Culture Bumps ─ An Empirical Approach to the Translation of Allusions

Allusions are often translated literally while their connotative and pragmatic meaning is largely ignored. This frequently leads to culture bumps, in other words, to puzzling or impenetrable wordings. Culture Bumps discusses this problem and how to deal with a culture-specific, source-text allusion in such a way that readers of the target text can understand the function and meaning of the allusive passage. The main focus is on translators and readers as active participants in the communicative process, and the book contains interviews with professional translators as well as empirical data on the responses of real readers. Examples provide teachers who want to take up the problem in translation classes with materials from contemporary English texts, both fiction and non-fiction, as well as a flowchart of translation strategies. The conclusion recommends that translators should take the needs of readers into account when choosing translation strategies for allusions, and that university-level language teaching and translator training should pay more attention to the biculturalisation of students

Dr Ritva Leppihalme is an Associate Professor at the University of Helsinki (Finland). She has many years' experience of teaching general and specialised courses in translation at intermediate and advanced levels. Her current research interests are translation studies, intercultural communication, wordplay and the teaching of translation.