Disciplines in dialogue: Translation at the Intersection of Literary Studies and applied Linguistics
Abstract: This keynote explores a theoretical and methodological dialogue among translation, applied linguistics, and literary studies. Drawing on past and ongoing research, we show how a multidisciplinary perspective can provide tools for unlocking different layers of meaning that enable the analyst to position text in context and also to apply it in real life settings.
We zoom in on one project to illustrate our position; using datasets from the context of postwar Iraq, we adopt Clive Scott’s (2000) notion of reading and Boase-Beier’s (2004, 2006, 2011) cognitive stylistic approach to translate 5 Iraqi-Arabic blogposts as short stories. We then use our translated short stories as prompts to interview 13 U.S. military veterans who served in Iraq after 2003. The Iraqi blogosphere became active suddenly in 2003 just before the invasion of Iraq as numerous Iraqis began blogging in English and Arabic to cater to local, regional, and international audiences. We will show how Iraqis and U.S military servicemembers reconstructed each other in these the blogposts and the interviews, and the inferences possible for the analyst taking a multidisciplinary approach.
Our research findings suggest that literary translation surpasses its traditional function as a tool of interlingual rendition to become an enabling framework that helps explore complex phenomena of interest to applied linguistics and literary studies. In contexts related to wars and conflict, translation can thus be utilised as a contextual approach to prompt conversations that may lead to reconciliation and closure.
