The Intersections of Translational Hermeneutics and Narrative Hermeneutics: The Foundational Considerations

Mohammad Ali Kharmandar

Islamic Azad University, Shiraz Branch, Iran


Abstract

The majority of translation theories remerging from the works of contemporary philosophers suffer from a lack of well-organized textual/semiotic analysis tools. Although such theories are specifically important because of their postulates, their incoherent methods normally make them difficult to be used or even sufficiently understood. Hermeneutic theories, however, have been re-visiting and re-constructing their principles, showing a remarkable tendency toward methodological and empirical investigation guided by their philosophy. Translational hermeneutics, as a major movement, has suggested six fundamental principles. Although this contribution systemizes and simplifies hermeneutic conceptions, it still needs to construct a lingual analytic system for practical translation. Seeking to address this problem, this study views the six principles in the light of narratology and suggests a unified organization based on Ricoeur’s narrative theory by breaking the principles into a cognitive-existential dimension (subjectivity, historicity, phenomenology) and a lingual/semiotic dimension (process character, holistic nature, reflection). This framework processes both minimal and maximal language variables and addresses practical and pedagogical considerations.

Keywords:

translation studies, narratology, practical translation, assessment, Ricoeur, textual analysis, Continental philosophy, translation theory

Barnard, Alan. 2004. History and Theory in Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cercel, Larisa, John Stanley and Radegundis Stolze. 2015. Hermeneutics as a Research Paradigm. In: Radegundis Stolze, John Stanley, and Larisa Cercel (Eds.), Translational Hermeneutics: The First Symposium, 17-40. Bucarest: Zeta Books.

Emmott, Catherine and Marc Alexander. 2009. Schemata. In: Peter Hühn, John Pier, Wolf Schmid, Jörg Schönert (Eds.), Handbook of Narratology, 411-419. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Firk, Frank W. K. 2003. The Age of Einstein. Yale University Press.

Fludernik, Monika. 2006. An Introduction to Narratology (Patricia Häusler-Greenfield and Monika Fludernik. Trans. 2009). New York and London: Routledge.

Foucault, Michel. 1973. Ceci n’est pas une pipe. (James Harkness. Trans. & Ed. 1983). University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles.

Fowler, Roger. 1983. Linguistics and the Novel (2nd ed.). London: Methuen Publishing.

Franke, William. 1998. Psychoanalysis as a Hermeneutics of the Subject: Freud, Ricoeur, Lacan. Dialogue 37, 65-81.

Gadamer, Hans-Georg. 1960. Truth and Method (2nd. Rev. ed.). (Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshal. Trans., 2004). London and New York: Continuum.

Heinen, Sandra, and Roy Sommer (Eds.). 2009. Narratology in the Age of Cross-Disciplinary Narrative Research. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Herman, David. 2009. Basic Elements of Narrative. Malden and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Kharmandar, M.A. 2015. Ricoeur’s Extended Hermeneutic Translation Theory: Metaphysics, Narrative, Ethics, Politics. Études Ricoeuriennes / Ricoeur Studies 6(1), 73-93. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5195/errs.2015.281

Kharmandar, M.A. 2016. Argumentation-Based Literary Translation Quality Assessment: A Multidisciplinary Model. Journal of Argumentation in Context 5(2), 139-156. DOI: 10.1075/jaic.5.2.02kha

Kharmandar, M.A. 2017. Book Review: Translational Hermeneutics: The First Symposium. Continental Philosophy Review 50(3), 419-423. DOI: http://10.0.3.239/s11007-017-9429-1

Kharmandar, M.A. 2018a. The Interrelationship between Literary Translation and Literary Criticism: Reading in Interpretive Traditions. [sic] – A Journal of Literature, Culture and Literary Translation 8(2), 1-20. DOI: 10.15291/sic/2.8.lc.7

Kharmandar, M.A. 2018b. The Strata of Subcultural Translation: Sources of Fragmentation in Globalizing Societies. In Olaf-Immanuel Seel (Ed.), Redefining Translation and Interpretation in Cultural Evolution, 142-160. Hershey: IGI Global. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-2832-6.ch008

Mcquillan, Martin (Ed.). 2001. The Narrative Reader. New York and London: Routledge.

Meretoja, Hanna. 2014. Narrative and Human Existence: Ontology, Epistemology, and Ethics. New Literary History 45(1), 89-109. DOI: 10.1353/nlh.2014.0001

Norris, Stephen. P, Sandra M. Guilbert, Martha L. Smith, Shahram Hakimelahi, and Linda M. Phillips. 2005. A Theoretical Framework for Narrative Explanation in Science. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 89, 535-563.

Ricoeur, Paul. 1976. Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning. Texas: Texas Christian University Press.

Ricoeur, Paul. 1984. Time and Narrative. (Vol. 1). (K. McLaghlin and D. Pellauer, Trans.). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Ricoeur, Paul. 1990. Oneself as Another (K. Blamey, Trans. 1992). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ricoeur, Paul. 1991. Life in Quest of Narrative. In David Wood (Ed.), On Paul Ricoeur: Narrative and Interpretation, 20-33. Routledge: London and New York.

Ricoeur, Paul. 1996. Architecture and narrativity. (Eileen Brennan, Robbie Carney and Samuel Lelièvre, Trans. 2016. Études Ricoeuriennes / Ricoeur Studies 7(2), 31-42. DOI 10.5195/errs.2016.378

Ricoeur, Paul. 2004. Memory, History, Forgetting. (Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer. Trans.). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Safavi, Kourosh. 2016. An Introduction to Semantics (6th impression). Tehran: SoorehMehr Publication.

McKittrick, Sean, Allison Shearmur, Natalie Portman, Annette Savitch, Brian Oliver, Tyler Thompson, Marc Butan [Producers], and Burr Steers [Director]. 2016. Pride Prejudice Zombies. United Kingdom and United States: Screen Gems/Lionsgate.

Stolze, Radegundis, John Stanley, and Larisa Cercel (Eds.). 2015. Translational Hermeneutics: The First Symposium. Bucarest: Zeta Books.

Stolze, Radegundis. 2011. The Translator’s Approach: Introduction to Translational Hermeneutics: Theory and Examples from Practice. Berlin: Frank &Timme GmbH.

Westbrook, Andrew and Todd. S. Braver. 2015. Cognitive Effort: A Neuroeconomic Approach. Cogn Affect BehavNeurosci 15(2), 395-415. DOI: 10.3758/s13415-015-0334-y

Wilson, Rachel E. 2014. Positioning within a Cultural Context: Using Ricoeur’s Preunderstandings as a Heuristic for Narrative Data Analysis in Exploring Identity, Structure, and Agency. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 28(8), 887-905.

Download

Published
2018-03-30


Kharmandar, M. A. (2018) “The Intersections of Translational Hermeneutics and Narrative Hermeneutics: The Foundational Considerations”, Crossroads. A Journal of English Studies, (20), pp. 53–70. doi: 10.15290/cr.2018.20.1.03.

Mohammad Ali Kharmandar 
Islamic Azad University, Shiraz Branch, Iran