Dept. of French and Italian - Faculty publications
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Published works by faculty in the Department of French and Italian.
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Item La problématologie dialogique: quel rôle joue le questionnement dans les domaines de la littérature et du droit?(Mestengo Press, 2005) Barsky, Robert F.Item Activist translation in an era of fictional law(Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction, 2007) Barsky, Robert F.This article proposes that activist translators be involved and engaged in those legal realms, such as the treatment of "illegals" or undocumented migrants, because this is an area in which translators can act as true intermediaries, over and above the act of substituting one lexical item for another; however, this form of activism, like other discretionary activities, needs to be directed to lofty causes, such as upholding the human rights of those most excluded by our society. In other words, alongside of the activism must come good faith, because "activism" could also actively hurt the person for whom the translator is doing his or her task. In other words, when the "translator" decides to become an "interpreter," there is the danger that the subjectivity of the latter will trump the "objectivity" of the former, with negative consequences. This article advocates activism over machine-like fidelity because the abuses in certain realms of law are so egregious and the stories so horrendous that most translators who are given the right to speak out will take the road towards humanity and basic decency. The examples to which Barsky refers emanate from the realm of immigrant incarceration in the Southern US, so for the purposes of this article positive activism points to efforts that help people who are arrested in the United States (or anywhere else) for violations of immigration laws. Regrettably, the kind of activism for which this article advocates is not likely to occur.Item The interpreter and the Canadian Convention Refugee Hearing : crossing the potentially life-threatening boundaries between "coccode-e-eh," "cluck-cluck," and "cot-cot-cot"(Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction (TTR), 1993) Barsky, Robert F.This paper discusses the obstacles facing interpreters and translators in inter-cultural situations with reference to Canadian Convention refugee hearings, taped in 1987. The author sets forth a theory of interpretation suited to the sometimes comical, but usually tragic elements of failed human interaction as they occur in legal hearings. The article begins with a comparison between a fictional rendering of failed communication from the work of Primo Levi, but then moves on to the plight of persecuted persons who have come to Canada to claim Convention refugee status. Obvious similarities emerge in a comparison of the two processes; but ultimately it is the language of persecution "silence, scars, tears, pleas, and impassioned cries" that is the most difficult to interpret and translate. Given the dynamics of inter-cultural legal discourse and the gravity of the issues at stake, the author argues for a broader mandate for the interpreter, such that s/he will also be permitted to act as a medium through which inter-cultural information can pass, rather than yet another grid into which pained words must fit.Item Arguing the American Dream à la Canada : former Soviet citizens' justification for their choice of host country(Oxford University Press, 1995) Barsky, Robert F.Item Making love with [Bakhtin](Duke University Press, 1994) Barsky, Robert F.Item "You cannot transform the history of ideas into a comic strip" : an interview with Marc Angenot(The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004) Barsky, Robert F.; Angenot, MarcItem Introduction: Marc Angenot and the scandal of history(The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004) Barsky, Robert F.Item Ricordi figurativi ne La stanza del vescovo di Piero Chiara(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009) Mirabile, Andrea, 1975-Item Bakhtin as anarchist? : language, law, and creative impulses in the work of Mikhail Bakhtin and Rudolf Rocker(Duke University Press, 1998) Barsky, Robert F.