Martha Cheung Award 2023 Winner and Two Runners Up
The Martha Cheung Award for Best English Article in Translation Studies by an Early Career Scholar
Announcement of 2023 Award Winner and Two Runners Up
The SISU Baker Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2023 Martha Cheung Award is Dr. Peter Freeth, Aston University, for his article entitled ‘“Germany asks: Is it OK to laugh at Hitler?” Translating humour and Germanness in the paratexts of Er ist wieder da and Look Who’s Back’, published in Translation Spaces 10/1 (2021).
Dr. Freeth argues that within imagological approaches, paratexts can provide insights into how the Other of translated literature is presented to a new target audience. Within a transnational context, such as Germany and Britain’s shared experience of the Second World War, the question is whether the source- and target-culture paratexts can invoke the same images. Through a case study of Er ist wieder da, a novel that satirises Germany’s relationship with its National Socialist past, and the British publication of the English translation Look Who’s Back, his article finds that while the novel’s humour is reframed by the British publisher, the novel’s controversial position within Germany’s coming to terms with its National Socialist history discourse remains intrinsic to the paratexts published in the British press. As such, this article demonstrates the transnational relevance of individual national characteristics to the paratextual framing of translated literature, the value of paratexts as objects of imagological study, and the methodological benefits of distinguishing between production- and reception-side paratexts.
Runners up
Dr. Buts’s article, entitled ‘Invented languages, intertextuality, and indirect translation: Wilde’s Salomé in Esperanto’, appeared in Translation Studies 15/2 (2022). It discusses two competing versions of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé that were translated into Esperanto indirectly. Salomé was originally written in French and is a retelling of a biblical story. The English translation of the play, sometimes taken to be the original, flaunts its biblical heritage, often through direct quotation from the King James Version. However, there was no canonical Bible in Esperanto at the time of translation, making it impossible to achieve equivalent effect by means of parallel intertextual references. The relation between equivalence and intertextuality is just one example of a central issue in the study and practice of translation that is thrown into sharp relief when considering invented languages. Esperanto is in many ways a language of translation, and studying its literature may enrich not only the linguistic scope of translation studies research but also its theoretical apparatus.
The article by Dr. Hermosa-Ramírez, entitled ‘Physiological Instruments Meet Mixed Methods in Media Accessibility’, appeared in Translation Spaces 11/1 (2022). It argues that mixed methods have an established trajectory in the social sciences and in Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility Studies. Yet, publications in the latter field often fail to discuss the mixed-method nature of the study in depth, be it because of space limitations or a lack of deliberate integration of the methods. At the same time, Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility Studies has seen a boom in experimental research, as descriptive approaches have given way to reception and user-centred studies that engage in the cognitive processes and immersion of audiences. The article proposes a methodological basis for researchers in the field to design studies employing physiological instruments within a mixed methods framework. The core mixed methods designs (convergent, explanatory, and exploratory) are presented, and examples of their applications to research employing physiological instruments are discussed.
As in previous installments of the Award, the Committee will attempt to gain permission from publishers to provide open access copies of all three articles on the website of the Centre. A further circular with relevant links will be sent out in due course.
Dr. Peter Freeth (Aston University, UK)
Freeth, Peter Jonathan (2021) ‘“Germany asks: is it OK to laugh at Hitler?”: Translating humour and Germanness in the paratexts of Er ist wieder da and Look Who’s Back’, Translation Spaces 10/1: 32-65.
Peter J. Freeth holds a PhD from the University of Leeds and is currently a Teaching Fellow in Translation Studies at Aston University. His research primarily focuses on the sociological position and role of translators in relation to their professional visibility, particularly as manifested in digital paratextual spaces. His PhD thesis on the subject is available open access and he has several forthcoming publications developing this work further, including the co-edited volume Beyond the translator’s invisibility; a paper on his concept of collateral paratextuality in a special issue of Translation Studies edited by Kathryn Batchelor and Chiara Bucaria; and a discussion of the opportunities and challenges posed by digital microhistories of translation and translators. Alongside his research and teaching, Peter works with Berlin-based publisher V&Q Books and runs workshops on translation and German-language literature for cultural institutions and universities across the UK and Ireland.
Available open access until the end of 2023 at: https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/ts.20003.fre
Dr. Jan Buts (Boğaziçi University, Turkey)
Buts, Jan (2022) ‘Invented languages, intertextuality, and indirect translation: Wilde’s Salomé in Esperanto’, Translation Studies 15/2.
Jan Buts is Assistant Professor at the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies, Boğaziçi University, Turkey. He is part of the IndirecTrans Network and co-coordinates the Genealogies of Knowledge Research Network. He is a member of the Executive Council of IATIS, the International Association for Translation & Intercultural Studies. His research interests include translation theory, corpus linguistics, conceptual history, and online media. His publications have appeared in journals such as Translation Studies, Perspectives, and Translation Spaces. He is currently involved in the development of the Oslo Medical Corpus.
Dr. Irene Hermosa-Ramírez (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain)
Hermosa-Ramírez, Irene (2022) ‘Physiological instruments meet mixed methods in Media Accessibility’, Translation Spaces 11/1: 38-59.
Irene Hermosa-Ramírez, PhD in Translation and Intercultural Studies (Autonomous University of Barcelona), is a postdoctoral researcher working for the Erasmus+ ATHENA project (Bringing Accessibility and Design for All into Higher Education Curricula) and a member of the TransMedia Catalonia research group. She is also working as a research support technician at Universitat Pompeu Fabra for the UNIVAC project, which is devoted to sensory accessibility at Spanish universities. Irene is the secretary of the Catalan Association for the Promotion of Accessibility.