Panel 2 – Translation and Multimodality

Translating Transgressive Language in Banlieue Film: The Case of La Squale (Genestal, 2000)
Hannah Silvester, University of Glasgow

This paper will present the findings of a case study of the English subtitles for La Squale (Genestal, 2000).  Through the application of a new methodology combining both macro- and micro-contextual analysis of the subtitled film, this paper will offer a linguistic analysis of the subtitles in-context; both in the macro-context of the release of the film, but also in the micro-context of the polysemiotic network within which a subtitle appears at a given point in the film.

The banlieues are housing estates on the outskirts of large towns and cities in France, which are often home to the underprivileged, and immigrants to France or their descendants.  The language spoken in the banlieue differs from standard French in terms of grammar, lexicon and pronunciation and therefore presents a challenge for subtitlers working to translate films set in these areas.  In addition to the constraints of time and space in subtitling, and the need for maximum readability, one of the greatest challenges for subtitlers working to translate this variety of French into English is the presence of ‘an untranslatable verlan’ (Jäckel, 2001, p.226) which has no direct linguistic or cultural equivalent in British English.

Originally developed as a code language, verlan is now a marker of identity for the banlieue communities, and expresses their sense of exclusion from mainstream society (Hamaidia, 2007).  The case of La Squale (Genestal, 2000) is particularly interesting, as in addition to the presence of non-standard French, the theme of sexual violence in the banlieue is central to the film and reflected in the characters’ dialogue.  This paper will examine how far this transgressive language is conveyed in translation for a British English audience.

References

• Doran, M. (2007) Alternative French, Alternative Identities: Situating Language in La Banlieue. Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 11(4), 497-508.
• Genestal, F (2000) La Squale
• Hamaidia, L. (2007) Subtitling Slang and Dialect: Proceedings of the 2007 MuTra – LSP Translation Scenarios Conference (EU-High-Level Scientific Conference Series) [online] held at The Centre for Translation Studies, Vienna, The University of Vienna. Available from: http://www.euroconferences.info/proceedings/2007_Proceedings/2007_Hamaidia_Lena.pdf [accessed 20/02/2015]

 

Baudelaire as Translator / Baudelaire Translated: Illustrations of Les Fleurs Du Mal as Dialogues With The Dead
Fiona Dakin, St Andrews

Charles Baudelaire’s 1857 poetry collection Les Fleurs du mal (conventionally translated as The Flowers of Evil) has been illustrated by over one hundred artists since 1888. In my PhD thesis, I frame these illustrations as inter-medial translations. Certain of these illustrations contain seemingly unexplained ghostly apparitions. In this paper, I initially present these ghosts as having multiple identities, one of which is a deliberate and uneasy manifestation of Baudelaire himself as artistic predecessor. Similarly, the image of the (living) figure of the poet also frequently ‘haunts’ these images which illustrate his work. By physically figuring the artistic predecessor in their target work – alive or as a ghost – these illustrators actively acknowledge and fight the battle for authorship of and authority over their visual translations. This confrontational dialogue usually ends badly for the living (according to Harold Bloom), and as such many of the illustrators concede the battle, thus paying reverence to Baudelaire in their portrayals. Elsewhere, however, the unlikely occurs, whereby the artist wins the battle for authority over the poetic predecessor. At times, this is achieved by inviting Baudelaire’s own influential ghosts into the image, such as Poe, or Delacroix. The phrase “Baudelaire’s ghost” thus takes on a dual meaning, just as Derrida’s Spectres de Marx: both the ghostly apparition of the dead poet, and the artistic ancestors which haunt(ed) him, and his texts. By acknowledging these sources of inspiration, the artist not only negates Baudelaire’s supposed monolithic power over Les Fleurs du mal, but also perhaps goes further, to erase or even override his presence, positioning him as a mere interlocutor between those he translates and those who translate him.

 

Intercultural Competence Development for Translator     Training in China: A Web-Based Localization Model
Jie Wang, Queen’s University, Belfast

All too often World Literature is held to be insensitive to issues of translation, both to the interpretative processes that characterize its processes and to the potential for intercultural misrecognition that may be thought of as inhabiting cultural encounter across geopolitical divides.

This paper uses these concerns as its point of departure and, in the short time available, will examine how translators’ intercultural skills may be developed through training models. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to suggest the adaptation of a web-based localization model to develop Chinese translators’ intercultural competence. To put it at its most simple: translators work constantly at the junction or even fault lines of different cultures, and by using multi-contextualized scenarios, trainee translators might hone their skills through horizontal and dynamic processes of encounter rather than vertical and largely passive analysis of texts, thereby both encountering and participating in multi-otherness.

This research is, of course, important. We live in a multilingual and globalized village in which growing internationalisation requires, both at national and international levels, skills of what we might term a ‘de-commodified cosmopolitanism’. Rather than superficial and unidirectional, this re-assessed cosmopolitanism is a two-way street, a vernacular as well as intercultural set of skills that is much more shaped, interactional and reciprocal.

These are skills, of course, that are difficult to quantify or measure. How training models take that into account is therefore open to debate, and it is part of the intention of this paper to encourage such debate at this seminar. In that sense, fundamentally, its purpose is to to contribute to our awareness both of the gap in translator training in China, and how China might learn from other practices in other countries and systems. The paper is fired by a key concern that the growing awareness among Chinese translators that intercultural encounter is both a key issue and strength of translation should be maintained and developed. In the final analysis this will enable Chinese students to interrogate the value systems behind their own national cultural practices as well as understanding the way in which translation might expand the relatedness between Chinese writing and literatures beyond. In order to exemplify this, the paper will make passing reference to the current RSC Shakespeare in China project.