Article.

MASTER CLASS IN TRANSLATION: OPENING UP NEW VISTAS

Review of the monograph :

Bednárová-Gibová K. “Non-Literary and Literary Text in Translation”. – Filozofická fakulta Prešovskej universzity. – Prešov, 2012. – 100 pp. – ISBN 978-80-555-0612-8

“Non-Literary and Literary Text in Translation” by PhDr. Klaudia Bednárová-Gibová, PhD is a valuable contribution to language education and translation studies in particular. It is a worthy addition and an instrument in helping translation trainees develop their theoretical background and practical skills and techniques to produce high-quality translation on their own.

The book addresses the essential facets of translation procedures in two typologically different text genres. It covers the key considerations concerning the translation techniques in the non-literary and literary text corpus and finds out their pertinent text genre characteristics. The empirical data are from an EU institutional-legal text Council Directive 2004/114/EC and a Christian novel excerpt The Shark by Canadian author William P. Young. K. Bednárová-Gibová points out that “the reason why these two case texts have been chosen is because the relationship of ostentatious contrast obtaining between them is more or less evident and as such suitable for investigating translation procedures in two, already at first glance, quite dissimilar text types” (Bednárová-Gibová 2012: 12).

In a concise yet comprehensive manner the author studies the selected non-literary and literary texts from the point of view of text linguistics and translatology, having reviewed and mutually contrasted their properties. In order to accomplish the goals of the comparative translatological research, the methods of contrastive textual analysis, analytical-deductive and corpus analysis methods have been employed.

It should be stressed that the book contains a good balance of theory and data. As the author states, “the conducted research has not been planted exclusively into the theoretical plane of the systemic contrastive description” (Bednárová-Gibová 2012: 93). By having proposed enhanced construct of translation procedures which can be applicable to a much larger and diverse empirical text material the author of the monograph suggests successful solutions for numerous translation problems and highlights some ideas as to further research. Much subtle and complex evidence is considered and the data are analyzed at each point in a thorough and explicit fashion.

The book consists of three chapters. There is a detailed table of contents, a list of tables and charts, which support the author’s observations and discussion of the results. There is a list of abbreviations and symbols, too.

Chapter 1 outlines the contemporary state of knowledge in the given research area, basic research aims as well as overall publication methodology including a whole range of research questions. Chapter 2, being essentially theoretical, explores the principal features of non-literary and literary text as such and their translation including their mutual contrasting. In such a way K. Bednárová-Gibová takes us step-by-step to the corpus analysis, preparing the indispensable ground for that. Successfully blending the theoretical and empirical in Chapter 3 the author presents the actual quantitative analysis of translation procedures across the non-literary and literary text, searching for isomorphic as well as allomorphic features. K. Bednárová-Gibová provides a few exemplifying instances of the respective translation procedure to illustrate the points raised in this chapter. The monograph ends up with a detailed and convincing review of the crucial results obtained and the main observations made in the course of the analysis.

With “Non-Literary and Literary Text in Translation” K. Bednárová-Gibová has presented language educators and translators with an invaluable tool, which will help to navigate in translation procedures. The book is written in a precise and clear style, well organized at each level. The explanations of translation concepts are clear, concise, and the examples are enlightening.

In conclusion it should be mentioned that the book is appropriate for a wide audience, but it will be of a particular interest to scholars engaged in translation studies, to translators for translation practice, and to language educators who want a working knowledge of translation techniques to be used in the classroom and to inspire language learners to choose and pursue translation as their University major and future career.

Olga Byessonova (Donetsk, Ukraine)

Available 1 October 2013.