Papers by Gabriela Saldanha
Corpus-based Studies across Humanities, 2024
The concept of subjectification plays a key role in Foucault’s theory of governmentality and has ... more The concept of subjectification plays a key role in Foucault’s theory of governmentality and has been an important tool for the analysis of policy discourses, for example, in the form of Bacchi’s (2009. Analysing Policy: What’s the Problem Represented to Be? Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Australia) ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ methodology. In this article, I demonstrate how corpus analysis can complement Bacchi’s methodology to offer a systematic and sophisticated account of subjectification processes in policy discourse, using Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) policy as a case in point. I combine Bacchi’s methodology with van Leeuwen’s (2008. Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press) linguistic framework for the analysis of discourse as social praxis, and argue that both Bacchi and van Leeuwen’s methodologies contain an important limitation, which is the assumption that agency is necessarily human. Drawing on anthropological theories of agency, I propose a broader concept of subjectification which includes the process whereby human agency is represented as things. From this perspective, another reading of the results emerges, in which the main subjects are medicines, and the aim of the policy is to save medicines.
Routledge Handbook of Translation Theory and Concepts, 2023
Positions in research methodologies are understood here as the methodological perspectives resear... more Positions in research methodologies are understood here as the methodological perspectives researchers adopt in relation to their object of study. As this chapter hopes to show, the way in which we conceptualize our object of study is inextricably linked to the methodologies adopted for its study, and it seems important to retain a critical perspective in relation to how the methods frame our view of the object. This chapter is organized around the kinds of data researchers collect, not only drawing on Saldanha and O’Brien’s (2013) distinction between product-, process-, participant- and context-oriented methodologies but also questioning the sustainability of such distinction. Despite the convenience of Saldanha and O’Brien’s model, it was devised as a way of mapping the methodological landscape in 2013 and, as this chapter demonstrates, this landscape is continually changing. the developments in TS methodologies in the last ten years have led the discipline beyond the categories of product, process, context, and participants; even notions of mixed methods and triangulation are too restrictive to describe the innovative ways in which data are being combined. Despite increased methodological sophistication, there is still a need for expanding the geographical, linguistic, social, and historical range of translation and interpreting studies phenomena under study.
Unsettling Translation, 2022
The relationship between a text and its translation is arguably one of the most basic questions a... more The relationship between a text and its translation is arguably one of the most basic questions addressed by translation theory. It is this relationship that defines translation and governs the value norms that emerge around a definition. Hermans’s proposal of authentication instead of equivalence as the defining feature of translation is the most important development in translation theory since Toury’s proposal of the notion of assumed translation and the subsequent disciplinary shift in focus from prescription to description. Hermans’s understanding of translation as metarepresentation highlights the inevitable presence of the
translator’s voice, thus facilitating a disciplinary shift away from fidelity as the key parameter for evaluating translation and promoting a self-reflective and ethically aware stance towards translation as social action.
In this article I argue that, in the context of literary translation, the notion
of performance captures more aspects of the translator’s art than that of voice. In particular, it enables the location of literary translation within a wider theory of art in a way that does better justice to its artistic nature. My claim is that in quoting another literary text, translators give rise to a new work of art which, authenticated or otherwise, takes on a life
of its own, beyond the control of authors and translators. The illusionary – but pragmatic and legal – effects of authentication disguise the nature of translation as a work of art with a social life of its own.
Interpreting and Translation Journal, 2020
This article proposes that in order to understand the nature of literary translation as an art fo... more This article proposes that in order to understand the nature of literary translation as an art form, we need to complement existing approaches drawing on literary, linguistic and sociological theories with insights derived from performance studies. As a way of exploring what the theorization of translation as performance art could contribute to our understanding of literary translation, I map four basic tenets of performance as restored behavior (Schechner 1985) to two translators' (Margaret Jull Costa and Peter Bush) accounts of their practice. The mapping is illustrated with writings by and interviews with the translators, focusing on four points of contact: the unresolved dialectal tension between self and other, the deliberate, rehearsed nature of decisions, the need for distance between original and performance/translation, and the role of the audience.
Translation Studies
In its appropriately hard-cooked translation, The Silence of the Rain is a striptease of a thrill... more In its appropriately hard-cooked translation, The Silence of the Rain is a striptease of a thriller that moves to a samba beat. Armchair travelers and sleuths alike should enjoy these vicarious vacations to Brazil.
Translation and Interpreting Studies
This article proposes that in order to understand the nature of literary translation as an art fo... more This article proposes that in order to understand the nature of literary translation as an art form, we need to complement existing approaches drawing on literary, linguistic and sociological theories with insights derived from performance studies. As a way of exploring what the theorization of translation as performance art could contribute to our understanding of literary translation, I map four basic tenets of performance as restored behavior (Schechner 1985) to two translators’ (Margaret Jull Costa and Peter Bush) accounts of their practice. The mapping is illustrated with writings by and interviews with the translators, focusing on four points of contact: the unresolved dialectal tension between self and other, the deliberate, rehearsed nature of decisions, the need for distance between original and performance/translation, and the role of the audience.
Perspectives, 2015
The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with p... more The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &
New and seasoned researchers alike are often bewildered by the vast array of different methodolog... more New and seasoned researchers alike are often bewildered by the vast array of different methodologies and theoretical frameworks employed in translation studies (TS), making initiating a research pr...
The Translator Studies in Intercultural Communication, 2011
Significant advances, notably by Baker (2000) and Munday (2008), have been made towards identifyi... more Significant advances, notably by Baker (2000) and Munday (2008), have been made towards identifying individual stylistic traits in the work of translators in recent years. However, there is no clear theoretical and methodological framework to guide research in this area. This paper attempts a step in this direction by proposing a working definition of translator style and exploring the methodological difficulties of finding convincing evidence of a consistent and coherent stylistic profile in the work of a translator. The article examines the different methodological approaches adopted in previous work and tests the working definition proposed here through a corpus-driven study of the styles of two British translators, Peter Bush and Margaret Jull Costa. The analysis focuses on the use of emphatic italics and foreign words and is supplemented by examining the use of the connective that after the reporting verbs SAY and TELL.
The aim of this study is to identify and explore typical stylistic traits in the work of two tran... more The aim of this study is to identify and explore typical stylistic traits in the work of two translators, using a corpus-based, data-driven methodology. Following Halliday (1971), Leech and Short (1981) and Baker (2000), the translator’s style is seen here as involving a consistent pattern of choices that distinguishes the work of one translator from that of others. In the present study such patterns emerge from a data-driven analysis of a purpose-built parallel corpus containing works of Spanish and Portuguese fiction and their translations into English by Margaret Jull Costa and Peter Bush. Comparative dataare drawn from COMPARA, a bi-directional parallel corpus of English and Portuguese narrative. The quantitative analysis shows that Margaret Jull Costa makes greater use of italics for emphasis than does Peter Bush, or than would be expected on the basis of norms for translations from Portuguese. Peter Bush’s translations, on the other hand, are characterized by a comparatively h...
Meta 56(2):, 2016
This article argues that emphatic italics, a typographic feature regularly ignored by linguists a... more This article argues that emphatic italics, a typographic feature regularly ignored by linguists and associated with poor style, have an important stylistic function in English, often working in implicit association with prosodic patterns in spoken language to signal marked information focus, thus fulfilling an important role in information structure and adding a conversational and involved tone to written texts. Emphatic italics are more common in English than in other languages because tonic prominence is the preferred means of marking information focus in English, while other languages use purely linguistic devices, such as word order. Thus arises the question of what happens in English translations from and into other languages. The study presented here looks at results obtained from a bidirectional English-Portuguese corpus (COMPARA) which suggest that italics may be less common in English translations from Portuguese than in non-translated English texts. This trend could potentially be explained by the use of common features of translated language, in particular explicitation and conservatism (also known as normalization). However, a closer look at the work of particular translators shows that the avoidance or use of italics is not a consistent feature of translations and may be a characteristic feature of the stylistic profile of certain translators.
Olohan and Baker (2000: 142) suggest that among studies dealing with translation “universals”, al... more Olohan and Baker (2000: 142) suggest that among studies dealing with translation “universals”, also known as “features of translation” (see Olohan 2004: 90-92), the general preference has been to focus on explicitation. This seems to be corroborated by a quick search on St Jerome’s Translation Studies Abstracts and Bibliography of Translation Studies database, where a simple search for the terms explicitation/ explicitating, normaliz/sation, simplification, standardiz/sation produces 65, 42, 41 and 6 hits, respectively. These studies mostly report on quantitative studies of explicitation (for example, Shlesinger 1995, Olohan/Baker 2000, Olohan 2001, Øverås 1998, Nilsson 2002, Puurtinen 2004, Klaudy/Károly 2005, Kenny 2005) and tend to rely on previous definitions of explicitation (for example by Vinay/Darbelnet 1958/1977, Blum-Kulka 1986 or Baker 1993), without actually engaging with those definitions and their implications for their findings. Notable exceptions are Séguinot (1988) ...
Aquest article estudia els principis de la linguistica de corpus com a metodologia concebuda dins... more Aquest article estudia els principis de la linguistica de corpus com a metodologia concebuda dins de la tradicio neo-Firthiana de la linguistica, aixi com l'aplicacio d'aquests principis en la recerca dins dels estudis de traduccio, amb especial atencio a la recerca descriptiva, no tant l'aplicada. L'article analitza assumpcions fetes sobre el llenguatge quan s’analitza des de la perspectiva de la linguistica de corpus, aixi com principis metodologics que resulten claus en l'us productiu de corpus emprats com a recursos de recerca.
One reason the Irish citizen’s experience of the euro differs from that of the other 11 eurozone ... more One reason the Irish citizen’s experience of the euro differs from that of the other 11 eurozone countries is that the Irish punt was the only currency that had a unit value greater than the euro. This makes it especially interesting as a case study. Retrospective interviews were carried out between November 2002 and February 2003 with the aim of eliciting participants’ interpretations of their experience since before the introduction of the euro. As well as being interesting in its own right, interview evidence on currency adaptation can be very important in the cross-validation and triangulation of findings from surveys and experiments. A purposive sample of 24 adult Irish citizens was recruited from the Dublin area, sampling as widely as possible on three respondent characteristics, age (17 to 75 years), level of education (from minimum schooling to degree level or higher) and gender. The semi-structured interviews covered Irish adults’ experience of the transition from just befo...
The Translator Studies in Intercultural Communication, 2005
Saldanha Gabriela Style of Translation an Exploration of Stylistic Patterns in the Translations of Margaret Jull Costa and Peter Bush Phd Thesis Dublin City University, 2005
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Papers by Gabriela Saldanha
translator’s voice, thus facilitating a disciplinary shift away from fidelity as the key parameter for evaluating translation and promoting a self-reflective and ethically aware stance towards translation as social action.
In this article I argue that, in the context of literary translation, the notion
of performance captures more aspects of the translator’s art than that of voice. In particular, it enables the location of literary translation within a wider theory of art in a way that does better justice to its artistic nature. My claim is that in quoting another literary text, translators give rise to a new work of art which, authenticated or otherwise, takes on a life
of its own, beyond the control of authors and translators. The illusionary – but pragmatic and legal – effects of authentication disguise the nature of translation as a work of art with a social life of its own.
translator’s voice, thus facilitating a disciplinary shift away from fidelity as the key parameter for evaluating translation and promoting a self-reflective and ethically aware stance towards translation as social action.
In this article I argue that, in the context of literary translation, the notion
of performance captures more aspects of the translator’s art than that of voice. In particular, it enables the location of literary translation within a wider theory of art in a way that does better justice to its artistic nature. My claim is that in quoting another literary text, translators give rise to a new work of art which, authenticated or otherwise, takes on a life
of its own, beyond the control of authors and translators. The illusionary – but pragmatic and legal – effects of authentication disguise the nature of translation as a work of art with a social life of its own.