Experiences in Translation, Toronto Italian Studies

by Eco, Umberto; McEwen, Alastair

• ISBN13: 9780802035332
• ISBN10: 0802035337
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-06-01
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

In this book Umberto Eco argues that translation is not about comparing two languages, but about the interpretation of a text in two different languages, thus involving a shift between cultures. An author whose works have appeared in many languages, Eco is also the translator of Grard de Nerval's Sylvie and Raymond Queneau's Exercices de style from French into Italian. In Experiences in Translation he draws on his substantial practical experience to identify and discuss some central problems of translation. As he convincingly demonstrates, a translation can express an evident deep sense of a text even when violating both lexical and referential faithfulness. Depicting translation as a semiotic task, he uses a wide range of source materials as illustration: the translations of his own and other novels, translations of the dialogue of American films into Italian, and various versions of the Bible. In the second part of his study he deals with translation theories proposed by Jakobson, Steiner, Peirce, and others.Overall, Eco identifies the different types of interpretive acts that count as translation. An enticing new typology emerges, based on his insistence on a common-sense approach and the necessity of taking a critical stance.

Author Biography

UMBERTO ECO is Professor of Semiotics, University of Bologna. He is known worldwide as the author of The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum and A Theory of Semiotics.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	ix
TRANSLATING AND BEING TRANSLATED	3	(62)
Equivalence in Meaning	9	(3)
Incommensurability versus Comparability	12	(2)
Sameness in Reference	14	(3)
Translating from Culture to Culture	17	(3)
Source versus Target	20	(2)
Foreignizing and Domesticating	22	(3)
Archaic versus Modern	25	(5)
Can a Translator Change the Story?	30	(10)
Translating Rhythm	40	(5)
How Not to Get More and How to Accept Less	45	(3)
Compensating for Losses	48	(2)
When the Text Has Us See Things	50	(7)
Compensation through Rewriting	57	(8)
TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION	65	(68)
Translatio	74	(1)
Rewording as Interpretation	75	(2)
Definition versus Translation	77	(3)
Buongiorno	80	(2)
The Substance of the Expression	82	(6)
Stylistic Values and Expressive Substance	88	(4)
Expressive Substance and Aesthetic Effect	92	(2)
Change of Continuum	94	(5)
Interpretation, Translation, and Transmutation	99	(30)
Borderline Cases	129	(4)
Bibliography	133