Translation Studies
Translation Studies systematically studies translation, interpreting, localisation, adaptation and similar rewriting practices. Although in common use translation refers to interlingual translation (between two different languages), Translation Studies also deals with intralingual translation (rewriting within the same language) and intersemiotic translation (for instance adapting a novel into a film). Over the past decades, the discipline has extended its object of study from mainly interlingual translation to a broad range of text-modifying practices. Translation Studies deals with a huge variety of texts and media and the way they change through translation. As such, it inevitably has interdisciplinary features and has borrowed from and collaborated with fields such as comparative literature, computer science, cultural studies, history, linguistics, philology, philosophy, semiotics, and sociology.
Research on translation history is mostly concerned with the history of literary translation in Estonian. The coherent history of Estonian translation is still to be written. So far, a number of case studies have been performed on various issues, genres and texts as well as the translation poetics of single authors. Recently, the main focus has been on the translation history of polycoded texts, especially the problems of trans- and intermedial texts. Within this cluster, several scholars have organised conferences and seminars, and are currently carrying out research on the history of Estonian drama translations and translations of ancient literature etc.
Selected publications:
- Bodniece, Līva; Dikmoniene, Jovita; Kučinskienė, Audronė; Lotman, Maria-Kristiina (2019). Oidipuse transmeedialine teekond Baltimail. Acta Semiotica Estica, XVI, 53−74.
- Anderson, Jaanika; Lotman, Maria-Kristiina (2018). Intrasemiotic translation in the emulations of ancient art (On the example of the collections of the University of Tartu Art Museum). Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, 222, 1−24.
- Gielen, Katiliina; Kaldjärv Klaarika (2018). World Literature in Estonia: the construction of national translation ethics. Interlitteraria, Vol 23 ( No 1), 19−32.
- Lotman, Maria-Kristiina; Sütiste, Elin (2017). Between accuracy and freedom: On compensation strategies in Estonian literary translation of the 1960s. In: Pild, Lea (Ed.). Стратегии перевода и государственный контроль/Translation Strategies and State Control (174−198). Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus. (Acta Slavica Estonica; X).
- Päll, Janika; Volt, Ivo; Näripä, Neeme; Kurs, Kristin (2014) Eesti antiigitõlke bibliograafia (EAB). Versioon 1.0, 2014.
- Lotman, Maria-Kristiina (2012). Equiprosodic translation method in Estonian poetry. Sign Systems Studies, 40, 447−472.
- Päll, J. (2011). Translating from Ancient Languages into Estonian: Outlines for Translation History. In: Chalvin, A.; Lange, A.; Monticelli, D. (Ed.). Between Cultures and Texts. Itineraries in Translation History (123−135). . Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag.
As translation also has an important intercultural dimension, information transfers not only occur at a linguistic level. The crossing of cultural borders has its specific characteristics that differ at a local, regional, national or continental level. Moreover, when studying translational transfer, the function of different social agents in the process (not only translators, but also authors, publishers, critics, foundations, etc.) is of central importance as well. Research topics are, for instance, the study of translation flows between countries and cultures, the translation of national and cultural images, the position of translation in the news media, as well as the translation policies of states, authorities and private institutions. Within this cluster, some scholars also collaborate with the colleagues from the Department of Semiotics, where translation is investigated from a semiotic point of view.
Selected publications:
- van Doorslaer, Luc; McMartin, Jack (2022). Where translation studies and the social meet: Setting the scene for ‘Translation in Society’. Translation in Society, 1 (1), 1−14.
- Terje Loogus; Luc van Doorslaer (2021). Assisting Translations in Border Crossing: An Analysis of the Traducta Translation Grants in Estonia. Translation Spaces, 10 (1), 161−180
- van Doorslaer, Luc (2021). Stereotyping by Default in Media Transfer. In: Jürgen Barkhoff, Joep Leerssen (Ed.). National Stereotyping, Identity Politics, European Crises, p. 205−220. Leiden: Brill. (Studia Imagologica 27).
- van Doorslaer, Luc; Loogus, Terje (2020). The Cautiously Pragmatic Translation Policy in Estonia. The International Journal of Translation and Interpreting Research, 12 (2), 63−75.
- Gentile, Paola; van Doorslaer, Luc (2019). Translating the North–South imagological feature in a movie: Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis and its Italian versions. Perspectives 27 (6), 797−814.
- van Doorslaer, Luc (2019). Embedding imagology in Translation Studies. Slovo: Baltic Accent 10 (3), 56−68.
The linguistic approach to translation has come a long way, starting with structuralism that is considered the first era of linguistic-oriented approaches in Translation Studies, followed by contrastive and functional linguistics. The linguistic approach to translation deals with the following key issues: meaning, equivalence, shift, text purpose and analysis, and discourse register. Research topics include the study of different lexical and grammatical issues in translation (grammatical gender, diminutives, verb tenses, deixis, aspect etc.), translation of culture-specific elements, development of machine translation systems, etc.
Selected publications:
- Kupp-Sazonov, Sirje (2020). Кто такие загадочные мы в русском и эстонском языках? (О переносном употреблении форм 1-го лица множественного числа). [Who is that mysterious we in Russian and Estonian? (On the metaphorical use of 1st person plural forms)]. Ежегодник финно-угорских исследований / Yearbook of Finno-Ugric Studies 14 (1), 34−44.
- Kupp-Sazonov, Sirje (2019). Deminutiivsete noomenite funktsionaalsusest vene ja eesti keeles mõningate Tšehhovi jutustuste ning nende tõlgete näitel. [On the functionality of diminutive nouns in Russian and Estonian using some A. Chekhov stories and their Estonian translations as examples]. Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 29, 113−140.
- Pild, Lea (2019). Tõlkekriitik Olev Jõgi. Ühe tõlkemeetodi rehabiliteerimine stalinismijärgsel ajal. [Olev Jõgi as translation critic: Rehabilitation of a translation method in the post-Stalinist period]. Keel ja Kirjandus 3, 192−207.
- Kupp-Sazonov, Sirje (2018). Kas mehed ja naised tõlgivad tõepoolest erinevalt? Aleksei Tolstoi jutustuse „Kuldvõtmeke ehk Buratino seiklused” nelja eestinduse näitel. [Do women and men really translate differently? Four Estonian translations of A. Tolstoy's story "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino"]. Keel ja Kirjandus 6, 453−471.
- Päll, Janika (2015). Ancient world of the poet and performance in translations by Oras. Studia Metrica et Poetica, 2.2, 73−101 (deixis, register).
- Päll, J. (2007). Translating ancient Greek aspect: Sappho’s Fr.1 Voigt (To Aphrodite). In: Monticelli, D.; Treikelder, A. (_EditorsAbbr). Studia Romanica Tartuensia (43−65). Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus.
The study of translation is a privileged activity to understand meaning making processes generally. Looking into how different languages, or other media, transfer meaning and how these different media affect meaning allows for a deeper understanding of the human mind. The way we translate – in the widest sense all our actions are translations – reveals our conscious or unconscious theory of language, communication and cognition. These theories form the basis of our epistemology and have, hence, a crucial impact on how we perceive the world. Under this perspective, Translation Studies also overlaps with, for instance, philosophy of the mind and semiotics.
Selected publications:
- Pajević, Marko (2021). Literary Translation and Transmediality. Clive Scott’s Reader-Oriented Translation Theory and Practice, Journal of Critical Studies in Language and Literature, 2/2, 1-10.
- Pajević, Marko (2021). Die humboldtschen Grundlagen von Henri Meschonnics Rhythmustheorie und die Folgen für eine dialogische Übersetzungstheorie. In Zum Rhythmuskonzept von Henri Meschonnic in Sprache und Translation, series Rhythmus und Translation, vol. 1, ed. by N. Mälzer/ M. Agnetta, Hildesheim/ Zürich/ New York: Olms Verlag/ Universitätsverlag Hildesheim, 107-124.
- Pajević, Marko (2019). Buber/Rosenzweig’s and Meschonnic’s Bible translations: Biblical Hebrew as transformer of language theory and society. In Languages – Cultures – Worldviews. Focus on Translation, ed. by Adam Glaz. Palgrave Macmillan, 183-210.
- Pajević, Marko (2014). Translation and Poetic Thinking. German Life and Letters 67 (1): 6-21.
- Pajević, Marko (2014). Traduire le poème, avec Henri Meschonnic. In Henri Meschonnic, théoricien de la traduction, ed. by Marcella Leopizzi and Celeste Boccuzzi. Paris: Hermann, 191-204.