Translation and Conflict ‘A compelling account and an intellectually honest enquiry into the issues involved in handling competing narratives, of vital interest not only to translators and transla- tion theorists but also to users of translation products.’ Ian Mason, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland ‘Scientific and critical, never gratuitously polemic…this groundbreaking volume rigorously examines the relation between translation, power and conflict. In this courageous volume, Mona Baker shows the importance in today’s global world of translation and interpreting for life over the planet, and succeeds in calling our attention to the responsibilities that the translator and interpreter must never evade.’ Susan Petrilli, University of Bari, Italy Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account demonstrates that translation is part of the institution of war and that translators and interpreters participate in circulating as well as resisting the narratives that create the intellectual and moral environment for violent conflict. Drawing on narrative theory and using numerous examples from historical as well as contemporary conflicts, the author provides an original and coherent model of analysis that pays equal attention to micro- and macro-aspects of the circulation of narratives in translation, to translation and interpreting, and to questions of dominance and resistance. The study is particularly significant at this juncture of history, with the increased interest in the positioning of translators in politically sensitive contexts, the growing concern with translators’ and interpreters’ divided loyalties in settings such as Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and a host of other arenas of conflict, and the emergence of several activist commu- nities of translators and interpreters with highly politicized agendas of their own, including Babels, Translators for Peace, ECOS and Translators and Interpreters Peace Network. Including further reading suggestions at the end of each chapter, Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account will be of interest to students on courses in translation, intercultural studies and sociology as well as the reader interested in the study of social and political movements. Mona Baker is Professor of Translation Studies and Director of the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, University of Manchester. She is author of In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation, editor of The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, Founding Editor of The Translator, and Vice President of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies. ‘Perceptive, provocative and always engaging…a timely investigation into a hidden realm of translation practice where the stakes – human, political and international – are growing ever higher.’ David Johnston, Queen’s University Belfast ‘This groundbreaking volume challenges commonly held views on translation agency. It is a brilliant exploration of translators’ narrative positionality that brings new and invaluable insights into the ethics of translation.’ Annie Brisset, University of Ottawa, Canada ‘The compelling arguments, the topicality of the many examples and their wide range of reference, the clarity of the writing, and the finely poised balance between the author’s scholarly rigour and her lucid awareness of indeterminacy and ideology make this a particularly exciting and challenging piece of scholarship.’ Dirk Delabastita, University of Namur, Belgium ‘Translation and Conflict undoubtedly constitutes a turning point in Translation Studies.’ África Vidal Claramnote, University of Salamanca, Spain Translation and Conflict A Narrative Account Mona Baker First published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2006 Mona Baker This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Baker, Mona. Translation and conflict : a narrative account / Mona Baker. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Translating and interpreting. 2. Narration (Rhetoric) 3. Discourse analysis, Narrative. I. Title. p306.2.B356 2005 418'.02--dc22 2005024063 ISBN10: 0-415-38396-X (pbk) ISBN10: 0-415-38395-1 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-203-09991-5 (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-38396-7 (pbk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-38395-0 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-09991-9 (ebk) For Sanaa and Zeinab A ship in the harbour is safe, but that’s not what ships are made for. … one would want to avoid … a utopian impulse to joyfully display all humanity in tolerant and harmonious contact across all lines of difference, or a dystopian impulse to bemoan a world homogenised by western media or run only by misunderstanding and bad intentions. (Pratt 1987: 61) Contents List of figures xi Acknowledgements xiii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Translation, power, conflict 1 1.2 Why narrative? 3 1.3 Overview of chapters 4 2 Introducing narrative theory 8 2.1 The status and effects of narrativity 8 2.2 Defining narrative 19 2.3 The political import of narratives 20 3 A typology of narrative 28 3.1 Ontological narratives 28 3.2 Public narratives 33 3.3 Conceptual (disciplinary) narratives 39 3.4 Meta- (master) narratives 44 4 Understanding how narratives work: features of narrativity I 50 4.1 Temporality (Bruner’s narrative diachronicity) 50 4.2 Relationality (hermeneutic composability) 61 4.3 Causal emplotment 67 4.4 Selective appropriation 71 5 Understanding how narratives work: features of narrativity II 78 5.1 Particularity 78 5.2 Genericness 85 5.3 Normativeness/canonicity and breach 98 5.4 Narrative accrual 101 x Contents 6 Framing narratives in translation 105 6.1 Framing, frame ambiguity and frame space 105 6.2 Temporal and spatial framing 112 6.3 Selective appropriation of textual material 114 6.4 Framing by labelling 122 6.5 Repositioning of participants 132 7 Assessing narratives: the narrative paradigm 141 7.1 The narrative paradigm: basic tenets 142 7.2 Coherence (probability) 143 7.3 Fidelity 152 7.4 Assessing narratives: applying the model 155 7.5 Concluding remarks 162 Glossary 165 Notes 173 Bibliography 181 Index 195 Figures Every effort has been made to obtain permission to reproduce copyright material. Any omissions brought to our attention will be remedied in future editions. 1 ‘La Belle Hottentot’ – early nineteenth-century French print depicting Saartjie Baartman on display in London 12 2 An Iraqi man comforts his four-year-old son at a regroupment centre for prisoners of war of the 101st Airborne Division near An Najaf 13 3 A detainee in an outdoor solitary confinement cell talks with a military policeman at the Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad 13 4 Truth against Truth. Front and back cover of Gush Shalom brochure (English translation) 36 5 Paul Fitzgerald’s ‘Big Bad World’ cartoon, New Internationalist (April 2005) 53 6 Members of the Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign pose as indigenous Americans, Ramallah, 8 April 2004 60 7 Screen shot from Jenin Jenin: ‘We are still pulling victims out of the rubble’ 65 8 AIR (Annals of Improbable Research): Front cover of the January/ February 2002 Issue 90 9 AIR (Annals of Improbable Research): Front Cover of the September/ October 2004 Issue 90 10 Preparing for Emergencies (www.preparingforemergencies.co.uk) 91 11 Book cover of Hart Seely’s Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld 94 xii Figures 12/13 A variant of culture jamming – graffiti and slogans on Israel’s separation wall 94 14 Screen shot from Jenin, Jenin: ‘What can I say? Not even Vietnam was as bad as this’ 100 15 The Lysistrata Project 113 16 Where values enter an argument 158 Acknowledgements The research conducted for this book was made possible by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC; formerly Arts and Humanities Research Board) in Britain. I am grateful to the AHRC and the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, University of Manchester, for the unusual luxury of being able to work intensively on a research project of my choice for an entire year. Some of the detailed research undertaken for this book was done during a particularly productive period I spent as Visiting Professor with City University of Hong Kong, in January/February 2005. The Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics offered a superb environment for research: excellent facilities, friendly atmosphere, and intelligent debates. I am grateful to Maggie Cheung and Mr Lam for friendly and efficient administrative assistance, and especially to Zhu Chunshen and other colleagues in the department for their collegial support and friendship. The warm hospitality and companionship of Martha Cheung and Jane Lai from the Baptist University ensured that my stay in Hong Kong was even more enjoyable and productive. Several colleagues have been kind enough to read through sections of the manuscript and make suggestions for improving it. Dorothy Kenny gave valuable advice on rival place names in Northern Ireland, Ibrahim Muhawi on folklore studies, Luis Peréz-González on Spanish, Dimitris Asimakoulas on Greek exam- ples, and Wenjing Zhao on Chinese references. I am particularly grateful to Sameh Fekry Hanna and Francesca Billiani, who read large sections of the manu- script and commented on them in detail. I have also enjoyed working with Louisa Semlyen and Elizabeth Johnston, my editors at Routledge, whose support made life much easier throughout the past year.