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Makale Özeti:
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While teaching first in Singapore and now in
Manchester, it has come to my attention that there are
certain difficulties in teaching translation theory either
outside of Europe or, in Europe, to students from outside
of Europe who come here to study. This paper
concentrates on the role of examples in theoretical works,
the problems they pose in teaching theory and the
implications for universalism in translation studies. I draw
on Edward Said’s discussion of travelling theory, postcolonial
critiques of the hegemonic role of English, and
skopos theory to propose two courses of action to help
overcome the problem: first, the incorporation of the
translation of theoretical material both from and into
European languages as part of practical postgraduate
training; and second, the use of a radical substitution
policy for examples, with new examples centred around
the target language, rather than preservation of the
original examples, which are centred around the sourcelanguage.
Using the example of China, I will demonstrate
how these two strategies push us to reconsider how we
approach teaching theory. Firstly, the translation of
Chinese theoretical texts into English will allow for a
deeper appreciation of writings in Chinese and their wider
dissemination. Secondly, the search for examples which
involve the target language should lead to an engagement
between the target culture and the theory. Translating
Vinay and Darbelnet’s path breaking essay on translation
processes, for example, immediately raises the question of
what exactly is meant by ‘borrowing’ in the Chinese
context, and for the need to distinguish between retaining
the use of the roman alphabet and transliteration using
Chinese characters, a distinction that would never arise
between French, English and German.
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