subtitling round-up

Some interesting pieces about subtitling have appeared recently on the www so I thought I'd do a bit of a round-up.

My favourite, (not just because of the kind acknowledgement!), has to be Samuel Bréan's excellently-titled

godard     english     cannes: The Reception of Film Socialisme‘s “Navajo English” Subtitles in Senses of Cinema. Samuel is also a contributor to the ATAA blog, which is well worth reading (in fact I stole the idea of the press round-up from there). 

There's interesting work out there on orality in subtitling. You probably already know Pierre-Alexis Mével's article on subtitling La Haine and Marie-Noëlle Guillot's piece 'Oral et illusion d’oral : indices d’oralité dans les sous-titres de dialogues de film'. See also Claire Ellender's article 'Transporting the Aquarium: Overcoming the Challenges of Subtitling Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank into French'.

So far, so very French-centric, but see also an interesting piece on the audiovisual translation scene in Egypt, a short piece on the work of the subtitling company Anis Ebeid and an amusing piece from an Indian site which explains how 1789 can be the obvious and only translation for 1776 (dammit, more French - but definitely one for the next numbers post!).

On the SDH subtitling side, the Guardian points out that finding a theatrical screening with SDH subtitles isn't always easy (a spirited debate follows in the comments) and the Telegraph complains about the quality of live subtitling on the BBC (typical, grumble, chunter).

Lastly, but not leastly, I was overjoyed over the summer to find that the folks at Orange had released a new 'Don't let a mobile phone ruin your movie' ad: don't let a mobile phone ruin your subtitles...



There's a nice interview here with Sionann O'Neill, the other subtitler of Potiche.

Btw the image is from Umbrellas of Cherbourg. For more charming translation-and-film-related screenshots see this post on Les Piles Intermédiaires.

translation seminars in Edinburgh

Readers in Scotland may be interested in this year's excellent line-up for the joint series of translation seminars run by Heriot Watt University and the University of Edinburgh. The seminars are free and all are welcome.

Seminars on the Translation Profession

Liisa Muinonen, freelance translator

Things can only get better? Working as a freelance translator

Wed., 5 Oct. 2011, 4.00-5.30pm, University of Edinburgh

Jonathan Downie, freelance translator

tbc

Wed., 30 Nov. 2011, 4.00-5.30pm, Heriot-Watt University

Andrea Joyce, Associate Rights Director, Canongate Books

Selling Foreign Rights

Wed., 1 Feb. 2012, 4.00-5.30pm, University of Edinburgh

Annette Schiller, Schiller Translations

The business of translation and interpreting

Wed., 29 Feb 2012, 4.00-5.30pm, Heriot-Watt Universit

Venues, unless indicated otherwise

§  at University of Edinburgh: George Square,07 Psychology Building, Room  F21

map at: http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/buildings/david-hume-tower

§  at Heriot Watt University: Lecture Theatre 3

map at: http://www.hw.ac.uk/maps/detailed-campus-map.pdf

Research Seminars:

Angela Kershaw, University of Birmingham

Irène Némirovsky and Suite française – Issues of Translation and Reception in Holocaust Literature

Wed., 28 Sept 2011, 4.00-5.30pm, Heriot-Watt University, Lecture Theatre 3

Frederic Chaume, Universitat Jaume I

Dubbing in Europe: Professional Issues and Norms

Wed., 19 Oct. 2011, 4.00-5.30pm, University of Edinburgh

Valerie Henitiuk, University of East Anglia

The Bones of the Stuff: Translation and the Worlding of Literatures

Wed., 16 Nov. 2011, 4.00-5.30pm, Heriot-Watt University, Lecture Theatre 3

Denise Merkle, Université de Moncton

Translation: Compliance, Conversion, Assimilation

Wed., 23 Nov. 2011, 4.00-5.30, University of Edinburgh

Julie Boeri, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Exploring the Sociology of Translation and Interpreting: A Narrative Model of Analysis and a Case Study of Interpreting

Wed., 25 Jan. 2012, 4.00-5.30pm, Heriot-Watt University, Postgraduate Centre G.01

Susan Hunston, University of Birmingham

Phraseology and Evaluative Language: Issues in Corpus Linguistics

Wed., 8 Feb. 2012, 4.00-5.30pm, University of Edinburgh

Yvonne Fowler, Aston University

Interpreting into the Ether: Prison Video Link in the Multilingual Courtroom

Wed., 21 March 2012, 4.00-5.30pm, University of Edinburgh

Adam Kilgarriff, Lexical Computing Ltd.

Corpus Methods and Corpus Tools in Linguistics, Lexicography and Translation

Wed., 28 March 2012, 4.00-5.30pm, Heriot-Watt University, Postgraduate Centre G.01

Venues, unless indicated otherwise

§  at University of Edinburgh: Psychology Building, George Square 07, (F21)

map at: http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/buildings/psychology-building

§  at Heriot Watt University: Sem 1: Lecture Theatre 3, Sem 2: Postgraduate Centre G.01

map at: http://www.hw.ac.uk/student-life/campus-life/edinburgh/edinburgh-campus-map.htm

Literary translation events in London (9 October, 18 October)

Two events which might interest readers in the vicinity of London:

Firstly, Anthea Bell talks about Translating Asterix for the BD and Comics Passion Festival in London, 9 October. Secondly, a free event:

British Comparative Literature Association Graduate Welcome Reception 2011/12

Date: Tuesday, Oct 18, 2011

Location: Senate House (University of London), Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU, Room G35

Starting time: 5.30 p.m.

To celebrate the beginning of a new academic year, we would like to invite all postgraduate students and other enthusiasts of translation and comparative literature to our BCLA Graduate Welcome Reception.

Please join us for a welcoming address by Professor Duncan Large and short papers by three young researchers in the field, to be followed by a glass of wine. The programme includes the following talks:

-         Prof. Duncan Large (Swansea): ‘Translation Studies vs. Comparative Literature?’

-         Geraldine Brodie (UCL): ‘Translating for performance: the power of images for (in)visible stage translations’

-         Rashi Rohatgi  (SOAS): ‘Hindi Translation in Multilingual Mauritius: Amargeet and Beyond’

-         Dr Patricia Novillo-Corvolan (Kent): ‘“Infinitely Richer”: Jorge Luis Borges, Translator of Ulysses’

 

The event, hosted jointly by the British Comparative Literature Association and the Reception of British and Irish Authors in Europe research project, is free and open to all. If you have any queries, please contact Dorota Goluch at d.goluch.09@ucl.ac.uk.

                                  

Workshop: Interrogation in War and Conflict, Reading, 29 November 2011

This looks very very interesting: may be of particular interest to MA students planning to take the Translating History unit next year.

INTERROGATION IN WAR AND CONFLICT: BETWEEN LIBERTY, SECURITY AND JUSTICE
A Workshop supported by the Leverhulme Major Research Programme 'The Liberal Way of War'

Professor Hilary Footitt and Dr Simona Tobia, will be holding a one-day workshop on Tuesday, 29
November 2011, at the University of Reading. The event is free but registration is obligatory. There is more information here.

Programme:

09.00 - Coffee
09.15 – Welcome – Alan Cromartie
09.30 – 11.10 Military interrogation: the questioning of enemies
Chair: Heather Jones, LSE
• Keynote: David Burrill, Former Deputy Director Intelligence Corps, and Chief of Staff
Intelligence and Security Centre of the UK Armed Forces.
‘British and American Military Interrogation from 1939 to 1983 - Lessons at Risk’
• Franziska Heimburger, EHESS, Paris
‘Carrot or stick - French interpreters treading a fine line in obtaining information from German prisoners of war during the First World War’
• Huw Bennett, King’s College
‘British interrogations during the Mau Mau Emergency, 1952-56’
11.10 – 11.30 Coffee break
11.30 – 13.00 Forensic interrogation and international justice
Chair: Nigel Rodley, Univeristy of Essex
• Alice Zago, Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court
‘Modalities of Questioning Witnesses and Victims at the International Criminal Court’
• Louise Askew, University of Nottingham
‘A perceived neutrality: an English woman's experience of interpreting during suspect interviews at the ICTY’
• Matt Pollard, University of Essex
‘Coercive interrogation in the jurisprudence of international criminal tribunals’
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch break
14.00 – 16.10 ‘HumInt’: interrogation, intelligence and security
Chair: Philip Murphy, Institute of Commonwealth Studies
• Keynote: Christopher Andrew, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge
‘Interrogating spies and debriefing defectors. Some conclusions based on my research as official historian of MI5 and unofficial historian of the KGB’
• Simona Tobia, University of Reading
‘The British way to Humint in the Second World War: the case of CSDIC’
• Tomas Bouska, Charles University Prague, Political Prisoners Project
‘Czechoslovak Show Trials. Interrogation of former Political Prisoners between 1948-1953’.
• Kristyna Buskova, University of Nottingham, Political Prisoners Project
‘Life-long psychological consequences of Stalinist interrogation for the Czechoslovak ex-political prisoners from the 1950s’

British Library literary translation event tomorrow (for other people...)

Just looking at the programme for the British Library's literary translation event tomorrow. It looks fantastic. I wish I could go... :((

If any of this blog's readers end up attending, let us know what you thought!

trainee translator vacancy and two in-house posts

Temple Translations in London are looking for a trainee translator who can translate from German plus one of French/Russian/Spanish/Italian into English:

Temple Translations Ltd provides legal, financial and commercial translations to law firms and businesses operating in the City of London as well as nationally and internationally from our offices in London and New York.  We are looking to expand our in-house capabilities to facilitate greater turnaround in our prime language combinations.

The legal and financial sector is a fast-paced and dynamic environment in which to work; consequently we are looking for candidates with:

• an ability to grasp varied and often complex issues
• a high level of motivation and ability to use own initiative where appropriate
• a capacity to work consistently and under pressure, both independently and as part of a team

In addition to the attributes listed above we require the following:

• A postgraduate qualification in Translation,
• The ability to translate into English from German plus Russian/French/Spanish/Italian)
• English to mother-tongue standard.

Previous translation work experience and familiarity with legal and financial terminology would be beneficial but not a pre-requisite. Full mentoring and training will be provided for the first 12 months, with the aim of progressing to staff translator level. This position is located in our central London offices. If you would like to apply for this position or to receive further details, please e-mail your CV and covering letter to Woodie Dormandy: edward.dormandy at templetranslations.com. 

Also recently seen (via Uwe Muegge): two in-house posts, one for a German to English in-house translator in London, the other for an English to German translator/marketing copywriter in Utrecht (knowledge of French also desirable).