Translation as Experimentalism

Exploring Play in Poetics

Tong King Lee author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:28th Jul '22

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Translation as Experimentalism cover

This Element proposes a ludic view of translation, focusing on the playful, experimental, and experiential aspects of literary translation.

This Element argues for a perspective on literary translation based around ludification, using concrete poetry as a test case. It questions assumptions about translatability and opens up the discursive space of literary writing to transgressive articulation and multimodal performance. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.This Element argues for a perspective on literary translation based around the idea of ludification, using concrete poetry as a test case. Unlike rational-scientific models of translating, ludic translation downplays the linear transmission of meaning from one language into another. It foregrounds instead the open-ended, ergodic nature of translation, where the translator engages with and responds to an original work in an experimental and experiential manner. Focusing on memes rather than signs, ludic translation challenges us to adopt an oblique lens on literary texts and deploy verbal as well as nonverbal resources to add value to an original work. Such an approach is especially amenable to negotiating apparently untranslatable writing like concrete poems across languages, modes, and media. This Element questions assumptions about translatability and opens the discursive space of literary writing to transgressive articulation and multimodal performance. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

ISBN: 9781108932950

Dimensions: 230mm x 152mm x 4mm

Weight: 120g

75 pages