Multimodal Translation: Is Translation only Verbal?
by Shubhangi Shrinivas Rao
PhD Scholar, Shri Govind Guru University, Godhra, Gujarat, India
Assistant Professor of English, Shri Indubhai Sheth Law College, Dahod, India
This chapter is based on the Multimodal theory of translation. Although the practice of translation is long-established, the study developed into an academic discipline much later as of the second half of the twentieth century. Before that translation had normally been the element of language learning which was dominated by the Grammar translation method centered on the role study of the grammatical rules and structures of foreign language. The Romantic approach of originality of work has always denied the study of translation as a discipline. The original character of the text has tampered with when it is translated. The idea of Mimesis given by Plato and Aristotle stating all arts as imitative clearly would deny the systematic study of translation.
Translation was considered a part of comparative literature but it gained recognition as a separate discipline of study only after the mid-twentieth century along with the emergence of various other disciplines like cultural studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies etc. Since translation studies emerged as an academic discipline, there have been questions about the equivalence of translation from one language to another. But there are also instances in which translation according to the culture is said to be an art in itself. Looking from another perspective, translation from one text to another is entirely dependent on the semantic side of the text which is why a broader study of translation studies can be done in the form of Multi-modality of translation or Inter-medial translation. This inter-medial translation may include the source text in any art form such as films, adaptation, music, dance, sculptures, dubbing, subtitles, paintings and many more. This chapter would focus briefly on translation studies as a discipline in itself, the issues of equivalence and untranslatability and challenge these issues in the form of studying and analyzing various modes in translation.
Keywords: Multimodality, inter semiotic, ekphrasis, audio-visual, transcreation, equivalence, untranslatability
Baer, Brian James, “From Cultural Translation to Untranslatability: Theorizing Translation Outside Translation Studies.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, no. 40, 2020, pp. 139–163. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26924869.
Cesar Dominguez, Haun Saussy and Dario Villueva, “ Interartistic Comparisons” in Introducing Comparative Literature: New Trends and Applications, 2015, 107-124.
Chuang, Ying-Ting. (2006). Studying subtitle translation from a multi-modal approach. Babel. 52. 10.1075/babel.52.4.06chu.
Damaskinidis, George. (2016). The Visual Aspect of Translation Training in Multimodal Texts.
Eubanks, Paula K.“Art is a Visual Language.” Visual Arts Research, vol. 23, no. 1, 1997, pp. 31-35. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20715892.
GN Devy, “Translation Theory: an Indian Perspective”, In Another Tongue: Essays on Indian English Literature. 1993
Haas, W. “The Theory of Translation.” Philosophy, vol. 37, no. 141, 1962, pp. 208–228. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3748438.
Hyde, George M. “LITERARY TRANSLATION.” Hungarian Studies in English, vol. 22, 1991, pp. 39–47. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41273850.
Kaul, H.K. “Literature in Translation A Report on an International Conference.” India International Centre Quarterly, vol. 11, no. 2, 1984, pp. 243–256. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23001663.
Kress, G, & Van Leeuwen, T. (1996) 2006. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge.
Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. New York, NY: Routledge.
Luis Perez Gonzalez, “Multimodality in translation and Interpreting Studies: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives”, A Comparison to Translation Studies. Eds. Sandra Bermann and Catherine Porter, 2014, 119-132.
Mujiyanto, Yan & Fitriati, Sri. (2019). Multimodality in Audio-Verbo Visual Translation. KnE Social Sciences. 10.18502/kss.v3i18.4765.
Munday, Jeremy. ed. The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies, Routledge, 2009.
Music as Multimodal Discourse: Semiotics, Power and Protest. London & New York: Bloomsbury Academic, pp.1-20.
Reading poetry through art (I): W.H. Auden’s ‘Musee des beaux arts’ & William Carlos Williams’ ‘Landscape’ (hyperbolit.com)
Tewfik, Lamia. (2015). Sculpting with Words: From Ekphrasis to Interart Translation.
Tuominen, T., Jiménez Hurtado, C. and Ketola, A. (2018) Why methods matter: approaching multimodality in translation research. Linguistica Antverpiensia: New Series – Themes in Translation Studies, 17, pp. 1-21. Venuti, Lawrence. Ed. The Translation Studies Reader. London: Routledge, 2000
Zamora, Lois Parkinson. “Interartistic Approaches to Contemporary Latin American Literature.” MLN, vol. 114, no. 2, 1999, pp. 389–415. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3251554.