CFP--Translation Studies

[Melissa Smith]

We admire "naive" artists; I, for one, would have no problem with 
having my translations, published or otherwise, receiving a similar 
designation. The dabbling that I have done in translation theory in 
recent years, however, has made me aware of considerations that never 
would have crossed my mind otherwise. Humanity, and every human being, 
has moments of genius or inspiration. Scholarship, however, usually has 
something to do with reproducible results and verifiable hypotheses. 
This does not mean, of course, that awareness of theory always produces 
better, or even more serviceable, results than individual flashes of 
genius. I myself have often dismissed the work of sociologists as the 
labor-intensive verification of common sense.

Medicine is considered an art as well as a science. While many of us 
may be turning to alternative and natural medicine, I doubt that we 
would decide we were better off with the knowledge base of 19th-century 
practitioners. 

It is in the nature of human knowledge to evolve. While translation has 
been practiced ever since groups of humans who had independently 
invented codes of communication, our globalized consciousness demands 
that we pay closer attention to what we do in such situations, and how 
we do it.




 
On 2/14/10 11:16 AM, Alina Israeli wrote:
> You can compare it with acting (or painting). Actors acted even  
> before there were acting theories and schools. And even now there are  
> occasionally actors who did not have a single acting lesson,  
> Elizabeth Taylor for example. One can be a brilliant practitioner and  
> work on an instinct while being unable to theorize which does not  
> deny the fact that there can be theories behind the practice.
> 
> On Feb 13, 2010, at 11:42 PM, Susan LaVelle wrote:
> 
> > Translators have never translated without theory; readers often are  
> > unaware
> > of that theory.
> 
> Alina Israeli
> Associate Professor of Russian
> LFS, American University
> 4400 Massachusetts Ave.
> Washington DC 20016
> (202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
> aisrael at american.edu
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
>   options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
>                     http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-


------------------------------------

Melissa T. Smith, Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and 
Literatures  
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH 44555
Tel: (330)941-3462

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------