Leon Burnett

1
Leon Burnett

• University of Essex

2
Interacting with the Translation Profession A
Report

• Ian Kemble (Portsmouth University)
• Questionnaire to 25 universities
• 23 responses
• Bath Symposium (9 September 2006)

3
Working hypothesis

• The working hypothesis was that the responses to
  the questionnaire would show that those courses
  which were more vocationally-orientated would
  enjoy levels of interaction with the translation
  profession which were higher and more varied than
  those of more theoretically-orientated courses.

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Spectrum

•  
• 1 ----------- 2 ----------- 3 -----------
  4--------------- 5 ----------- 6 ---------- 7
  ---------- 8 ---------- 9
• theoretically
  balanced vocationally
• orientated
  between orientated theory
  practice
• Spectrum depicting the range of course types

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Results of survey

• a total of 6 institutions (24) declared
  themselves to be more theoretically orientated,
  situating themselves between nodes 2 and 4 7
  institutions (28) declared their courses to be
  balanced between theory and practice and a total
  of 12 institutions (48) described their courses
  as more vocationally orientated, placing
  themselves between nodes 6 and 9.

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Results of survey

• 50 vocationally orientated
• 25 balanced between theory and practice
• 25 theoretically orientated

7
Hidden assumption 1

• 25 balanced between theory and practice
  vocation
• Implicit equation between practice and
  vocation
• www.port.ac.uk/translationreport2006.

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Hidden assumption 2

• Spectrum --- continuity
• Divide --- partition
• Metaphors condition our way of looking at the
  world.

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Theoretically-orientateduniversities

• Warwick
• Birmingham
• West of England (UWE)

• Edinburgh
• University College London (UCL)
• East Anglia (UEA)

10
Susan Bassnett

• Translation Studies (1980)
• Comparative Literature (1993)
• Literary Translation?

11
Critique of reference books

• The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation
  Studies, edited by Mona Baker, in Translation
  and Literature (Vol. 8, 120-30), 1999.
• On the Basis of Current Knowledge A Review of
  Recent Reference Works on Translation, in New
  Comparison (No. 32, 124-38), 2001.
• A review of Introducing Translation Studies
  Theories and Applications by Jeremy Munday
  (Routledge London and New York, 2001), in
  Wasafiri (No. 40, 55-57), 2003.
• The Oxford History of Literary Translation in
  English. Volume 4 1790-1900, in Translation and
  Literature (forthcoming 2007).

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Reference books (by weight)

• Dictionary of Translation Studies, 400g.
• The Oxford Guide to Literature in English
  Translation, 1.05kg.
• Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies,
  1.18kg.
• Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English
  (2 vols.), 5.35kg.

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The Oxford History of Literary Translation in
English

• 5 volumes (Vols. 3 4 published)
• Aim is to present for the first time a critical
  and historical overview of the development of
  this art or craft in the English-speaking world
• General Editors Foreword (italics added)

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The Oxford History of Literary Translation in
English

• we use the word literary in the broad old
  sense which it has still not completely lost, to
  encompass something like the full range of
  non-technical work which has made up the reading
  of the literate public
• General Editors Foreword
• Compare Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into
  English
• Literary Translation as its own master.

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Literary Translation

• Art or craft?
• Theory and practice
• New divide transmitting culture/receiving
  culture
• Autonomous work in the recipient culture
• The wordface, not the workplace.