The outer limits of otherness: Ideologies of human translation in speculative fiction

Washbourne, Kelly

doi:10.1080/14781700.2014.931817

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…These issues tie in with discussions about translation as represented in science fiction (for example Mossop 1996 andWashbourne 2015), the representation of translation more generally (see Beebee's concept of "transmesis"; 2012), and the translation of science fiction texts themselves. The migration of radical cultural specificity from factual situations to fictional ones will have to be left for another day.…”

Section: What We Inventmentioning

confidence: 95%

Radical cultural specificity in translation

Strowe

2020

TIS

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Most existing discussions of cultural specificity in translation presume that although translation may be difficult, the meaning of culturally specific terms is at least known. This article considers the possibility of "radical cultural specificity," in which the meaning of the item is inaccessible to the reader or translator and no native participant in the source culture is available to advise.Based on the concepts of culturally specific items from the work of Javier Aixelá and radical translation from the work of W.V.O. Quine, I develop the notion of radical cultural specificity using examples from medieval Celtic literature, highlighting the role of knowledge and lack of knowledge in interpretation and translation. The concept is then briefly applied to science fiction or speculative fiction as well, suggesting that these concerns are not merely the province of scholars of historical literature.

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Section: What We Inventmentioning

confidence: 95%

Radical cultural specificity in translation

Strowe

2020

TIS

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“…Speculative fabulation was especially used to expand students' understanding of gendered systems (Truman, 2019) and to teach issues of race, class, and poverty in an intersectional manner (Ellis and Martinek, 2018). Moreover, speculative fabulation has been considered as playing an important role in addressing social justice and climate change (Adami, 2019), cultural consumption and social inequalities (Keifer-Boyd and Smith-Shank, 2006), immigration and international relations (Boaz, 2020), ethnocentricity and otherness (Washbourne, 2015), etc.…”

Section: Using Speculative Fabulation In Teachingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching time as a social imaginary. Using speculative fabulation to deconstruct the hegemonic temporalities of modernity

Preda

Matei

2023

Time & Society

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In this paper, we discuss our experience in teaching time to university students. Our analysis suggests that students’ sociological imagination and fictional creativity might be used as means to deconstruct the hegemonic temporalities of modernity. Specifically, we exemplify our claims by considering a set of classroom activities that use speculative fabulation in order to make students question key assumptions about the objective nature of time. The activities we discuss are based on an original combination of exposure to cultural products, reflective writing exercises, and moderated group discussion, thus opening up new horizons of temporal experimentation, exploration, and interpretation. Our activities invite students to imagine alternative temporalities that are decoupled from prevalent mindsets and challenge the taken-for-granted assumptions about the temporal worlds. The assignments are designed as imaginative scenarios, in which students are asked to question the universal, commodified, and absolute notion of time while becoming familiar with the work of relevant thinkers in sociology and anthropology. Based on our results, we conclude that speculative fabulation holds a strong emancipatory potential and is able to bring about significant changes in how students think about time, because it promotes more empowering and meaningful ways of engagement with the world.

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“…The working definition of translatability or untranslatability we are using in this paper is not a binary divide but is actually a spectrum, with untranslatability at zero and absolute translatability at 100. Scholars have adopted multiple theoretical approaches to analyze these issues (Large et al, 2019), including relevance theories (Xu and Gong, 2012), cross-cultural communication (Sun, 2012), factor analysis (Lee, 2012), otherness (Washbourne, 2015), dynamic equivalence (Lin and Zhao, 2017), and performability (Glynn and Hadley, 2021). However, a review of this literature shows that most studies include only macrolevel analysis, with an emphasis on cross-culture differences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Points of View and Readers’ Immersion in Translation: A Neurocognitive Interpretation of Poetic Translatability

et al. 2022

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There have been few attempts at applying cultural neuroscience and psychology to the discussion of poetic translatability. This study employs cultural neuroscience and psychology methodologies and forms of evidence to explore the neurocognitive mechanisms by which cross-cultural variations in perspectives during the translation process influence poetic reception in the target culture. The English translation of Chinese poetry is often tasked with the supplement of perspectives and accompanied by cross-cultural variations of immersion. These changes have been substantially discussed from literary and poetic perspectives but remain understudied in terms of their neurocognitive and psychological implications. Through textual analysis of first-person points of view, this study attempts to apply neuroscience to the interpretation of the impact of differences in cross-cultural perspectives in poetry translation. Our findings suggest that a general tendency toward the supplement of first-person perspectives could boost the immersive experience by activating mirror neurons and the temporal parietal junction. These neuroscientific mechanisms underlying the observable cultural phenomenon offer implications for the translation of Chinese poetry in a way that generates brain responses and neurotransmitters similar to the source text. This study demonstrates how research in neuroscience can illuminate findings in cross-cultural communication.

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The outer limits of otherness: Ideologies of human translation in speculative fiction

Cited by 8 publications

References 11 publications

Radical cultural specificity in translation

Radical cultural specificity in translation

Teaching time as a social imaginary. Using speculative fabulation to deconstruct the hegemonic temporalities of modernity

Points of View and Readers’ Immersion in Translation: A Neurocognitive Interpretation of Poetic Translatability

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