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Analysing Text for Translation: Genesis of Stylistic Categories for Comparing Language Pairs

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Sushant Kumar Mishra

Professor, Centre for French and Francophone Studies, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Emails: sushantkmishra@mail.jnu.ac.in, sushantjnu@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.14

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Abstract:

Translation related issues have been explored since times immemorial in various societies of the world. Transferring language-based knowledge systems and experiences have been an exclusive faculty of the human species. Paraphrasing vs metaphrasing in translating texts have been important concerns of translators while expressing the thoughts in texts of language into another language. Should there be a politics of these two approaches being applied as per the ideological requirements? In the background of this question, we need to understand how and why the successors of Saussure continued working on the stylistic categories of expressions of ordinary language usages while often comparing the two language pairs also in the context of style and translation. The presentation aims to explore the translation theories in the context of the ideological requirements of their times and continues to understand the comparative stylistic categories of Saussure’s successors which are useful in practically translating a text.

Keywords: Stylistic Categories, Translation, Language Pairs, text, metaphrastic styles

Orality, Literacy and Translation

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Panchanan Mohanty

GLA University, Mathura. E-mail: panchananmohanty@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.13

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Abstract

Though translation activities are more than two millennia old, the most significant activities in this field took place in the 20th century. To be specific, contradictory theoretical positions were taken and entirely new kinds of questions were asked in the second half of this century. Scholars like Susan Bassnett (1998) even claimed that a translation should be treated as an independent and original text. But a number of writers, translators and scholars hold an opposite view. If we consider the translation activities of the ancient western civilizations of the world, we notice that those were mostly commissioned and literal in nature. Contrary to it, the situation in India was different. Though Valmiki and Vyasa composed the Ramayana and the Mahabharata respectively for the first time in Sanskrit, the Ramayanas and Mahabharatas written later in various vernacular languages of India are adaptations or transcreations. A careful analysis of the European, Arabic, and Chinese traditions show that those were literate in comparison with the vernacular Indian tradition that was predominantly oral. This orality gave a lot of freedom to the writers in the vernacular languages in ancient India to be creative and compose new texts. Therefore, orality was the driving force for this creativity and some western scholars’ proposal that a translated text is an original text in not a new concept.

The other point I would like to make is that contrary to the popular belief, a literal translation of a literary text is also appreciated more (Newmark 1988:70-71). This position is validated in two of our case studies, i.e. Mohanty et al. (2008) and Mohanty and Sarath Chandra (2014). Therefore, I want to argue that ‘free’ translation was the mainstream in the climate of orality and not in literacy. This free trend endorsed by those scholars who treat translations as original texts is peripheral in the contemporary literate societies in which translations are usually commissioned. I will also argue that the differences between the free and the literal trends in translation are primarily due to the oral and the literate traditions that prevailed in India and in the other parts of the world mentioned above in the olden days.

Keywords: Translation Studies, Orality, Literacy, Transcreation

Editorial Introduction

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Tariq Khan1 & Priyanka Tripathi2

1Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru. ORCID: 0000-0003-2763-9675. Email: tariq.khan@gov.in

2Indian Institute of Technology Patna. ORCID: 0000-0002-9522-3391. Email: priyankatripathi@iitp.ac.in

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.12

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Language and translation are phenomena in which the splendours of human intellect abound and become easily perceptible. Perhaps, that is why language and translation are concomitants even though the symbiotic relationship between the two remains occasionally recognized and often ignored. Both language and translation have been playing an instrumental role in creating and carrying forward the access and advances of knowledge, culture, literature, science and technology. Therefore, it is natural that academic writings concerning the issues of language and translation manifest in variegated forms and gets utilized as a means of and pretext for serving different purposes by writers and translators. This issue of the journal encapsulating eight papers may serve as an example to demonstrate the diverse ways in which scholarly pursuits have engaged language and translation and the relationship of mutualism between the two. Here is a bird’s eye view:

An instance of translation necessitates not only a successful transfer of meaning from one language to another but also that of the style of it. Therefore, the instantiations of translation are examples of comparative stylistics. Panchanan Mohanty in his paper liberates translation from the rigmarole of transcreation, adaptation, literal translation etc. and advocates it to be a free text by citing various examples. According to him, the differences that lie between the free and the literal trends in India are primarily due to the oral and the literate traditions. The paper by Sushant Kumar Mishra illustrates the Indian tradition of translation and recreation of metanarrative texts and in doing so he discusses how factors such as ideology and style influence the actions and outcome of the translation. Shilpi Gupta’s paper is an outcome of a translation project. This paper contextualizes the translation of Anzaldua’s book Borderlands in Indian languages. The salient aspect of this paper is that it foregrounds the translation of a work that represents not only mixed language but also diverse perspectives. This paper offers insights about translation challenges arising due to cultural peculiarities and gaps.

Language testing and evaluation are issues that merit attention on par with language teaching and learning. In recent years, automated assessments have become very popular. Shanti Murugan and Balasundram S. R. argue that such popular advances may be easy and economical; however, their application needs to improve considerably. In this paper, the authors demonstrate how affix-based distractor generators can be more reliable especially for generating multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and cloze tests. Automated assessments have also become part of ELT classrooms where a shift towards a student-centric model has been observed. Amal Tom and Nagendra Kumar’s paper discusses the integration of technology in ELT, analyses different perspectives and approaches of individual teachers in developing and evaluating language skills and argues further on how exploring digital avenues have been complementary to traditional classroom teaching especially in the context of effects of the recent pandemic. The paper by Amritha Koiloth Ramat and Shashikantha Koudur examines the role of dictionaries in the modernization of a language. Their paper focuses on Hermann Gundert’s Malayalam-English bilingual dictionary in the context of modernization of Malayalam. Further, this paper discusses the emergence of a new Malayalam that is relatively free of Sanskrit.

The cultural aspects that remain ingrained in translation have frequently occurred in the discussions and the nuanced reading of these translations has successfully stimulated interesting debates too. The paper by Azhar Uddin Sahaji offers a biography of the word ‘noor’ and presents the changes it has undergone while transcending from Classical Arabic to modern languages such as Punjabi and Hindi. Azhar argues that in the process of translation and adaptation the word ‘noor’ has not undergone any large-scale semantic change. The value attached to this word remains unaffected while the change has mostly occurred at the level of transliteration. Febin Vijay and Priyanka Tripathi’s paper explores literature as one the most challenging genres to translate. Exploring the genre of crime/detective fiction through Abir Mukherjee’s A Rising Man enriched with rhetorical devices, puns, and idiomatic expressions the paper clearly indicates how literary genres have evolved significantly over the decades and differs depending on the theoretical framework. The discourse concerning language and translation has kept growing and adding diversity to itself thereby modifying the parameters of the representation. The advancements in various other domains of human intellect have also benefitted from this diversity and contributed to it as well. This issue of the journal stands testimony to the signifying practice of translation. It interrogates our comprehension of reading and writing and also brings to the forefront the location of textual authority along with the possibilities and challenges of translation.

Hope the readers will have a riveting experience!

Pain, Partum and Prayer: The Dis-ease of Motherhood in Early Modern English Literature

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Namrata Chaturvedi

Associate Professor, Department of English, SRM University, Sikkim. Email: namratachaturvedi.v@srmus.edu.in

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.04

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Abstract

This paper is a close study of early modern women’s poetry on childbirth and the imminent circumstances of maternal and foetal/infantile mortality in seventeenth century England. In tracing the development of women’s post-partum mental health from the medieval to the early modern period, this paper argues for a serious investment in literature composed as memoirs, poetry, diaries and funeral sermons as a means of understanding the trajectories and lacunae in women’s mental health in the early modern period. This study also argues for including the religious experience into any consideration of women’s post-partum health and therapeutic interventions. Lastly, it shows how affect studies have proved the recuperative potential in literature of consolation and mourning so that women’s writing begins to get recognized for its interventionist potential rather than a fossilized historical treatment as it has often received.

Keywords: Partum, Early Modern, Women, Mental Health, England

Critical Dialogue: Poetics, Self-Understanding and Health

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Richard Deming1, Justin Clemens2 & Valery Vino3

1Senior Lecturer, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

2Associate Professor, English and Theatre Studies, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

3Philosopher, Northern Rivers, Australia. Email: valery.arrows@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.11

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In the thick of the global plague, Richard, Justin and Valery agreed to hold a conversation on the topic of poetics, self-understanding, and health. An analysis and discussion of this trinity requires love of poetry and philosophy. Both supreme human practices take common root in mythology and religion, and also share a notorious categorical divide, that of reason against affect. Is this Platonic divide indeed categorical, given both practices rely on language and creativity to compose their meaning? Interestingly, the practice of poetics does not have the reputation for boosting one’s health, in the mainstream understanding of that concept. If anything, poetic practice gained notoriety for corrupting one’s mind and, possibly, life. Like philosophy? We touched on these and other classical aporia, on the political struggles in American and Australian poetry. Here is a written record of this encounter, countries and miles apart, three persons simply getting to know one another.

Key words: poetics, philosophy, conflict, self-understanding, health

Epilepsy, Forgetting, and Convalescence in Ondaatje’s Warlight

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Jan Gresil S. Kahambing

Social Science Unit, Leyte Normal University, Philippines. ORCID: 0000-0002-4258-0563. Email: jan_kahambing@lnu.edu.ph

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.10

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Abstract

Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight (2018), his latest novel to-date, contains nostalgic elements of strangeness and cartography. In this paper, I short-circuit such themes with health under medical humanities, which heeds a Nietzschean counsel of close reading in literature. To do so, I explore the case of Rachel’s illness, namely her epileptic seizures, as an instance that drives her impetus for active forgetting and eventual convalescence. A close hermeneutical reading of the novel can reveal that both of Nietzsche’s ideas on active forgetting and convalescence provide traction in terms of what this paper constructs as Rachel’s pathography or narration of illness. Shifting the focus from the main narrator, Nathaniel, I argue that it is not the novel’s reliance on memory but the subplot events of Nathaniel’s sister and her epilepsy that form a substantial case of medical or health humanities.

Keywords:  Forgetting, Epilepsy, Health, Humanities, Nietzsche, Convalescence

Teaching Philippine Literature and Illness: Finding Cure in Humanities

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John Paolo Sarce

Lecturer, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines. Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines. ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4428-778X. Email: john.sarce@obf.ateneo.edu  

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.09

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Abstract

Health and illness as themes are uncommonly being touched in literature classrooms. Other than the lack of interdisciplinary studies or specialists in this field in the Philippines, often teachers are also confronted with tons of materials that they are either overwhelmed to teach or find it difficult to deliver on their classes. This is the goal of this paper, help teachers gain confidence and basic knowledge of teaching literature that discusses health and illness especially at this time of history. Helping both teachers and students to understand and appreciate literature as a space for developing empathy while also honing their communicative and critical thinking skills. This paper will execute this goal by providing teachers in high school a guide in teaching literature that tackles health and illness using Philippine literature. I will translate theories and concepts from other studies into easy and clear language that teachers and students will find accessible to learn and use. And to organize this article, I will divide this into three parts the first is backgrounding and developing the framework in teaching literature about health and illness. Second, the application of the framework developed using two Philippine literature texts. And lastly, this paper will demonstrate how to teach Philippine literature that tackles health and illness using an online learning management system like Canvas or Google Classroom.

Keywords: Philippine Literature, Teaching Literature, Health Literature, Illness Literature, Medical Humanities

Dis/embodied Body: Representation of Plague in Thomas Nashe’s “A Litany in Time of Plague” and Thomas Dekker’s London Looke Backe

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Khandakar Shahin Ahmed

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Dibrugarh University. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0482-4835. Email: shahenahmed252@gmail.com        

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.08

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Abstract

Understanding of disease is not merely confined to the pathological perception of the somatic symptoms. Instead, a society’s understanding and management of disease may necessarily also take recourse to ideas referring outside and beyond the human body. The explanation of the plague in early modern England, an era marked by the rapid recurrence of the epidemic, is a notable event in this regard. The plague-ridden body of the early modern times is located in a state of pre-medicalization of the human body, and in the absence of a medicalized narrative, the understanding of the epidemic is not based on the somatic paradigm. The incipient state of the medical study precipitates the ground for understanding the epidemic in the light of religious discourse. From a reading of Thomas Nashe’s “A Litany in a Time of Plague” and Thomas Dekker’s London Looke Backe it can be deciphered that the plague-infected body is perceived as a site of divine justice. In interpreting the epidemic as vengeful God’s rage inflicted upon the sinful humanity, the early modern explanation disembodies the diseased body from its somatic dimension. In doing so it resurfaces the problematic dichotomies of body and soul, medical science and religion. In taking cognizance of the fact that the understanding of a disease is largely determined by the socio-cultural ‘constructs’ of the disease, this paper, through a reading of the above-mentioned works, attempts to explore how the diseased body is caught in a complex network of contesting ideas and beliefs in early modern England.

Keywords: epidemic, somatic, medicalization, gaze

Beauplaisir as a Disabled Libertine in Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina; or Love in a Maze

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Difeng Chueh

Assistant Professor, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan. Email: difeng.c@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.07

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Abstract

This paper aims to explore Beauplaisir’s disabled libertine identity in Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina; or Love in a Maze (1725) in order to understand how “disability” was conceptualized by eighteenth-century authors. Beauplaisir is a libertine obsessed with pursuits of sexual pleasure with various women. In those sexual adventures, Beauplaisir constructs his abled libertine identity through his observation skills. In fact, Beauplaisir’s observation skills also render him disabled. Haywood’s portrayal of Beauplaisir’s disabled libertine identity offers another way to examine meanings of disability in eighteenth-century literary works. As I will contend, the definition of “disability” was not limited to a person’s physical or mental impairment in the eighteenth century. Instead, an eighteenth-century person could become disabled when s/he lost certain qualifications for becoming a member of a particular group. The word “disabled” or “disability” was used in this way by eighteenth-century writers such as Samuel Johnson and Jonathan Swift. As I will show, Beauplaisir’s disabled libertine identity is a result of his being excluded from the abled libertine group. This exclusion results from a trick imposed on him by Fantomina. Thus, examinations of Beauplaisir’s disabled libertine identity will point out another side of “disability.”

Keywords: disabled libertine, eighteenth-century libertinism, eighteenth-century disability studies, exclusion

Health and Healing: Retention of the Popularity of Ashtavaidya Tradition during the Colonial Regime

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Maya Vinai

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS Pilani (Hyderabad Campus). ORCID: 0000-0001-5217-9645. Email: mayavinai@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.06

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Abstract

During the early 19th century, health and medical care was one of the avenues of contestations whereby the British Raj sought to establish their hegemony. With the introduction of western epistemic framework, allopathic medicine became the official medical system of British India.  Licenses, charters, permits and acts, colonial hospitals and doctors came together to disparage the indigenous system of medicine and healthcare. Assailed as using “unscientific Oriental procedures’ several folk healers lost their traditional practice and livelihood. However, amidst all these colossal manoeuvres, the popularity and relevance of the Ashtavaidya tradition, practiced by eighteen Namboodiri families in Kerala remained unscathed. The medical practices customized by the Ashtavaidyans who themselves were an “outcaste” within the Namboodiri community was highly codified and has remained a closely guarded secret within their lineage. This essay probes into the multiple reasons behind how the Ashtavaidya tradition retained its relevance, despite the colonial gambit to repudiate the indigenous practices. Through the legends and mythical stories woven around the healing practices of Ashtavaidyans in Aithihyamala by the court scribe of 19th century, Kottarathil Sankunni, the essay argues that relevance of the Ashtavaidyans could be due to the transformation of Ashtavaidya tradition as markers of cultural pride and the popular image generated by various myths and legends that got registered in the public consciousness.

Keywords: Ashtavaidyan, healthcare, colonialism, nationalism, philanthropy

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