Translator As Writer, The

Description:
Over the last two decades, interest in translation around the world has increased beyond any predictions. International bestseller lists now contain large numbers of translated works, and writers from Latin America, Africa, India and China have joined the lists of eminent, bestselling European writers and those from the global English-speaking world. Despite this, translators tend to be invisible, as are the processes they follow and the strategies they employ when translating. The Translator as Writer bridges the divide between those who study translation and those who produce translations, through essays written by well-known translators talking about their own work as distinctive creative literary practice. The book emphasises this creativity, arguing that translators are effectively writers, or rewriters who produce works that can be read and enjoyed by an entirely new audience. The aim of the book is to give a proper prominence to the role of translators and in so doing to move attention back to the act of translating, away from more abstract speculation about what translation might involve.

Review:
''...the very thing that the... Chinese translation researchers need and would like to read. For the last 20 years, translation theorists have been the favorites with the Chinese translation circles, and translators, in contrast, seem to have been marginal in the same field. There are too many translation theorists who theorise without solid background of translation practice. Translation theory in China is in the danger of being estranged more and more from studies of translation as an art. Now the proposed book... can be rightly a remedy to the unhealthy situation in which translators are slighted...' Professor Zhengkun Gu, Department of English, Peking University and Chairman of Peking University Society for Translation and Culture'

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Susan Bassnett and Peter Bush. PART I: EXPLORING THE ROLE OF THE TRANSLATOR; 1. The translator's visibility; Ros Schwartz, Chair of the European Council of Literary Translators Associations; 2. Translating the Literary: Genetic Criticism, Text Theory and Poetry; Clive Scott, University of East Anglia; 3. The alien made familiar; the compact between writer and translator; Anna Paterson; 4. Translation as Adventure; Peter Bush, Vice-President of the International Federation of Translators; 5. Translation: walking the tightrope of illusion; Anthea Bell; PART II: PERSPECTIVES ON TRANSLATION; 6. The translator as writer: a perspective from India; Lakshmi Holmstrom; 7. Translating Modern Chinese Literature; John Balcom, Monterey Institute of International Studies; 8. Saying the Unsayable: Classical Translation and Creative Expression; Josephine Balmer; 9. Translating from the Body; Carol Maier, Kent State University; 10. The requirements and limits of translator's creativity with respect to time, genre and media. Lexical accuracy versus functional faithfulness; Jiri Josek, Charles University, Prague; 11. The Writer as 'Translator': Translating-cum-versionizing Goldoni's Le; Baruffe Chiozzotte; Bill Findlay, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh; PART III: TASKS OF THE TRANSLATOR; 12. Translating fun: Don Quixote; John Rutherford, Queen's College Oxford; 13. Rewriting books for kids; Jakob Kenda; 14. The translator in Aliceland. The translation of Alice in Wonderland into Spanish; Juan Gabriel Lopez Guix, Universidad Autonoma, Barcelona; 15. Being Wildean: A Dialogue on the Importance of Style in Translation; Alberto Mira, Oxford Brookes University; 16. Conclusion; Susan Bassnett, Centre for Translation & Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Warwick; Bibliography; Index.

Author Biography:
Susan Bassnett is Professor in the Centre for Translation & Comparative Cultural Studies (University of Warwick) and author of Translation Studies. Peter Bush is vice-president, International Federation of Translators, former Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation.