[Announcement] Martha Cheung Award 2020 Winner and Two Runners Up

Events

 

The Martha Cheung Award for Best English Article in Translation Studies by an Early Career Scholar

Announcement of 2020 Award Winner and Two Runners Up

 

The SISU Baker Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2020 Martha Cheung Award is Dr. Joanna Rzepa of the University of Essex, UK, for her article entitled ‘Translation, Conflict and the Politics of Memory: Jan Karski’s Story of a Secret State’, published in Translation Studies 11/3 (2018).
 
Dr. Rzepa’s study examines the interaction of translations and retranslations of historical texts and political narratives of the past. Focusing on English-Polish translation and the portrayal of Polish-Jewish relations during World War II in Jan Karski’s Story of a Secret State, she argues that textual and paratextual revisions in subsequent editions of the book are embedded in larger dominant narratives of the past. Examining the role played by translations in the debates on the Holocaust and Polish-Jewish wartime relations, her article suggests that translated texts can influence memory politics and national identity formation. Thus, translators and publishers of translated texts can be viewed as political and historical agents whose work simultaneously shapes and is shaped by cultural memory of the past in various national and historical contexts.
 
Runners up
 
Two further submissions have been deemed by reviewers and the Award Committee to be of outstanding quality and therefore deserve mention as runners up. In alphabetical order, the runners up are Dr. Sofía Sánchez-Mompeán of the University of Murcia, Spain and Dr. Sophie Ling-chia Wei of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
 
Dr. Sánchez-Mompeán’s article, entitled ‘Prefabricated Orality at Tone Level: Bringing Dubbing Intonation into the Spotlight’, appeared in Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 28/2 (2019). It focuses on dubbing intonation, and more specifically on the tonal patterns that are regularly found in dubbed speech and characterise prefabricated orality at tone level. Arguing that dubbed dialogue is governed by its own network of rules and differs greatly from spontaneous and naturally-occurring speech, the study sets out to search for regularities in the delivery of dubbing intonation in a Spanish corpus and to explore whether they can have an impact on the reception of orality by the Spanish audience. Dr. Sánchez-Mompeán uses a speech analysis programme to examine a repertoire of tones in a number of extracts from the Spanish dubbed version of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and demonstrates that there are several prefabricated patterns that belong to dubbing intonation itself, and that some of the dominant trends found could directly impinge on the target audience’s understanding of the sitcom.
 
The article by Dr. Wei, entitled ‘In the Light and Shadow of the Dao – Two Figurists, Two Intellectual Webs’, appeared in the Journal of Translation Studies – New Series 2/2 (2018), published by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. It focuses on Jesuit missionary-translators in early Qing China, the pressures they encountered and support offered by their patrons as factors of control that shaped their translations. Examining correspondence and manuscripts stored in the Vatican Library and the Archives Jésuites de Paris, Dr Wei outlines the profiles of two Figurists and identifies the institutional or individual support each received. Her analysis demonstrates that the intellectual webs of their patrons not only made an impact on how each man developed and circulated his knowledge of the Chinese classics, but also influenced how they interpreted the Dao and the Dao de jing. Their translations are shown to have left a lasting legacy and to have impacted the European understanding of the Dao. 
 
For further information on the Martha Cheung Award, visit Martha Cheung Award
 
March 2020
On behalf of the SISU Centre and the Award Committee
Robert Neather, Chair of Award Committee
 
 

Dr. Joanna Rzepa (University of Essex, UK)

Award Certificate

Rzepa, Joanna (2018) ‘Translation, Conflict and the Politics of Memory: Jan Karski’s Story of a Secret State’, Translation Studies 11(3): 315-332.

Abstract: This article examines the interaction of translations and retranslations of historical texts and political narratives of the past. Focusing on English-Polish translation and the portrayal of Polish-Jewish relations during World War II in Jan Karski’s Story of a Secret State, the article argues that textual and paratextual revisions in subsequent editions of the book are embedded in larger dominant narratives of the past. Examining the role played by translations in the debates on the Holocaust and Polish-Jewish wartime relations, the article suggests that translated texts can influence memory politics and national identity formation. Thus, translators and publishers of translated texts can be viewed as political and historical agents whose work simultaneously shapes and is shaped by cultural memory of the past in various national and historical contexts.

Available open access at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14781700.2018.1459310 

 

Dr. Sofía Sánchez-Mompeán (University of Murcia, Spain)

Award Certificate

Sánchez-Mompeán, Sofia (2019) ‘Prefabricated Orality at Tone Level: Bringing Dubbing Intonation into the Spotlight’, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 28(2): 284-299.

Abstract: The focus of this article is placed on dubbing intonation and more specifically on the tonal patterns that are regularly found in dubbed speech and characterise prefabricated orality at tone level. Research suggests that dubbed dialogue is governed by its own network of rules and differs greatly from spontaneous and naturally-occurring speech. The prefabricated nature of this type of dialogue has received attention from many scholars, but no attempt has been made to date to describe orality at tone level from an empirical perspective. The aim of this paper is to search for regularities in the delivery of dubbing intonation in a Spanish corpus and to explore whether they can have an impact on the reception of orality by the Spanish audience. A speech analysis programme has been used to examine a repertoire of tones in a number of extracts from the Spanish dubbed version of the sitcom How I met your mother (Bays & Thomas, 2005–2014). Findings reveal that there are several prefabricated patterns that belong to dubbing intonation itself and that some of the dominant trends found could directly impinge on the target audience’s perception.

 

Sophie Ling-chia Wei (Chinese University of Hong Kong, China)

Award Certificate

Wei, Sophie Ling-chia (2018) ‘In the Light and Shadow of the Dao – Two Figurists, Two Intellectual Webs’, Journal of Translation Studies – New Series 2(2): 1-22.

Abstract: Seen through the lens of André Lefevere’s concept of rewriting, a translation is not simply a static text, but a cultural and even a political act exercised by players at both the individual and institutional levels during the translation process. Jesuit missionary-translators in early Qing China especially encountered pressures, challenges and support from their patrons as factors of control in their translations. Joachim Bouvet and his two protégés, Joseph de Prémare and Jean François Foucquet, were the three representative Figurists of the time. The Figurists, a group of Jesuits who focused on the re-interpretation of Chinese classics, advocated the esoteric doctrines of the Dao. Despite both being called followers of Bouvet, Prémare and Foucquet diverged in their separate interpretations of the Dao. Their own preferences and propensities were part of the reason for this, though patronage also played a significant role, which reinforced and supported their personal interpretations of the Dao. This paper will examine two intellectual webs of relationships and auspices, those of Prémare and Foucquet. Examining their correspondences and manuscripts stored in the Vatican Library and the Archives Jesuites de Paris, I will outline the profiles of the two Figurists and identify the institutional or individual support each received. Furthermore, the intellectual webs of their patrons not only made an impact on how each man developed and circulated his knowledge of the Chinese classics, but also influenced how they interpreted the Dao and the Daodejing. Each of their trajectories in associating Christianity with the Dao also made a lasting impact on the next generation of Jesuits in China on their understanding of Dao and Daoism.