The Politics of Non-Translation: A Case Study in Anglo-Portuguese Relations�João Ferreira Duarte�

Ana Monteiro (158643) and Vicky Steinfeldt (162185)

​

Table of contents

​

01. What is “Non-Translation”?

02. Typology of Non-Translation;

- Omission

- Repetition.

- Language closeness.

- Bilingualism.

- Cultural distance.

- Institutionalized censorship.

- Ideological embargo.

03. Historical context;

04. Can Non-Translation be positive?

05. References.

What is “Non-Translation”?

• The phenomenon of non-translation was conceptualized by João Ferreira Duarte, historically promoting its reflection in translation.

​

• “Translations are, in one way or another, facts of the target system" (Gideon Toury,1982).

The term "non-translation" can designate both textual and cultural phenomena within the world and history of translation.

As a cultural phenomenon, non-translation is understood as the absence of translations from a given source culture into a target culture, for ideological, political or even cultural reasons.

Only became feasible within the translation study-oriented frame of reference.

Typology of Non-Translation

• An item in the source text is not replaced by a corresponding item in the target text.
• It is not always easy to recognize.
• Each word can be translated by others, even if it is not a full equivalent;
• May be the result of a process of negotiation with the original.

Repetition

• An item in the source text is carried over unchanged into the target text.
• This is the case of borrowing.
• It is sometimes added for aesthetic value, but often reflects unequal relations between cultures.

Typology of Non-Translation

• When two languages are structurally similar so their speakers can understand the text in the other language without the need for translation.

Bilingualism

• Texts from a particular culture of origin are not translated because readers of the target language are able to read them in the language in which they were written.
• As if Portugal stopped making translations from English into Portuguese, because most of the population can speak the language.

“La ventura va guiando nuestras cosas mejor de lo que acertáramos a desear, porque ves allí, amigo Sancho Panza, donde se descubren treinta, o pocos más, (…); que ésta es buena guerra, y es gran servicio de Dios quitar tan mala simiente de sobre la faz de la tierra.”

“Don Quixote”, Miguel de Cervantes

Typology of Non-Translation

• When highly canonical texts are not translated for a period of time to be admitted into some target system for no other reason than cultural remoteness.
• First translation of the Qur'an, 1978.
• Historical and religious constrains explain why there was no community in the country capable of fostering the search for a translation.

Institutionalised censorship

• Non-translation is one of the many cultural consequences of the political institution of censorship.
• Fascist regime in Portugal, in which many international works (such as those of Karl Marx and Fidel Castro) were banned.

Typology of Non-Translation

• "Non-translation that results from the clash of a community's value system and some disintegrating political event." (João Ferreira Duarte, 2000).
• The objects subject to embargo were previously familiar to the receiving system;
• What is at stake here is not a state-imposed ban.
• The translations of Shakespeare in Portugal were affected by the Ideological embargo in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Historical Context

• The first recorded reference to Shakespeare in Portugal: 1761.
• Opera was preferred cultural product of the aristocracy.
• Most translations were made available through language of the dominant cultural model: French.

​

• King Luís' translation of "Hamlet“, marks a significant shift in Shakespeare's reception in Portugal.

Importance based not on the fidelity of the text, but on the translator himself, whose royal status turn a translation fact into a political fact.

Appendix made by João Ferreira Duarte

“ Scramble For Africa“

• Exploitation and colonization of the African continent;

​

• Portugal claimed sovereignty over their colonies in Angola and Mozambique;

​

• Portuguese delegation 1886 – signed with France and Germany;

​

• Colour-coded maps – ideologically motivated re-organization of the geographical space;

1880s: nationalism power in Portugal

• Growth of a national consciousness;
• Rise of an industrial and commercial bourgeoisie and an urban proletariat;
• Powerful shape of the first mass-communications – the press;
• “utopian conception of the awakening of the motherland as an imperial nation eager to redress past humiliations and regain long-lost prestige” (João Ferreira Duarte, 2000). 

​

The British Ultimatum

• Conflicts about the colonial areas between Portugal and Britain “resolved” in 1890, when the British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury demanded Portuguese withdrawal from the region;
• Was implying military actions and breaking off diplomatic relations;
• Portugal had no other option than accepting this offer, but this led to a wave of anti-British nationalism across the country;

Portuguese Response on the British Ultimatum 

• “Immediate, nation-wide, cut across all sorts of social divisions“ response;
• The Ultimatum provoked “humiliation felt by all classes“ and an “outburst of national feeling“ (Clarence-Smith, 1985, p.83);
• Deep blow of national identity;
• Movements and stigmatization against everything that was English in Portugal ;
• Street demonstrations, political rallies, countless poems, articles, cartoons;
• Proposals to purge Portuguese language of English borrowings and ban teaching English from Portuguese schools;

Ideological Embargo due to the British Ultimatum

• The British ultimatum led to a national storm of anti-British feelings in Portugal;
• For this reason, Shakespeare was not translated from 1890 – 1899;
• People did not want to watch Shakespeare or other British works;

Can “Non-translation” be positive?

• The history of non-translation can be as interesting as a history of translation.
• The reasons for translating a book are no less important than those for excluding it from that translation process.
• The terrains vagues of non-translation make it possible to provide valuable insight into the mechanisms of the history of culture.
• “The absence of translation follows from intentional resistance that can ascribed to institutions or agents framed within a specific time” (Cees Koster, 2010)

References

• Duarte, J. F. (2000) “The Politics of Non-Translation: A Case Study in Anglo-Portuguese Relations”. TTR, 13 (1), 95-112.
• Koster, C. (2010). “Non-Translation as an Event. The Reception in the Netherlands of John Dos Passos in the 1930s”. Event or Incident/Evénement ou Incident On the Role of Translation in the Dynamics of Cultural Exchange/Du rôle des traductions dans les processus d’échanges culturels, Naaijkens Ton (Ed.). Bern: Peter Lang. 29-45.
• Seruya, T. (2016). Doing translation history and writing a history of translation: the main issues and some examples concerning Portuguese culture. Journal of World Languages. 3(1). 5-21. DOI: 10.1080/21698252.2016.1176627
• Maia, R., Pięta, H., Rosa, A. (2018). Translation and adjacent concepts. A History of Modern Translation Knowledge.142, 7–84. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.142.08mai

​

• Mulinacci, R. (2021). O ATLAS SUBMERSO: POR UMA HISTÓRIA DA TRADUÇÃO COMO HISTÓRIA DA NÃO- TRADUÇÃO.   Cadernos de Tradução. 41 (1). https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-7968.2021.e78123
• https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/images/article_images/library-political_africa_big.jpg  

THANK YOU!�If you any have questions, �please let us know!