Eco Umberto. Experiences in Translation

University of Toronto Press, 2008. — x, 135 pp. — (Emilio Goggio Publications Series). — ISBN: 0-8020-3533-7; ISBN: 978-0-8020-9614-2.In this book Umberto Eco argues that translation is not about comparing two languages, but about the interpretation of a text in two different languages, thus involving a shift between cultures. An author whose works have appeared in many languages, Eco is also the translator of Gérard de Nerval's Sylvie and Raymond Queneau's Exercices de style from French into Italian. In Experiences in Translation he draws on his substantial practical experience to identify and discuss some central problems of translation. As he convincingly demonstrates, a translation can express an evident deep sense of a text even when violating both lexical and referential faithfulness. Depicting translation as a semiotic task, he uses a wide range of source materials as illustration: the translations of his own and other novels, translations of the dialogue of American films into Italian, and various versions of the Bible. In the second part of his study he deals with translation theories proposed by Jakobson, Steiner, Peirce, and others.Overall, Eco identifies the different types of interpretive acts that count as translation. An enticing new typology emerges, based on his insistence on a common-sense approach and the necessity of taking a critical stance.Translating and Being Translated
Equivalence in Meaning
Incommensurability versus Comparability
Sameness in Reference
Translating from Culture to Culture
Source versus Target
Foreignizing and Domesticating
Archaic versus Modern
Can a Translator Change the Story?
Translating Rhythm
How Not to Get More and How to Accept Less
Compensating for Losses
When the Text Has Us See Things
Compensation through Rewriting
Translation and Interpretation
Translatio
Rewording as Interpretation
Definition versus Translation
Buongiorno
The Substance of the Expression
Stylistic Values and Expressive Substance
Expressive Substance and Aesthetic Effect
Change of Continuum
Interpretation, Translation, and Transmutation
Borderline Cases