Cover not available

Article published In: Target
Vol. 9:1 (1997) ► pp.43–68

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

Translating the Untranslatable

The Translator's Aesthetic, Ideological and Political Responsibility

 | McGill University
Published online: 1 January 1997
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.9.1.04lan
Abstract
Translation scholars have recently emphasized the importance of the translator's (in)visibility (Venuti) and of the ethical aim of translation (Berman). This paper argues that a) the translation of literary sociolects is paradigmatic of the way in which the translator's visibility is foregrounded within the target text; b) their translation requires a "visible" engagement on the part of the translator which is grounded in an ethics of translation, thus leading beyond the visible/ invisible dichotomy implied by Venuti and the positive/negative ethics dichotomy set up by Berman; c) the comments made by numerous translation scholars concerning the problems raised by literary sociolects reflect some of the contradictions besetting contemporary translation theory.
Résumé
Les spécialistes de la traduction ont récemment souligné l'importancede l'invisibilité du traducteur (Venuti) et de la visée éthique de la traduction (Berman). Cet article expose trois thèses: (a) la traduction des sociolecteslittéraires qualifie la manière dont la visibilité du traducteur s' exprime au sein dutextecible; (b) leur traduction nécessite de la part du traducteur un engagementpatent et ancré dans une éthique de la traduction, dépassant aussi bien ladichotomie entre visibilité et invisibilité (Venuti) que celle entre une éthiquenégative et positive (Berman); (c) les commentaires des spécialistes concernantles problèmes soulevés par les sociolectes littéraires révèlent quelques-unes descontradictions sousjacentes aux théories contemporaines de la traduction.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.The Concept of Literary Sociolect
    • 1.1.Literary Sociolects as Textual Constructs
    • 1.2.Literary Sociolects as Ideological and Pragmatic Constructs
    • 1.3.The Translation of Literary Sociolects as Paradigmatic of the Translation Process in General
  • 2.Translating Literary Sociolects: An Impossible Task?
    • 2.1.The Risk of Meaning Creation
    • 2.2.The Risk of Meaning Loss
    • 2.3.The Risk of Ethnocentricity
    • 2.4.The Risk of Unauthenticity
    • 2.5.The Risk of Conservatism and/or Radicalism
    • 2.6.Accepting the Risks
  • 3.Toward an Ethics of Translation
    • 3.1.Lawrence Venuti: The Invisibility vs the Visibility of the Translator
    • 3.2.Antoine Berman: The Negative vs the Positive Analytic of Translation
    • 3.3.Beyond Dualism
    • 3.4.The Translator's Responsibility
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (29)
References
Arrojo, Rosemary. 1994. “Fidelity and the Gendered Translation”. TTR VII:2. 147–163.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barthes, Roland. 1984. Le bruissement du langage. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berman, Antoine. 1984. L’épreuve de l’étranger. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1985a. “La traduction comme épreuve de l’étranger”. Texte 41. 67–81.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1985b. “La traduction et la lettre ou l’auberge du lointain”. Antoine Berman et al., eds. les tours de babel. Paris: Éditions Trans-Euro Repress, 1985. 31–150.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1990. “Préface”. Brisset 19901: 9–19.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. Pour une critique des traductions: John Donne. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brisset, Annie. 1990. Pour une sociocritique de la traduction: Théâtre et altérité au Québec (1968-1988). Longueuil, Québec: Les Éditions du Préambule.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Even-Zohar, Itamar. 1978. Papers in Historical Poetics. Tel Aviv: The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1979. “Polysystem Theory”. Poetics Today 1:1–2. 287–310.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Folkart, Barbara. 1991. Le conflit des énonciations: Traduction et discours rapporté. Candiac, Québec: Les Éditions Balzac.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1976. Histoire de la sexualité I. La volonté de savoir. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kadish, Doris. 1994. “Translation in Context”. Kadish and Massardier-Kenney 1994 : 26–61.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kadish, Doris and Françoise Massardier-Kenney, eds. 1994. Translating Slavery, Gender and Race in French Women’s Writing, 1793-1823. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koskinen, Kaisa. 1994. “(Mis)translating the Untranslatable—The Impact of Deconstruction and Post-Structuralism on Translation Theory”. Meta XXXIX:2 446–452.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lane-Mercier, Gillian. 1995a. “La traduction des discours directs romanesques comme stratégie d’orientation des effets de lecture”. Palimpsestes 91. 75–91. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995b. “Towards a Rhetorical Practice of Mimesis: Writing/Reading/(Re)Translating Fictional Sociolects”. Recherches sémiotiques/Semiotic Inquiry 15:3. 105–128.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lefevere, André. 1992. Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Massardier-Kenney, Françoise. 1994. “Translation Theory and Practice”. Kadish and Massardier-Kenney 1994 : 11–25.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schogt, Henry. 1988. Linguistics, Literary Analysis, and Literary Translation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simon, Sherry. 1992. “The Language of Cultural Difference: Figures of Alterity in Cana-dian Translation”. Venuti 1992 : 159–176. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon. 1980. “The Nature and Role of Norms in Literary Translation”. In Search of a Theory of Translation. Tel Aviv: The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, 1980. 51–62.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1981. “Translated Literature: System, Norm, Performance. Toward a TT-Oriented Approach to Literary Translation”. Poetics Today 2:4. 9–27. [also: Toury 1980: 35-50.]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
, 1982. “A Rationale for Descriptive Translation Studies”. Dispositio VII:19-21. 23–39.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. Descriptive Translation Studies and beyond. Amsterdam-Philadel-phia: John Benjamins.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence. 1986. “The Translator’s Invisibility”. Criticism XXVIII:2. 179–212.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
, ed. 1992. Rethinking Translation: Discourse, Subjectivity, Ideology. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992a. “Introduction”. Venuti 1992 : 1–17. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London and New York: Routledge.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (34)

Cited by 34 other publications

Levick, Tiffane
2024. Based on (your) real life? Telling true stories in translation. Palimpsestes 37 DOI logo
Gao, Xinru
2023. Translating African-American English into Chinese: A Case Study of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences 14 ► pp. 54 ff. DOI logo
Xiao, Shuangjin
2023. Approaching the Cross-Cultural Translation of Transgressive Language: Swearing and Vulgarities in the Chinese Vernacular Novel Jin Ping Mei. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research 52:3 ► pp. 261 ff. DOI logo
Hleihel, Rhéa
2022. La dimension morale des intelligences artificielles au sein de la traductologie. FORUM. Revue internationale d’interprétation et de traduction / International Journal of Interpretation and Translation 20:2 ► pp. 368 ff. DOI logo
Jiang, Jing & Kefei Wang
2022. Understanding the mediation of dialectal value. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation 68:3 ► pp. 394 ff. DOI logo
Alarcón, Soledad Díaz
2021. Sociolecto literario y discurso heterolingüe en la obra de Faïza Guène: la traducción en espacio multicultural. Lebende Sprachen 66:2 ► pp. 278 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Dingkun
2021. Subtitling in Chinese: Reflections on Emergent Subtitling Cultures in Contemporary China. In The Palgrave Handbook of Chinese Language Studies, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Dingkun
2022. Subtitling in Chinese: Reflections on Emergent Subtitling Cultures in Contemporary China. In The Palgrave Handbook of Chinese Language Studies, ► pp. 617 ff. DOI logo
Jeanmaire, Guillaume
2020. Traduire la littérature québécoise de la Révolution tranquille. Neohelicon 47:1 ► pp. 195 ff. DOI logo
Nannoni, Catia & Rosa Pugliese
2020. Traduire l’interlangue : la traductologie au carrefour de la sociolinguistique et de la linguistique de l’acquisition. TTR 33:1 ► pp. 131 ff. DOI logo
Ramos Pinto, Sara & Aishah Mubaraki
2020. Multimodal corpus analysis of subtitling. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 32:3 ► pp. 389 ff. DOI logo
Yu, Jing
2017. Translating ‘others’ as ‘us’ in Huckleberry Finn: dialect, register and the heterogeneity of standard language. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 26:1 ► pp. 54 ff. DOI logo
Yu, Jing & Minhui Xu
2017. From norm-breaking to norm-making: a sociological study of the genesis of a new norm. Perspectives 25:1 ► pp. 66 ff. DOI logo
Buzelin, Hélène & Claudio Baraldi
2016. Sociology and translation studies. In Border Crossings [Benjamins Translation Library, 126], ► pp. 117 ff. DOI logo
Assis Rosa, Alexandra
2015. Translating orality, recreating otherness. Translation Studies 8:2 ► pp. 209 ff. DOI logo
Bengoechea, Mercedes
2014. Feminist translation? No way! Spanish specialised translators' disinterest in feminist translation. Women's Studies International Forum 42 ► pp. 94 ff. DOI logo
Jones, Francis R.
2014. Poetry translators and regional vernacular voice. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 26:1 ► pp. 32 ff. DOI logo
Leydenbach, Claire
2014. Repères bibliographiques. In Traduire-écrire, DOI logo
Vihelmaa, Ella
2010. L’éthique du traducteur à l’épreuve de l’écologie. Meta 54:4 ► pp. 857 ff. DOI logo
Pinto, Sara Ramos
2009. How important is the way you say it?. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 21:2 ► pp. 289 ff. DOI logo
Tymoczko, Maria
2009. Translation, Ethics and Ideology in a Violent Globalizing World. In Globalization, Political Violence and Translation, ► pp. 171 ff. DOI logo
Varney, Jennifer
2008. Deconstruction and Translation: Positions, Pertinence and the Empowerment of the Translator. Journal of Universal Language 9:1 ► pp. 113 ff. DOI logo
Xian, Huiping
2008. Lost in translation? Language, culture and the roles of translator in cross‐cultural management research. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal 3:3 ► pp. 231 ff. DOI logo
Standen, Naomi & Francis Jones
2007. Revealing alternatives: Online comparative translations of interlinked chinese historical texts. In Creating and digitizing language corpora, ► pp. 172 ff. DOI logo
Buzelin, Hélène
2006. Traduire l’hybridité littéraire. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 18:1 ► pp. 91 ff. DOI logo
Buzelin, Hélène
2015. Traduire pour le Centre national du livre. COnTEXTES DOI logo
Buzelin, Hélène
2024. Translating as a Way of Producing Knowledge across Boundaries. In Translations and Participation [Vermittlung und Übersetzung im Wandel, 2], ► pp. 49 ff. DOI logo
Grutman, Rainier
2006. Refraction and recognition. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 18:1 ► pp. 17 ff. DOI logo
Louwagie, Fransiska
2006. Le témoignage des camps et sa médiation préfacielle. Questions de communication :10 ► pp. 349 ff. DOI logo
Louwagie, Fransiska
2007. Comment dire l’expérience des camps : fonctions transmissives et réparatrices du récit testimonial. Études littéraires 38:1 ► pp. 57 ff. DOI logo
Hewson, Lance
2003. Ballard, Michel, ed. 2001. Oralité et traduction. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 15:2 ► pp. 355 ff. DOI logo
Lane-Mercier, Gillian
2003. Entre l'Étranger et le Propre : le travail sur la lettre et le problème du lecteur. TTR : traduction, terminologie, rédaction 14:2 ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo
Paloposki, Outi
2001. Originality and the Defence of Translation. The Translator 7:1 ► pp. 71 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2017. Reflections on Translation Theory [Benjamins Translation Library, 132], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 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