Call for Papers: Special Issue of Translation
Studies: Orality and Translation, guest edited by Paul F. Bandia, paul.bandia@alcor.concordia.ca
There is a growing interest in orality as a concept underpinning research
in many disciplines, including translation studies. Orality has featured
prominently in studies related to pre-modernist traditions, modernist representations
of the past, and postmodernist expressions of artistry such as in audiovisual
media. Its conceptualization may vary according to the research objectives or
preoccupations of particular disciplines. Anthropologists and historians
conceptualize orality as the medium of expression and discourse of non-literate
cultures, while colonialists and Christian missionaries explored orality as a
means to understanding so-called primitive or heathen societies for purposes of
proselytism and civilization. Modernists have shown an anaphoric interest in
orality mainly as a sounding board for calibrating the privileges of modernity.
In more recent times, postmodernist preoccupations with orality have explored
issues related to the representation of otherness, the assertion of
marginalized identities through a variety of art forms such as literature,
cinema, music, painting and the spoken word.
In these various disciplines or approaches translation or interpretation
is indispensable as the conduit for the recording, textualization,
representation or appraisal of orality. Thanks to the influential work of
scholars like Albert Lord (The Singer of
Tales, 1960), Jack Goody (The
Domestication of the Savage Mind , 1977) and Walter Ong (Orality and Literacy: the Technologizing of the Word, 1982),
orality has shed its negative image as primitive, unwritten, non-literate and
exotic, and has grown into a major field of scientific interest and the focus
of interdisciplinary research including translation studies.
The increasing presence of research on orality in translation studies
seems to follow two main trajectories: (1) treatment of orality in interlingual
translation practice such as in interpretation and audiovisual translation
research. (2) exploration in translation research of issues related to the
representation of otherness or alterity, marginalized identities, minority or
subaltern language cultures, etc., such as in postcolonial translation research
(Paul Bandia, Translation as Reparation;
Maria Tymoczko, Translation in a
Postcolonial Context).
Other points of intersection between orality and translation can be
found in subfields and topics such as:
-
translation
history: Classics, Antiquity, Medieval, Renaissance, Oral Tradition
-
religious
translation, Bible translation and evangelization
-
consecutive,
simultaneous or community interpreting
-
colonialism,
postcolonialism, gender and cultural studies
-
intermedial,
intersemiotic and intercultural communication
-
translation
sociology, ethnography and anthropological translation
-
audiovisual
translation, film and media studies
-
literacy,
orality-writing interface, intercultural writing
-
translation
pedagogy, teaching literature in translation, and cultures of translation
These research areas and topics (and many more) are fertile ground for
exploring the intersection between orality studies and translation research,
and showcasing orality as an important research area in translation
studies.
Articles will be 5000-8000 words in length, in English. Abstracts of
400-500 words should be sent by email to the guest editor. Detailed style
guidelines are available at www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rtrs.
Schedule:
February 1, 2013: deadline for
submitting abstracts (400-500 words) to the guest editor
April 1, 2013: deadline for
decisions on abstracts
January 2014: submission of papers
September 2014: submission of final
versions of papers
May 2015: publication date
