Nowadays, (d) translation of a culturally or historically significant work from a ... urge you to concentrate on translation from Indian classics, not only such literary ...
Research Area: Expanding horizons Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Fellow, Pavlov Institute, Kolkata
What is research? Dictionaries provide only a vague and inadequate definition of research. To put it in a nutshell, research in literature means (a) discovery of a new book and edit it, or (b) bring to notice a lost or almost forgotten work, and attempt an appraisal of it. Another kind of research means (c) selecting two, three, or several works, and show their relationship, something which had not been noticed before. Research involves something original, some valuable addition to the existing store of knowledge, not just a rehash of already existing views and a collection of other people’s opinions.. Nowadays, (d) translation of a culturally or historically significant work from a language other than English (not, however, from any intermediate language) into English with an Introduction and copious notes is also admitted as a doctoral dissertation. I would urge you to concentrate on translation from Indian classics, not only such literary texts as poetry, drama and fiction but also non-fiction works – Vidyasagar’s tracts on social reform, Bankim Chandra’s essays on the Veda, etc. You may choose more recent writers, Jibanananda Das’s articles on poetry, Bishnu Dey’s studies on modern poetry and the like. Here is a rich field waiting to be cultivated.
Literary Translation and Textual Translation Translation of texts (and whatever can be read is a text) from one source language (SL) to another, target language (TL) began and has continued right from the antiquity and throughout pre-modern times, but translation studies, aka traductiology (from French traductiologie) or, more rarely, translatology, is a relatively new discipline, born as late as the 1970s. It is interdisciplinary in approach, drawing from various disciplines such as computer science, cultural studies, linguistics, stylistics, etc. It involves a wide area of investigation covering both literary and non-literary texts. Translation of non-literary texts, such as works on engineering and medicine, business correspondence, government reports, etc., can be taught, faithfulness being the sole criterion. But literary texts demand more than equivalence and communicative purpose. Literary texts are characterized by (a) a written base-form, though both SL and/or TL may also be spoken, (b) they enjoy canonicity (high social prestige or at least acceptance), (c) they fulfil functions of affective/aesthetic rather than transactional or informational nature, aiming to provoke emotions and/or entertain rather
than influence or inform, (d) they are judged as fictional, whether fact-based or not, (e) they feature words and images with ambiguous and/or indeterminable meanings, etc. (Saldanha in: Baker and Saldanha 2008 p.152). Textual translation apparently does not distinguish between literary and non-literary texts. It has been defined as “a process by which a text is transformed into another text. This term does not make a distinction between interlingual and intralingual translations. The textual paraphrase of a text, for example, is a kind of textual translation, even if the two texts – prototext [the original or source text] and paraphrase – are composed with the same code.” (Torop) “Textual translation,” however, is not recognized as a technical term in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (2008 ed.). Translation studies deals with all aspects of translation activity, strategies of translation, varieties of translation and similar topics. It cannot, however, really teach how to translate literary texts well, for good translators, not unlike poets, are born, not made. Translation studies has generated and is generating neologisms and startling phrases, such as metatext, subtext, paratext, cognitive pragmatic process, Actor Network Theory, Social Game Theory, etc. Some models are also being suggested, such as, gatekeeping, commissioning, extratranslation event, etc. Without knowing anything of any of these, one can and does translate both literary and non-literary texts with élan and vivacity. For example, Roby (Rabindranath) Datta (1883 – 1917), a brilliant translator himself, suggested in brief a method of translation proper (Datta 1915 p.127-130). It provides an excellent guideline for translators of literary texts.
Suggested Reading Bassnett, Susan. 2003. Translation Studies. London and New York: Routledge (first pub. 1980). Datta, Roby. 1915. Prosody & Rhetoric. Calcutta: Das Gupta & Co. Saldanha, G. 2008. “Literary Translation” in: Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Ed. by Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha. London: Routledge, (first pub. 1998). Taylor & Francis e-library, 2009. Torop. P. “TextualTranslation,”
