33.2204, Review: Anthropological Linguistics; Translation: Carbonell i Cortés, Monzó-Nebot (2021)

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Subject: 33.2204, Review: Anthropological Linguistics; Translation: Carbonell i Cortés, Monzó-Nebot (2021)

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Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2022 22:53:41
From: Laura Dubcovsky [lauradubcovsky at gmail.com]
Subject: Translating Asymmetry – Rewriting Power

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/32/32-2942.html

EDITOR: Ovidi  Carbonell i Cortés
EDITOR: Esther  Monzó-Nebot
TITLE: Translating Asymmetry – Rewriting Power
SERIES TITLE: Benjamins Translation Library 157
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2021

REVIEWER: Laura Dubcovsky, University of California, Davis

SUMMARY

The book “Translating Asymmetry-Rewriting Power” is organized into three
sections, which bring an overview of the issue, enriched by relevant examples
and current perspectives. The first section, “Revisiting the foundations of
asymmetry,” draws on different disciplines that illustrate the unbalanced
relationship between translation and interpretation across the fields. Chapter
1, “Translating strangers,” by Bielsa, revisits the notion of translations
within the contemporary context of refugees and migrants who cross and reshape
borders. The author explains how past clear-cut divisions that have helped
identify the “self” and the “other” are gradually transformed into blurrier
territories, where a “cosmopolitan stranger” takes a central position,
comprising both the remoteness and the nearness, the roots and the
detachments, in a new ambivalent social and cultural hybridity. The new
translator is an alien in the native land and a stranger in the academy, who
actively mediates between individuals and heterogeneous groups, with a
mind-openness, and with a high degree of recognition and hospitality toward
the other.  

In the second chapter Salama-Carr moves into the animal kingdom and focuses on
“Negotiating asymmetry: The language of animal rights and animal welfare.” The
overall imbalanced distribution is even more noticeable in translating
documents about animal issues in international forums and institutions. First,
the author examines key notions of the animal lexicon and how they vary across
cultures, countries, decades, and languages. For example, the phrase, “animal
welfare” is represented in the Muslim world by the term “rifq,” closer in
meaning to kindness and compassion, while French distinguishes between
“bien-être” (animal well-being) and “défense de bien-être” (animal
protection). Likewise, the expression “animal sentience” has evolved from its
original negative meaning of pain and suffering to feelings of appreciation
and positive cognitive capacities. Salama-Carr also highlights the role of
animal activists, as they advocate for animal rights, fighting against
exploitation, abusive breeding, and slaughtering practices. Moreover,
volunteers play a major role in current debates about animal rights and
welfare, gathering information from multiple disciplines (biology, law,
ethics, etc.) to produce reliable “eco-translators” (Cronin 2017). 

Sheneman and Robinson center the discussion of Chapter 3 around “Helpers,
professional authority, and pathologized bodies. Ableism in interpretation and
translation.” The authors argue that translators of disabled people carry a
double value of service and unbalanced authority, associated with paternalism
and a “toxic benevolence” (Chapman and Whiters, 2019). These helping
professionals tend to believe they possess a superior decision-making quality,
which makes them overlook or neglect their clients’ input in making their own
decisions, while privileging, often unintentionally, their own biases of race,
gender, and disability during the translingual transaction. To overcome these
asymmetries, Sheneman and Robinson follow a critical perspective that revisits
notions of normalcy and pathology, proposing a “crippling” paradigm that
questions negative attitudes, discrimination, and lesser legitimacy of “the
other” (Annamma et al. 2013). Above all, the model recognizes a new power
distribution by which disabled people are experts in their own needs and are
sources and producers of knowledge, whose voices need to be heard. 

Chapter 4, “An information asymmetry framework for strategic translation
policy in multinational corporations,” by Hanson and Mellinger, sheds light on
inequalities during the translation process within the field of international
business. Although languages and translations have been traditionally
underestimated for business purposes, corporations are increasingly interested
in improving international relationships using not only English as the lingua
franca of commerce, but also other languages in the current diverse market.
Therefore, they hire more in-house and international professionals as well as
machine services, perceived as added value that benefits national and
international transactions. Managers are gradually recognizing the use of
languages as an asset to accomplish communicative, informative, and
cooperative goals and to overcome asymmetries within and between companies.
Hanson and Mellinger provide a “Strategic translation policy framework” (Table
1, p. 88) that helps meet communicative expectations and control information,
either by mitigating or maintaining information, as needed.  The authors
intertwine variants of management, language, and culture and suggest internal
strategies such as boardrooms, chats, and team work to promote trust and
create a friendly environment, while they emphasize trade secrets, defense of
intellectual property and culturally appropriate responses to support healthy
relations and continuous negotiations between financial markets. 

Marais closes the section with Chapter 5, “Tom, Dick and Harry as well as Fido
and Puss in Boots are translators: The implications of biosemiotics for
translation studies.”  He incorporates notions of biosemiotics to expand
asymmetric translations between human and non-human agents, departing from
narrow anthropocentric views that acknowledge humans as the only organisms
that can perform translations. On the contrary, the author encourages an
ecological translation, in which every living organism can be a translator
(Cronin, 2017).  Moreover, Marais draws examples from plants and animals to
show intriguing neurobiological and behavioral capacities, such as the ability
to distinguish between denotative and connotative meanings, to being able to
develop mimicking, and even a kind of iconic language, among certain species
(Afifi, 2014). The chapter concludes that the incorporation of biosemiotics
into translation/interpretation studies may contribute with biological
knowledge to current linguistic and cultural assumptions, challenging
traditional divides between culture and nature, with a more accurate
representation of living and non-living organisms, opening up to new
pedagogical implications (Brier & Joslyn, 2013). 

The second section of the book, “Unveiling the structure,” comprises studies
that share common findings of asymmetric translations across geographies and
languages. Chapter 6 wonders whether “Child language brokering in Swedish
welfare institutions” [is] “A matter of structural complicity?” After weighing
benefits and drawbacks of using children as language brokers, Gustafsson
explains that, despite few positive experiences of family trust, pride, and
respect, the brokering activity causes overwhelming disadvantages in
children’s lives, as they suffer unbearable demands, are forced to assume
parental roles within the family, and feel ostracized and marginalized by
schools and other institutions. The author recognizes that, although working
conditions are often not ideal (low budget, few resources, and lack of
qualified staff, etc.), it is still inexcusable to deposit exceeding
responsibilities in minors. Ultimately, adults in society (family members,
educational professionals, and welfare assistants) should oversee
knowledgeable and transparent translations. In line with the notion of
“structural complicity” (Afxentiou, Dunford, & Neu, 2017), Gustafsson claims
that translations performed by children produces, reproduces, and upholds
social inequalities and discriminatory practices.

Risku, Milošević, and Rogl point out tensions created between professional
translators and production networks to delineate specific roles and functions.
Chapter 7 addresses, “Responsibility, powerlessness, and conflict: An
ethnographic case study of boundary management in translation.” The authors
highlight major factors found in an Austrian network that affect the behavior
and attitudes of the major players. For example, writers complain of the
constant pressure felt due to lack of time and money, as well as little
recognition, and accountability, while translators underline dissonance in the
technical knowledge required to manage computer systems and interfaces of
quality, as well as social problems caused by little trust and lack of
understanding between agents. Above all, the different parties share common
tight deadlines and economic pressures, as well as ambiguous roles and unclear
expectations and responsibilities.  Risku, Milošević, and Rogl propose to
reconnect the compartmentalized parties through a “boundary spanning”
framework that encourages vertical, horizontal, geographical, and language
collaborations, forges common ground and builds transformative relationships
between isolated agents (Søderberg & Romani, 2017). Moreover, proper boundary
management may contribute to deliver transparent information, avoid the
overlapping of role, and improve technological uses and sophisticated language
needed, leading to a healthier and more balanced power relationship.

 In Chapter 8, “Of places, spaces, and faces: Asymmetrical power flows in
contemporary economies of translation and technologies”, Folaron focuses on
practices performed by two groups in Canada: First Nations peoples and the
Arctic indigenous cross-territorial circumpolar groups of Inuit peoples. The
author describes typical discrepancies between powerful markets that direct
the global economy, and minority communities that speak endangered or
less-used languages and count with few resources. The unbalanced power of
forces impacts people’s private and public lives, influencing personal
interactions, as well as their access to workplaces and governmental services.
Despite known negative consequences, Folaron highlights positive outcomes
brought by digital formats to counterbalance asymmetric relations. She notices
how the minority Canadian communities have incorporated quite advanced
technology, developing dynamic and participatory websites, implementing
updated online lessons, and maintaining a strong flow of communicative blogs,
chatrooms, and twitters.  Currently, members of the community and interested
people can exchange knowledge and experiences, access online learning, and
improve linguistic skills, including dialects, varieties, and registers.
Additionally, digital forms hold larger repository archives, collections of
documents, and multimodal resources that help maintain and enrich endangered
languages and invigorate communal identity and cultural wealth. 

Monzó-Nebot addresses “Translating values: Policymakers interpreting
interpretation in the 2018 Aquarius refugee ship crisis.” Chapter 9 describes
decisions taken by multilingual policy authorities, how agents handled the
emergency, and its impact on the newly arrived refugees. For example,
Valencian authorities immediately gathered professionals, non-professionals,
and volunteers to help the Libyan immigrants. Translators and language
mediators received intense training that consisted of basic communicative
skills in three languages (English, French, and Arabic), as well as social and
emotional skills. Local people reacted efficiently before the critical
circumstance, able to assist refugees with the understanding of oral
instructions and written signs, and the completion of migration forms, showing
them empathy and respect. Moreover, helpers were aware of the emotional
relevance of maintaining the same interpreter for each passenger, selecting
female personnel for pregnant women, and taking special care of children
traveling alone, throughout the immigration process. Learning from the
Aquarius episode, Monzó-Nebot pinpoints cooperation and consensual sets of
values and beliefs as main attributes needed in natural and human disasters.
The success of the 2018 emergency was the result of personal selflessness and
collective willingness, leaving behind internal frictions among stakeholders,
authorities, and translators, and prioritizing instead the building of
communicative bridges and a rich provision of linguistic and cultural
resources. 

Chapter 10 presents “EU institutional websites: Targeting citizens, building
asymmetries.” Biel examines online sites directed towards the Polish
population, written both in English, as the official language of the European
Union, and in Polish, as the local language that addresses domestic practices
and policies. The author analyzes the online texts following criteria of
specialization and engagement. For example, names, abbreviations, and
legislative procedures include a grade of specialized lexicon, which shows
similar jargon in the two languages. However, texts written in Polish contain
more colloquial expressions, which makes them more easily relatable, appealing
to the audience’s knowledge and emotions. In contrast, official EU webpages
offer more neutral and universal language, while, at the same time, they
underline values of citizenship, democracy, and stability more visibly and
frequently than the Polish version. Biel also finds out that the online
English and Polish texts share similar levels of engagement, as texts are
inclined to decrease the personal distance between the reader and the
institution, incorporating inclusive pronouns and imperative verbal forms.
Although current EU digital formats are purposefully designed to provide
accessibility to the global society and develop full involvement of all
European citizens, the webpages still comprise asymmetries between the
centralized power and peripheric institutions, evidenced by different ways of
handling political information and influencing lay audiences. 

 The third section of the book, “Resisting asymmetries,” offers alternative
power dynamics, reimagining successful and more balanced translation
relationships. Bandia explores the changing role of “Translation” [in]
“multilingualism and power differential in contemporary African literature.”
Chapter 11 outlines three major periods in African history, together with the
fictional literature that accompanies tensions and inequalities. The period
framed by the years immediately before and after independence shows the
passage from oral to written literature, highlighting the need for overcoming
old myths and false notions of primitivism, exotism, and magical essence to
create a new literary African canon. The postcolonial era offers instead a
literature centered in internal conflicts caused by corruption and puppet
governments, producing a literature that illuminates these asymmetries and the
relationship with the big metropoles.  Finally, the contemporary African
period has many writers living in the diaspora, and therefore they are urged
to translate conflicts between the home country and the host country, learning
to negotiate a new “across-borders” identity. Bandia traces the different
roles of translation throughout the years, from symbolizing the colonial
metaphor of manipulation and subjection to becoming a tool of liberation and
resistance in modern times. Thus, African intellectuals value the translation
activity as a powerful alternative to repair old injustices and
discrimination, legitimate the presence of “the other,” and recognize silenced
voices on the international scene. 

In Chapter 12, “Small yet powerful: The rise of small independent presses and
translated fiction in the UK,” Mansell lists big and well-known English
publishing companies (Penguin Random House, Hachette, Simon and Schuster,
etc.), which have grown a massive concentration of power, transforming the
book activity into one more business. In contrast, autonomous book agents are
slowly assuming a more relevant role, as they direct their efforts to
transforming the literary space into a broader space of different languages,
topics, genres, and regions. Their independent advocacy is also supported by
the rise of prestigious international book awards that help establish a new
and open-minded market. Consequently, translators are praised, as they help to
make known remote artists, educate local audiences in new values and overcome
ethnic, gender, and ableism biases. Therefore, autonomous publishing companies
enable more egalitarian relations between national and international
literature, between female and male writers, between northern and southern
regions, and between dominant and minority languages. Above all, they
counterbalance previous accumulated power, encompassing committed artists and
diversified interests in global societies. 

Godayol changes the focus to the feminist literature that appeared in Spain
after Franco (1939-1975). Chapter 13, “Against the asymmetry of the
post-Francoist canon: Feminist publishers and translations in Barcelona,”
signals the intersection between women’s movements and the emergence of
publishing houses and national and international meetings that promote strong
women. The author describes how the feminist literature of the transitional
years contributed to strengthen the representation of women, departing from
traditional reductionism to their role as mothers only. Well-known figures
such as Betty Friedan and Simone de Beauvoir encouraged feminist trends of
liberalism and existentialism, respectively.  The new literature helped to
restore women’s memory during different periods and build a stronger female
identity. Godayol notices how the new wave encouraged the translation of
international works that had paved the path of women’s liberation movements.
Therefore, translations became instrumental in facilitating access to
progressive experiences and creative work. Above all, it assists the
post-Francoist feminist movement to reinstate women’s knowledge and augment
their visibility, creating more inclusive and symmetric relationships in
contemporary literary worlds. 

Chapter 14 depicts an urban project that values “Citizens as agents of
translation versions: The polyphonic translation.” Floros recounts the
communal endeavor to revive the port of Famagusta and bring together Greek
Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots through the creation of a trilingual web
platform. The author emphasizes the relevant function played by the trilingual
pages, which moves beyond mere transliteration, as they include cultural
connotations inherent to each language. For example, some terms carry neutral
and distant meanings in English, such as “enclaves,” “conflict,” and
“inhabitants,” while they acquire heavy content-loaded meanings in the Greek
and Turkish translations. Moreover, translations performed in areas of
conflict usually encompass memory and amnesia simultaneously. In Famagusta,
for example, citizens use translations to preserve personal, group, and
national memories, as well as to overlook and forget damaging events from the
past. Floros underlines the presence of polyphonic translations that can
redirect old frictions and establish more symmetric power relationships. Above
all, he urges the building of a heteroglossic alternative, capable of
forgiving and forgetting, “transcreating” memories in emergency contexts.

Martín Ruano adopts a critical perspective in “(Re)locating translation within
asymmetrical power dynamics: Translation as an instrument of resistant
conviviality.” In Chapter 15 the author criticizes the identification of the
translating activity with a bridge that functions as a simple conduit between
languages. She reacts against the misleading metaphors of “neutrality” and
“naïveté,” which hide deeper powerful relationships of inequality, hierarchy,
and stratification. For example, the chapter collects documentation during the
recent outbreak of the coronavirus in Spain, showing how hearing-impaired
people did not receive equal access to information, due to a lack of
translators (Redacción Consalud, 2020). Therefore, the author proposes an
integral translation model that includes socio-cultural variables, supported
by truthful pluralism and diversity. The critical perspective attempts to
deepen the understanding of the complex translating activity, by analyzing
current conditions of displacements, transpositions, and relocations, and
possible alternatives to resist power asymmetries. Therefore, Martín Ruano
encourages translators to intervene through coherent policies and practices,
offering an alternative role of translation that enables a more balanced
conviviality.

The last chapter examines “Agency and social responsibility in the translation
of the migration crisis.”  Bennett illustrates how the role and power of the
translating activity are usually constrained by market forces that drive the
public’s collective consciousness. Drawing on legal sources, the author
illustrates with the English expression “illegal immigrant,” which does not
translate appropriately in the Portuguese legislation, because Portugal does
not criminalize migration, considers it a dehumanizing expression that
stimulates intolerance, and firmly aligns with the principles of the European
legislation. Other misleading translations happen in the field of journalism.
For example, when British newspapers and TV news programs recounted the
dismantling of the migrant camp at Calais in 2016, they translated the
original French “mineurs” (minors) into the English word, “children,” choosing
a more emotive term to generate compassion for the suffering, while evoking
the youth and vulnerability of “migrant children,” “child refugees,” and
“‘child’ migrants” (in inverted commas). This translation is highly
problematic because it opens political debates about the “correct” age of
being considered a child, as well as possible abuses of British hospitality by
migrants that may be not “children.” Considering the current environment
against immigration, Bennett warns translators to be extremely careful in the
selection of terms used in translation, to maintain a vigilant posture, to
regularly update legal knowledge, and to provide even fairer and more
respectful versions than the original texts. Moreover, the author encourages
the creation of more rigorous, sensitive, and responsible training courses,
where translators should demonstrate not only high levels of language
proficiency, but, above all, a code of ethics code that empowers them to
engage in difficult decisions and manage compromising material. 

EVALUATION

The edited book “Translating Asymmetry-Rewriting Power” offers an array of
studies in different fields (business, literature, biology, journalism, etc.),
countries (Spain, Poland, Cyprus, Sweden, etc.), and languages (English,
French, Greek, German, etc.), all of which share a critical perspective on the
scope and power of translation. Lay and experienced audiences will be
attracted by the transnational events included among the chapters, which
facilitate the abstract notions of power asymmetries and the changing role of
translations. Clearly, translators are acquiring a central position, gaining
agency and new status as advocates for minority communities which are usually
invisible because they speak less-known languages, experience disabilities, or
simply belong to a less valued age range or gender. Above all, the different
authors emphasize the influence of a committed translation to overcome unequal
relations, especially in current conflict zones, where waves of immigration
are changing the international landscape. Multidiversity societies demand
translations that reflect intellectual and emotional efforts to mitigate
inequalities and validate the endangered identity of people crossing blurry
borders.

REFERENCES

Affifi, R. (2014). Biological pedagogy as concern for semiotic growth.
Biosemiotics, 7(1), 73-88. https://doi.org/10.1007/S12304-013-91678-4

Afxentiou, A., Dunford, R., & Neu, M. (2017). Exploring Complicity. Concept,
cases and Critique. London: Rowman & Littlefield

Annamma, S., Connor, D., & Ferri, B. (2013). Dis/ability Critical Race Studies
(DisCrit): Theorizing at the intersections of race and Dis/ability. Race
Ethnicity and Education, 16(1), 1-31.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2012.730511 

Chapman, C., & Whiters, A. (2019). A violent history of benevolence.
Interlocking oppression in the moral economies of social working. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442625082 

Brier, S., & Joslyn, C. (2013). What does it take to produce interpretation?
Informational, piercean and code-semiotic views in biosemiotics. Biosemiotics,
6(1), 143-159

Cronin, M. (2017). Eco-translation: Translation and Ecology in the age of
Anthropocene. New Your, NY: Routledge. https://doi.org/10,4324/9781315689357 

Redacción ConSalud, R. (2020). “Las personas sordas manifiestan su
preocupación por falta de información sobre el coronavirus. “ConSalud.es.
February 27,2020.
https://www.consalud.es/pacientes/especial-coronavirus/cnse-manifiesta-preocup
ación-falta-información-corona-virus_74864_102.html 

Søderberg, A., & Romani, L. (2017). Boundary spanners in global partnerships.
A case of an Indian vendor's collaboration with western clients. Group &
Organization Management, 42(2), 237-278. https://doi:10.1177/1059601117696618


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Laura Dubcovsky is a retired instructor and supervisor from the Teacher
Education Program in the School of Education at the University of California,
Davis. With a Master’s in Education and a Ph. D in Spanish linguistics/with
special emphasis on second language acquisition, her interests tap topics of
language, bilingual education, and bilingual children’s literature. She has
taught bilingual teachers to use and practice communicative and academic
Spanish needed in bilingual classrooms for more than ten years. She is
currently helping with professional development courses for bilingual
teachers, interpreting in parent/teachers’ conferences, and translating for
several institutions, such as Davis and Riverside Joint Unified School
Districts, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, YoloArts in Woodland, Davis
Art Center, STEAC, and the Zapotec Digital Project of Ticha. Laura is a
long-standing reviewer for the Linguistic list Serve and the California
Association of School -University Partnerships (CASUP), and she also reviews
articles for the Elementary School Journal, Journal of Latinos and Education,
Hispania, and Lenguas en Contexto. She published “Functions of the verb decir
(‘to say’) in the incipient academic Spanish writing of bilingual children in
Functions of Language, 15(2), 257-280 (2008) and the chapter, “Desde
California. Acerca de la narración en ámbitos bilingües” in ¿Cómo aprendemos y
cómo enseñamos la narración oral? (2015). Rosario, Homo Sapiens: 127- 133.





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