiple-entry visa
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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