Translation Studies

Translation History is a new field of enquiry in terms of discussion of methodology, and the questions regarding object of enquiry and methodology of translation historiography are still in the formative stages. Most of the historiography on translation in India operates by taking the existing nation-state as a given tradition while constructing the history and traditions of translation. Translations which happen between Indian languages and those across nations in the earlier period are under-researched. It has often been said that India had a different notion of translation than the one that exists today. But the work done in this area is far from satisfactory. The present paper tries to look at how the translators (from Prakrit, Sanskrit and Tamil, three languages in India that are older than Kannada) perceive the act of encoding a text in Kannada, when a prior text existed. It culls out sections from their compositions where they explicitly acknowledge the existence of a prior text and theorize from that source material by placing it in the larger socio-historical context of that activity. It is a preliminary attempt to trace the history of translation poetics in the Kannada language. The paper while attempting to look at the poetics of translation during pre-colonial period in Kannada also elaborates on the necessity of a translation database for such a translation historiography and the problems of creating one for the precolonial period.

Ever since its encounter with what we today call as India or the Indian subcontinent, English has been the site of many debates, and it has also acted as a trigger altering the way we think and organize our lives. In the past two decades or so, there has been a number of studies/research projects on the political function of English in colonial and postcolonial contexts ranging from calling it a "mask of conquest" to the "Dalit Goddess". i While it is interesting to look at the political implications of these arguments or the context in which such arguments/assertions appear, the theoretical underpinnings of some of these debates, especially the link between language and caste, need to be taken into consideration, so as to reflect on two issues: 1. The debate on caste as a system and 2. Philosophy/theory of language/s. The present paper tries to throw up some of the issues on caste and language for discussion, hoping that it would lead to a substantial, sustained and organized work in this area.

It is a common understanding that B.M. Srikantia was one of the pioneers in initiating the use of modern Kannada by abandoning old Kannada in the writing of poetry. His English Geethagalu, which has been a landmark since its publication, bears witness to this fact. English Geethagalu is a collection of translations of English poems into Kannada, published in 1923. It served as a model for the use of language in writing poetry in Kannada. 1 But even as he championed the use of a new standardized and modernized language for lyrics, he adopted old Kannada while translating Greek tragedy into Kannada. It is worth investigating the context of, and the views of B.M. Srikantia on, the use of different kinds of Kannada for different genres.

In this interview, Susie Tharu spoke about her personal experiences with the women's movement, her contributions and involvement with the feminist organizations in Hyderabad, and her works from women writing in India (1991) to the Latest Steel Nibs are sprouting (2013).

The study attempts to understand the role of intermediary agencies in the area of translating global feminist knowledge into the Telugu society. Identifying translators, organizations, publishing houses and magazines as such agencies, it provides an analysis of the Skopos (purpose) and function of this feminist knowledge. The study further discusses the intentions/ ideologies of agents in using translation as a significant socio­political instrument in the construction of the feminist discourse in the Telugu society. While demonstrating how translation was used as a transmitter for the circulation and distribution of feminist ideas in the Telugu society, it will try and gauge the influence of International feminist thinking on Telugu feminist translators, writers and activists. It also throws light on the opposition met in translating feminist ideas into Telugu, and the intellectual efforts and resistance provided by the feminist translators, writers, activists and publishers as agents of social change, thereby bringing acceptability to the discussion on feminism in public sphere is also attempted.

And in the year 2007, when Anveshi Research Centre for Women's Studies, Hyderabad, determined to document the lives of the most empowered women, it decided on doing the biography project of T.N. Sadalakshmi, who was not only by that time but even to this day the most accomplished and most politically empowered of women from Telangana Dalit (Madiga Caste), and the project was entrusted to Shyamala Gogu. In 2011, Shyamala published the biography of one of Telangana's leading women Dalit politicians, T.N. Sadalakshmi titled 'Nene Balanni'-T.N. Sadalakshmi Bathuku Katha ('I Am an Empowered Woman': The Life Story of T.N. Sadalakshmi). This biographical work of Shyamala is based on extensive research and a series of interviews she had conducted not only with T.N. Sadalakshmi but also with her family members, numerous community leaders, contemporaries in power, politics, opposition, Dalit and Madiga Dandora Movement for ABCD categorisation for Sub-castes' Reservation, and Separate State movement for Telagangana. This became

The present study aims to explore how the use of translated Saudi folk narratives could help improve Saudi EFL learners' reading and speaking skills. (41) EFL elementary-level students from Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University were selected for this study to identify and assess the influences of the translated Saudi folk stories in enhancing the reading and speaking skills of Saudi EFL learners. An experiential teaching method using selected translated Saudi stories into English was adopted. The preliminary findings in the pre-intervention stage have shown that the students were neither motivated to read the content nor speak in English as the students encountered some kind of difficulties in comprehending the translated stories. The post-intervention results demonstrated that the students were motivated to read the Arabic stories in English. It also showed that the students were engaged to speak about Saudi / Arabic oral stories and culture. The effect of using Saudi-translated stories was observed in improving the reading and speaking skills of EFL Saudi learners. Thus, the study concludes that it is essential to use the translated Arabic folk stories as supplementary teaching material in the EFL reading and speaking classes. It also suggests that we need to translate Saudi folk stories into English for the benefit of Arabic and non-Arabic readers and speakers.

This paper studies the role of intermediary agencies in translating global feminist knowledge into the Telugu context. Identifying translators, organisations, publishing houses and magazines as such agencies, it offers an analysis of the function of this feminist thought. The study discusses the ideologies of agents in using translation as a political instrument to construct feminist discourse in the Telugu context. While demonstrating how translation was used as a transmitter for the circulation of feminist ideas, it gauges the influence of global feminist thinking on Telugu feminist translators, writers and activists. It also throws light on the opposition met in translating feminist ideas into Telugu, intellectual efforts and the resistance provided by the feminist translators, writers, activists and publishers as agents of social change to make feminist translation work relevant in the Telugu context.

Translation practises are rapidly changing in the field of TV advertisements as the goods and services are crossing boundaries. Texts are being localized beyond the notion of a source text and a single target text. The present paper analyses a series of such advertisements of a soap product. The objective of the study is to understand how the concept of text is rapidly changing in the process of localization, in the field of audio visual translation. The widening scope of the text and its role in translating an 'idea' which is assumed to be formed at the stage of internationalization is discussed. It observes various aspects that impinge the process of localization across time and space through descriptive analysis.