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This collection of essays brings together a decade of writings on translation by leading international translation studies expert, Susan Bassnett. The essays cover a range of topics and will be useful to anyone with an interest in how different cultures communicate. Bassnett draws upon her personal experience to explore issues such as why the same things cannot be expressed in all languages, why translators in war zones risk their lives for their work, whether humour can travel across cultures, why translated menus are often so bad and whether poetry does indeed get lost in translation.
Written for a general reader with an interest in language, the essays also nourish the scholarly mind. Those familiar with translation will be stimulated by the fresh approaches to well-known questions from a personable guide. To identify the subjects and themes of the essays is to capture only part of their richness. The wealth of reflection lies in the examples that emerge, effortlessly it would seem, from Bassnett’s experience and learning. It is her ability to engage with the casual and the serendipitous, to draw together moments across time and continents, that create a marvellous unity of tone, and drive home many important points about the exchange of cultures and languages.
Susan Bassnett is a leading international expert in translation studies, and author of best-selling books in the field that have been translated into some 20 languages. A bilingual who has practical experience of translation and interpreting. Bassnettâs accessible, jargon-free writing has made her work popular with students around the world. The forthright essays collected in this volume reflect ten years of writing regularly for professional translators and general readers.
Introduction
1. Language and Identity
2. Original Sin
3. Theory and Practice: The Old Dilemma
4. Dangerous Translations
5. How Modern should Translations be?
6. Status Anxiety
7. Under the Influence
8. Reference Point
9. Translation or Adaptation
10. Translating Style
11. Telling Tales
12. Pride and Prejudices
13. Turning the Page
14. Poetry in Motion
15. When Translation goes Horribly Wrong
16. Living Languages
17. All in the Mind
18. More than Words
19. Just What did you Call Me?
20. Lost in Translation
21. Good Rhyme and Reason
22. Women’s Work
23. Plays for Today
24. Between the Lines
25. Playing on Words
26. Pleasures of Rereading
27. On the Case
28. Gained in Translation
29. Layers of Meaning
30. The Value of Comparing Translations
31. Where the Fun Comes In
32. Translators Making the News
33 What Exactly did Saddam Say?
34. Native Strengths
35. What’s in a Name?
36. Food for Thought
37. Family Matters
38. Rethinking Theory and Practice
39. The Power of Poetry