The Carpathians - University of British Columbia
The Carpathians - University of British Columbia
The Carpathians - University of British Columbia
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was established at the Heinrich-Heine-<br />
Universitat in Diisseldorf, Germany, in<br />
1987. In this four-year-programme students<br />
study three subjects: two foreign languages<br />
(English, French, Italian, or Spanish) and<br />
their target language German. <strong>The</strong> volume<br />
provides information about areas <strong>of</strong> study<br />
and current research within the subject <strong>of</strong><br />
English. It should be noted, however, that<br />
only one contribution is actually written in<br />
English. <strong>The</strong> text is aimed at those interested<br />
in the transfer <strong>of</strong> literature and culture<br />
and is meant to give a representative<br />
idea <strong>of</strong> what the training and work <strong>of</strong> the<br />
translator entails. Unfortunately, Klaus<br />
Peter Miiller's informative and crucial<br />
introduction to the programme is buried in<br />
the third section <strong>of</strong> the collection ("Ûbersetzerausbildung-Ubersetzerwissen:<br />
Facetten einer Einfuhrung in die<br />
Literaturiibersetzung"). This overview,<br />
develops a useful framework addressing<br />
issues such as the interdisciplinary nature<br />
<strong>of</strong> translation, the role and status <strong>of</strong> the<br />
translator in society, and the theory and<br />
history <strong>of</strong> translation in the context <strong>of</strong> language<br />
philosophy.<br />
From a wide range <strong>of</strong> topics representing<br />
the areas <strong>of</strong> linguistics/ literary studies, theory<br />
and practice <strong>of</strong> translation, and pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
issues, let me mention only a few.<br />
Christa Buschendorf's paper on the<br />
German translations <strong>of</strong> Walt Whitman and<br />
Hans Peter Heinrich's study on recent<br />
translations <strong>of</strong> Shakespeare's sonnet no. 2<br />
are fascinating in their attempts to reconstruct<br />
the problems <strong>of</strong> translation and the<br />
processes <strong>of</strong> finding solutions. In comparison,<br />
Charlotte Franke's description <strong>of</strong> the<br />
difficulties she encountered in translating<br />
Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye is somewhat<br />
disappointing. She convincingly introduces<br />
some <strong>of</strong> the characteristics <strong>of</strong> Atwood's<br />
style that are difficult to translate into<br />
German but then leaves the reader with<br />
fourteen pages <strong>of</strong> examples without further<br />
comment. <strong>The</strong> passages from the original<br />
and from the translation are interesting to<br />
compare, but some explanation <strong>of</strong> her<br />
choices and preferences could have made<br />
this an intriguing contribution. Worth noting<br />
is also the final section related to pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
concerns. It comments on the<br />
practical training week at the European<br />
Translator College in Straelen and Barbel<br />
Flad makes many practical suggestions<br />
concerning work opportunities, contracts,<br />
negotiations and so on.<br />
Rainer Schulte's "Translation Methodologies:<br />
Re-creative Dynamics in Literature<br />
and the Humanities," the volume's only<br />
contribution in English, develops the idea<br />
<strong>of</strong> "translation thinking" that sees all acts <strong>of</strong><br />
communication as acts <strong>of</strong> translation.<br />
Schulte suggests that translation studies<br />
may be "an essential field <strong>of</strong> scholarship to<br />
revitalize literary and humanistic studies in<br />
the 1990s". For Schulte, translation thinking<br />
could enact a paradigm shift by moving to<br />
a systemic view <strong>of</strong> the world that emphasizes<br />
integration, interactivity, and interconnectedness.<br />
Translation aims at the<br />
reconstruction <strong>of</strong> the totality <strong>of</strong> the text in<br />
its human and historical context, which<br />
Schulte sees as a possible solution to the<br />
mechanistic outlook on the world, to "any<br />
reductionist approach to the interpretation<br />
<strong>of</strong> literary works", and the fragmentation <strong>of</strong><br />
literary criticism in general.<br />
<strong>The</strong> problematics <strong>of</strong> translation, <strong>of</strong> language<br />
in general, and <strong>of</strong> seeing "writing<br />
itself becoming an act <strong>of</strong> translation" are<br />
also among the recurring issues discussed<br />
in Acts <strong>of</strong> Concealment, a collection <strong>of</strong><br />
essays, poetry, and short stories that chronicles<br />
the May 1990 Waterloo conference on<br />
Mennonite/s Writing in Canada. As Hildi<br />
Froese Tiessen says in her acknowledgments,<br />
this volume draws to a close the<br />
activities connected with the conference,<br />
while at the same time opening the way for<br />
"new perspectives on and approaches to the<br />
literature <strong>of</strong> Mennonites in Canada". I<br />
expect that readers both with or without