About the Journal
Analele Universitatii din Bucuresti. Limbi si Literaturi Straine (“The Annals of the University of Bucharest”, Foreign Languages and Literatures) is published twice a year. It publishes work of current interest in the following areas: linguistics, literature, cultural studies, translation studies.
First issue in 1952.
Current Issue
Vol. 71 No. 2 (2022): The Annals of the University of Bucharest”, Foreign Languages and Literatures. Volume 71, No.2
Articles
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The Role of Literary Translation as Linguistic and Cultural Mediation
Abstract
The present paper aims to highlight the significance of translation studies and the role of professional translators and interpreters as cultural mediators enabled by linguistic competence. Our goal is to emphasize the power of culture to connect individuals and communities, to ensure national survival, to preserve tangible and intangible heritage as the most valuable asset of continuity. Literary translation represents one of the most powerful and effective means of linguistic and cultural mediation, though equally challenging due to the complexity of a process often touched by “untranslatability”. -
Manner Salience and the Translation of Motion Events from English into Romanian
Abstract
Although motion is a universal concept, languages vary with respect to the kinds of lexical items and syntactic patterns they use to express motion events. Talmy (1985, 2000) characterizes this variation in terms of lexicalization patterns, which distinguish between V(erb)-framed and S(atellite)-framed languages, depending on whether the path of motion is expressed by the verb or a satellite (preposition, particle or prefix). This article examines the expression of motion events in English and Romanian, as two languages representative of the S-framed vs. V-framed distinction; it focuses on the strategies Romanian translators employ to render directed motion structures, specifically, on the elaboration of the Path and Manner components in narratives. It is argued that, while this study does indicate a marked preference for translation strategies that mirror Talmy's lexicalization patterns, it also reveals the existence of a rich and varied class of mannerdenoting adverbial expressions, as well as the availability of a number of minor additional syntactic patterns foregrounding Manner. It is suggested that this additional data support Slobin's proposal that Talmy's Path-based typological classification be refined by further ranking languages on a cline of manner salience (cf. Slobin 2004, 2006, 2014). -
The Retranslation of Hamlet’s Soliloquy in Act III, Scene 1 – to Adapt or Not to Adapt
Abstract
This paper sets out to analyse earlier translations of Hamlet, with a focus on Act I, Scene iii, Hamlet's famous soliloquy. The phrase “To be or not to be” is instantly recognizable not simply for theatregoers or students of literature and theatre and it has been (and continues to be) used intertextually by other writers as well as in popular culture. By looking at earlier translations and retranslations / revisions of the soliloquy (Economu 1855; Stern 1877, 1905) the paper examines the Romanian tradition of using indirect translation and retranslation / revision, not only to improve the rendering of the text, but also to adapt it to Romanian culture. The tensions between domesticating versus foreignizing choices are discussed. -
Attitude Adverbs in Two Translations of C.S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew – A Case for Paraphrase?
Abstract
In the present paper we aim to analyze various translation strategies applied in the case of attitude adverbs. Our corpus of investigation is made up of two translations of the first volume in the "Chronicles of Narnia" series by C.S. Lewis. To this extent, we are going to check also whether Berman's hypothesis on retranslations which theoretically benefit from the original translation as some sort of reference point holds true. Our main interest in the analysis of the two translations is related to the solutions provided by the Romanian translators for attitude adverbs. Given that Romanian is a partly adverbial as argued in Protopopescu (2012) in the sense of Swan (1997), our expectation is that for Romanian adverbs the paraphrasing strategy by means of a prepositional phrase (PP) will be more productive. -
Taboo or Not Taboo? The Vagaries of Translating Linguistic Violence in Stephen King’s The Shining
Abstract
The present paper addresses an issue that has been plaguing the community of literary translators for quite a few years now: how to go about translating "bad" language? The paper attempts to deal with the translation of swear words starting from the premise that most Romanian literary translations do not deal well with translating bad language due to applying formal correspondence or resorting to mild equivalence. These two tendencies in translating swear words from English into Romanian are believed to lead to flawed target texts. This paper offers a model of strategies applied in the translating of swear words and provides answers with respect to whether flawed translations are indeed caused by the two aforementioned tendencies.
