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Introduction: Translations in Times of Disruption

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Book cover Translations In Times of Disruption

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting ((PTTI))

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Abstract

This chapter offers suggestions for filling some of the ‘blank spaces’ in translation studies identified by many scholars; particularly, regarding the study of pragmatic translations of non-literary texts and the need to increase awareness of the role played by translators and their work as agents of history. The interaction of translation and turbulent times goes back centuries and it has involved topics and issues that go beyond, above and at times completely outside any state involvement. The present volume demonstrates this fact eloquently, bringing together contributions by established scholars and promising younger researchers from different continents and disciplines (history, languages, law, literature, medicine) which throw light on the relevance, role, and impact of translations at moments of serious discontinuity in transnational contexts.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    An early, but by no means the earliest, example of such an individual would be the unknown Greek translator of the Res gestae of the emperor Augustus who was responsible for rendering the Latin original accessible to the inhabitants of the Greek-speaking areas of the empire, albeit in close paraphrase rather than verbatim. See P. A. Brunt and J. M. Moore (eds.) Res gestae divi Augusti (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 1–2. Here of course we have a translator working to contribute to the internal legitimation of a still-new type of regime at the point of its first major transmission by succession, rather than in an inter-state context.

  2. 2.

    A. Pym (2000) Negotiating the Frontier: Translators and Intercultures in Hispanic History (Manchester: St. Jerome), pp. 2–3.

  3. 3.

    C. Rundle (2012) ‘Translation as an Approach to History,’ Translation Studies, 5, (2), 232–240. This volume intends to add, expand and complement works that to a large extent have already embraced this approach such as H. Footitt and S. Tobia (ed.) (2013) War Talk: Foreign Languages and the British War Effort in Europe, 1940–47 (Basingstoke: Palgrave); H. Footitt and M. Kelly (eds.) (2012) Languages and the Military: Alliances, Occupation and Peace Building (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan) and L. Kontler (2014) Translations, Histories, Enlightenments: William Robertson in Germany, 1760–1795 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).

  4. 4.

    C. O’Sullivan (2012) ‘Introduction: Rethinking Methods in Translation History,’ Translation Studies, 5, (2), 131–138, 136; T. Hermans (2012) ‘Response,’ Translation Studies, 5, (2), 242–245, 243.

  5. 5.

    P. F. Bandia (2006) ‘The Impact of Postmodern Discourse on the History of Translation’ in G. I. Bastin, and P. F. Bandia (eds.) (2006) Charting the Future of Translation History (Ottawa: The University of Ottawa Press), p. 46.

  6. 6.

    More information about the network ‘Translations in Transnational Contexts’ is available at https://translationsintransnationalcontexts.wordpress.com/

  7. 7.

    For a brief overview, see G. Iglesias-Rogers (2015) ‘Waterloo, the Napoleonic Wars and the Recasting of the Global Iberian World,’ The RUSI Journal, 160, (3), 76–81.

  8. 8.

    One member of our network, Professor Linda Colley (Princeton University) has been looking into this topic. See, for example, L. Colley (2014) ‘Empires of Writing: Britain, America and Constitutions, 1776–1848’, Law and History Review, 32, (02), 237–266 and L. Colley (2016) ‘Writing Constitutions and Writing World History’ in J. Belich, J. Darwin, M. Frenz, and C.Wickham (eds.) The Prospect of Global History (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 160–177.

  9. 9.

    For the purposes of clarity: this is our translation of the original title.

  10. 10.

    J. Ferrando Badía (2003) ‘Proyección exterior de la Constitución de 1812’ in M. Artola-Gallego (ed.) Las Cortes de Cádiz (Madrid: Marcial Pons Historia), pp. 207–248.

  11. 11.

    See for example S. G. H. Roberts and A. Sharman (2013) 1812 Echoes: The Cadiz Constitution in Hispanic History, Culture and Politics (Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing); S. Eastman and N. Sobrevilla Perea (eds.) (2015) The Rise of Constitutional Government in the Iberian Atlantic World. The impact of the 1812 Cadiz Constitution of 1812 (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press); J. M. Terradillos Basoco (ed.) (2008) Marginalidad, cárcel, las «otras» creencias: primeros desarrollos jurídicos de «la Pepa» (Cadiz: Diputación de Cádiz); P. García Trobat (2010) La Constitución de 1812 y la educación política (Madrid: Congreso de los Diputados); I. Fernández Sarasola (2011) La Constitución de Cádiz: origen, contenido y proyección internacional (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales).

  12. 12.

    See M. Isabella and K. Zanou (2015) Mediterranean Diasporas: Politics and Ideas in the Long 19th Century (London: Bloomsbury); M. Isabella (2009) Risorgimento in Exile: Italian émigrés and the Liberal International in the Post-Napoleonic Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

  13. 13.

    Bastin, G. L. and Echeverri, A. (2004) ‘Traduction et révolution à l’époque de l’indépendance hispano-américaine’, Meta: journal des traducteurs/ Translators’ Journal, 49, (3), 573.

  14. 14.

    J.-C. Santoyo (2006) ‘Blank Spaces in the History of Translation’ in G. L. Bastin, and P. F. Bandia (eds.) Charting the Future of Translation History (Ottawa: The University of Ottawa Press), pp. 11–43.

  15. 15.

    This has been discussed with terms such as ‘relay’ or ‘pivot’ translation (or interpreting) in several contexts. On this topic, see among others, J. St. André (2009), ‘Relay’ in M. Baker and G. Saldanha (eds.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (London and New York: Routledge), pp. 230–232; E. T. H. Hung and J. Wakabayashi (eds.) (2014) Asian Translation Traditions (London Taylor & Francis), pp. 12, 35, 48–49, 74–75, 83, 156.

  16. 16.

    On the archival trail of Davies, see D. Hook (1975) ‘John Davies of Kidwelly: A Neglected Literary Figure of the Seventeenth Century,’ The Carmarthenshire Antiquary, 11, 104–124; D. Hook and R. Hook (1979) ‘More Light on John Davies of Kidwelly’, The Carmarthenshire Antiquary, 15, 57–66; D. Hook (1987) ‘Further Documentary References to John Davies of Kidwelly’, The Carmarthenshire Antiquary, 23, 63–66.

  17. 17.

    E. Lord (2004) ‘Davies, John (1625–1693)’ in L. Goldman (ed.) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition, http://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2167/view/article/7247, last accessed 6 May 2016.

  18. 18.

    F. Bouterwek (transl. T. Ross) (1823) History of Spanish and Portuguese Literature (London: Boosey and Sons).

  19. 19.

    F. W. H. A. Humboldt (transl. T. Ross) (1852) Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Years 1799–1804 (London: Henry G. Bohn).

  20. 20.

    See N. Leask (2001) ‘Salons, Alps, and Cordilleras: Helen Maria Williams, Alexander von Humboldt, and the Discourse of Romantic Travel’ in E. Eger, C. Grant, C. ó Gallchoir and P. Warburton (eds.) Women, Writing and the Public Sphere, 1700–1830 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 217–236. An obituary of Williams was published in The Monthly Review, [n.] January 1828, 139.

  21. 21.

    Comment on the versions of Humboldt by Ross and Williams is also given by Jason Howard Lindquist in his Indiana PhD thesis (2008) A ‘Pure Excess of Complexity’: Tropical Surfeit, the Observing Subject, and the Text, 1773–1871 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University), pp. 131–137.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medieval & Modern Languages, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    David Hook

  2. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Winchester, Winchester, UK

    Graciela Iglesias-Rogers

  3. Faculty of History, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Graciela Iglesias-Rogers

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  1. David Hook
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Correspondence to David Hook .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medieval & Modern Languages, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

    David Hook

  2. Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, University of Winchester, Winchester, United Kingdom

    Graciela Iglesias-Rogers

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Hook, D., Iglesias-Rogers, G. (2017). Introduction: Translations in Times of Disruption. In: Hook, D., Iglesias-Rogers, G. (eds) Translations In Times of Disruption. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58334-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58334-5_1

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