Call for Papers
Thinking through Translation with Metaphors
Collected Volume, edited by James St. André, University of Manchester, UK
To be published by St. Jerome Publishing Limited
Throughout the ages people from different cultures have used a variety of metaphors to describe
translation. Translation has been likened to walking in the footsteps of the author; the building
of a bridge between two cultures; bearing truthful witness for someone; engaging in slave labour
on another man’s land; doing jigsaw puzzles; painting someone’s portrait; playing a musical score;
and dozens of other images. Indeed, the original meaning of the term ‘translation’ in various
languages is itself metaphorical: the Latin derived terms “to translate”, “traduire”, “traducere”,
and the German Übersetzung mean “to carry over”, “to bring over”.
Along with the attempt to establish translation studies as a scientific discipline, a move away
from metaphors and toward more straightforward definitions began in the 1950s. Both restrictive
definitions, such as Eugene Nida’s “Translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language
the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning, and
secondly in terms of style” (Nida 1959:19) and extremely broad definitions, such as William
Frawley’s “a theory of translation is a set of propositions about how, why, when , where (…)
coded elements are rendered into other codes” (Frawley 2000:251) have been proposed.
Yet it would seem that most people still find it helpful to think about translation in metaphorical
terms. In the 1990s, Lieven D’hulst pointed to the growing recognition that metaphors play a
crucial role in many fields of human endeavour, including the sciences, and gave examples from
translation studies that on the surface may seem simply descriptive, such as “translation is a
process of communication”, but which actually rest on metaphors. (D’hulst 1992:37-9). He further
claims that there has been no dearth of new metaphors since the emergence of translation
studies as a discipline in the 1950s, and he gives several examples of the use of metaphorical
language in recent debates over the nature of translation. (1992:42-45) Certainly, more recent
publications bear him out when he says that metaphors continue to play a crucial role in the field
of translation studies. (e.g. Round 2005).
At the same time, the role of metaphors in a wide variety of human endeavours, including the
sciences, the social sciences, government policy, and public debate, points to the importance of
what some theorists call ‘generative metaphors’, ‘strong metaphors’ or ‘root metaphors’ in
shaping the way we think about the world. Particularly appropriate to translation is the
discussion of how widespread and persistent metaphors of communication as the delivery of a
content which is somehow contained in words have influenced thinking in communication theory
(Reddy 1979), and how the metaphor of the brain as a computing machine has helped shape
research in the field of cognitive psychology for decades (Boyd 1979).
This edited volume thus aims to encourage members of the translation community to look more
closely at the metaphors that too often constitute unspoken assumptions underlying our
research in translation studies. Papers which address one or more of the following questions
are welcome:
* What are the generative metaphors that inform our thinking on translation? How do they
function? (focusing either on one model, such as
functionalism, dynamic equivalence, polysystems theory, etc.; or looking at how one metaphor
may cut across various subfields in translation studies)
* What are the implicit models of language which these metaphors assume?”
* How do these metaphors influence the way in which research on translation has developed?
* What new metaphors might be used to think about translation in new ways?
* What are the pedagogical implications (both of theory and of professional training) of these
metaphors?
* Which of these metaphors are multilingual and/or cross-cultural, and which are restricted to a
particular language?
* What happens when such metaphors of translation are themselves translated or ‘travel’ (to use
Edward Said’s term) to another culture?
* Are certain metaphors restricted to particular domains? (ie, scientific, technical, audiovisual,
literary, religious)
* Did the ‘cultural turn’ in translation studies, which might be seen as a paradigm shift, involve
the introduction of new metaphors?
* What are the ethical implications of such metaphors?
Contributors are encouraged to read some of the papers in the volume Metaphor and Thought,
edited by Ortony (Harvard U. Press 1979), especially those by Black, Rumelhart, Paivio, Schön,
Reddy, Boyd, and Kuhn, as well as the papers by D’hulst (1994) and Round (2005).
Time frame:
15 October 2007: 500 word abstract due
15 December 2007:
notification of acceptance
1 June 2008: Finished papers due (word limit: 12,000)
1 September 2008: review process completed
1 December 2008: revised papers due
October 2009: publication date
All correspondence should be addressed to:
James St. André
Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies
School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
UNITED KINGDOM
James.st-andre@manchester.ac.uk
+44 (0)161-275-8126
Bibliography:
Max Black, 1979 “More about Metaphor”. In Andrew Ortony, editor, Metaphor and Thought.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 19-43.
Boyd, Richard. 1979. “Metaphor and Theory Change: What is ‘Metaphor’ a Metaphor for?”
In Andrew Ortony, editor, Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
356-408.
D’Hulst, Lieven. 1992. “Sur le rôle des métaphores en traductologie contemporaine.” Target 4/1,
33-51.
Kuhn, Thomas S. “Metaphor in Science”. In Andrew Ortony, editor, Metaphor and Thought.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 409-19.
Paivio, Allan. “Psychological Processes in the Comprehension of Metaphor”. In Andrew Ortony,
editor, Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 150-71.
Reddy, Michael J. “The Conduit Metaphor–A Case of Frame Conflict in Our Language about
Language”. In Andrew Ortony, editor, Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 284-324.
Round, Nicholas. 2005. “Translation and its Metaphors: the (N+1) wise men and the
elephant” Skase Journal of Translation and Interpretation 1.1: 47-69.
Rumelhart, David E. “Some Problems with the Notion of Literal Meanings”. In Andrew Ortony,
editor, Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 78-90.
Schön, Donald A. “Generative Metaphor: A Perspective on Problem-Setting in Social Policy”.
In Andrew Ortony, editor, Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
254-83.
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