University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/4523 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page.  27 University of Warwick Centre for British Cultural and Comparative Studies TRANSLATING FROM ONE MEDIUM TO ANOTHER Explorations in the Referential Power of Translation JOY SISLEY PHI) THESIS TRANSLATION STUDIES - NOVEMBER 2000 Abstract: This thesis explores the identity of translation as its power of reference through an analysis of transformations of biblical narrative from their written form to audio-visual versions made for television. The central problematic of translatability between word and image is examined through the "translation strategies" used by producers and translators. These strategies reveal the philosophical binarisms that underpin an assumption of source and target texts as autonomous entities. Thepolarities of binary thinking are implicit in a perception of translation as a representation of a prior text The language of representation that is central to theories of representationalequivalenceraises the questionto what does representationrefer. This questionforms thefocus for a critique of the epistemologyand ontology of representationand its artificial separation of language and vision, or word and image in our perceptual experienceof the world. The criticism is essentialto an exploration of the referential power of translation understood in semiotic and narrative terms as its ground of interpretation. This exploration describes the symbolic or semiotic value of translations, or the contextsin which they acquire contemporarycoherenceand significance. The central descriptive part of the thesis employs three conceptionsof context: the contextof textsthemselvesas narratively and semanticallycoherent units; their cultural contexts,or the irreducible intertexualityon which they depend for the recognition and interpretation of their significcnitfeatures; and the social and economicconditionswhich underpin the work of production and provide the social contextswithin suchworks circulate. In rejecting the notion that translations are an image, however innpure,of text, an antecedent my thesisexcludes a notion of conventionallimits to translation basedon structuralist conceptionsof semanticor narrative form as theprincipal carriers of meaning. It concludesthat the limits of translation are defined by its possibilities.  CONTENTS Introduction 1 Section One: Rethinking Word/Image Relationships in translation Chapter 1- Translation as a Semiotic Interpretive Event 15 Chapter 2- Figuring the Word 43 Chapter3- Translation,Vision, Reference 73 Section Two: Interpretive Grounds Chapter 4- Framing the Word 101 Chapter 5- Closing the Gap: Narrative Time and Historical Imagination 127 Chapter 6- Undermining Readerly Realities 154 Section Three: Imagining New Boundaries Chapter7- The Limits and Possibilitiesof Translation 177 Conclusion 250 Appendix 1 258 Appendix II - video tape attached Acknowledgements 259 References 260  INTRODUCTION To refer is always and at the same time to evaluate oneself and the world, to be critical. ' In 1993 the United Bible Societies' Director of Translation, Publication, and Distribution invited me to help organise a consultation for Bible Society officers on translating the Bible for video. The need for consultation arose from a perception that the technological revolution in electronic forms of communication affected people's preferences the world over. The book was out, television and computers were in. Concurrently literacy even, or especially, in so-called economically advancedsocieties had declined. Bible Societies saw little prospect of achieving their mission, to ensure that everybody had access to the Bible, if half the world's population couldn't or wouldn't read. Several Bible Societies had already experimented with making audio-visual versions of Bible stories. Experiments had led to questions: Could one translate from one medium to another without radically altering the meaning of the original text? Did such translation so change the original text as to undermine the Society's traditional identity and credibility as print translators and publishers? Should audio-visual versions be called translation at all and, if so, what kind of translation principles might ensure faithfully equivalent transpositions of the original text? The Bible Societies looked to me as a film maker and cultural theorist, to have some answers to the problem of equivalence between word and image, or at least to formulate some appropriate research questions about this central problem. In the courseof preparationfor the consultation,I cameacrossan interesting phenomenon.Many first attempts at "translation" chosethe story of the Prodigal Sonfrom the Gospel of Luke. In this story, the younger of two sons persuadeshis father to give him his shareof his inheritancewhich he subsequentlysquandersin a riotous life-style. Destitute and compelled to subsist in the most degradingof (Aiorot-Sir, 1993,p 139) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 1  Introduction occupations, the son reflects on the good life he had enjoyed in his father's home. He determines to return and beg his father's forgiveness. Almost without exception, the examples I looked at changedthe original story's ending. Whereas in the biblical version, the elder brother expressesdisgust at the joyful welcome his errant younger brother receives on his return, in many of the television versions, the elder brother had either disappeared altogether or joined in the welcome. The version made by the Bible Society of Malawi was especially interesting. As the elder son invites the guests to enjoy the barbecue laid on for them, his younger brother bursts into the well-known Christian song of redemption, "Amazing Grace". The focus of the story's narrative shifts from a parable about God's love to a story about an erring sinner who found gracewith God. My initial observations presented several immediate-questions. Why was the story of the Prodigal Son so popular and why the ubiquity of a happy ending? If producers presented these-versions as-translations, what motivated the- altered- ending? There are several possibilities. The first relates to interpretive traditions within Christian communities, which Gabriel- Josipovici argues, appear within the- New Testament itself. In- his- work on the- Bible as literature, he claims that in, Romans chapters 7 and 8 Paul of Tarsus reconstructs the narrative of the Prodigal Son to authenticate his own conversion. We can now see clearly why Saul of Tarsus dramatised for his listeners what had happened to him and how he became Paul the Apostle. And we can also- see that in this he was, after all, only doing what.. all readers do: he was completing . or continuing a series, and the- series he- chose- to continue Evasthat which concerned the Prodigal Son. Gone, however, is the elder brother, gone is the father' admonition to that brother Instead what is developed is the story of ... the sinner who repents and is welcomed back. 2 On the faceof it, then, the audio-visualversionsI looked at fulfilled an evangelicalor didacticpurpose. The makersdid not apparently intend to replacethe written word, that central authoritative documentof the Christian faith, but to supplementit. If this were the case,why pursue the matter further? Why think about these audio- visual productions in terms of translation? Surely, the-popularisation of the-Bible 2 (Josipovici, 1988, 244-245) pp Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page  Introduction through film and video is a more appropriate topic for biblical scholarship or in religious studies or, at a pinch, research popular culture. But if, as Josipovici suggests,interpretations of the Prodigal Son as a redemption narrative appear within the very pages of The Book, who can say that the Bible Society of Malawi has not made a faithful translation? The question is a teasing one, for it strikes at the heart of what people understand by the term "translation" and the conventional dichotomy between sensefor sense and word for word translation. It is important, however, to recognise this thesis is about translation and reference, not Bible translation per se. The closer I looked at adaptations of biblical narrative in terms of translation, the more my study raised general questions about the theory and practice of translation. Whether or not film makers, artists, or writers label their work "translation" has more to do with the intellectual boundaries that have been constructed around the term in academiathan with what people actually do. In the case of biblical adaptations, the language producers and writers use to talk about their work is replete with metaphors for translation. Adaptation "brings to life" the original biblical narratives. Film makers claim faithfully to reconstruct the original contexts of the stories. Promotional literature exhorts viewers to "be there", "travel the dusty roads", "be intimately involved in the life of Jesus". Nor is this kind of rhetoric restricted to productions intended primarily for Christian audiences. Even explicitly commercial or secular productions seek validation in claims to their integrity and the imprimatur of biblical experts and religious authority. The rangeof treatments within this corpus of adaptation, from animation to dramatic re-enactment, from historical reconstruction to contemporary representation, also raises questions about their specificity as Bible translation, or whether, indeed, Bible translation can be categorised as a special and separate activity. The idea that Bible translation differs from literary translation, despite its literary character, stems from its particular status as a sacred text and its categorisation as a certain text-type. (Snell-Hornby, 1995) This idea arises from a functional or instrumental view of translation as a tool. However, even a cursory review of recent English translations (Korsak, 1993; Mitchell, 1996) reveals that not all translators approach the original text with a concept of its sacrednessor with the Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page3  Introduction awe with which translators of the Septuagint are supposed to have undertaken their task in 200 BCE. Literary as well as theological considerations motivate Bible translators (Arichea, 1993; Jasper, 1993; Prickelt, 1986), just as literary and theological considerations motivated the- BibWs original authors. (Crossan, 1998; Romer, 1988; Thompson, 1999) The revelatory nature of biblical writing has as much to do with its inclusion of the supernatural or the miraculous as with the frame within people read it. (Aichele, 1997; Prickelt, 1986) A review of the range and types of publication on the market also reveals that Bible translation and publishing fulfil a variety of purposes. (Carroll, 1998) As one Bible Society officer once remarked to me, "There in are now so many publishers and media agencies the English speaking world that exploit the Bible as a source for commercial gain, literary enjoyment and just plain entertainment that we must not assumeanymore that when we talk about the Bible everybody understands it to mean a sacred Canon! So much then for those who think that claiming biblical authority for some belief or norm is it in itself a self-evident authority! "3 While this study does refer to some controversies about translating the Bible, questions such as the original text's authority or its antiquity and associated modernising or archaising strategies, it does not consider these issues to be unique to Bible translation. They may apply just as well to other translations from one medium to another, such as film adaptations of Shakespeare-or Jane Austen, or the animated version of the Canterbury Tales (BBC 2,1998) made by the sameteam that created Shakespeare, Operatibx, and Testament. If the plethora of translations,adaptations,andpublicationsmakesa concept of Bible translation as something separate from- other types of translation provisional, then the intertextual characterof the television adaptationsthat are the focus of this study makes the concept of the Bible as a source text equally provisional. It has become something of a commonplacethat, as "multi-media" texts, cinematicadaptationsof literary texts adapt more than one source. (Cattrysse, 1992; Cattrysse, 1997) But as my analysis shows, the double reversal of the "hermeneuticflow"4 of productions tharrework-popular-cinematicgenres,which are themselves based on biblical themes, suggestsan even more complex relation 3 Dr. Basil E. Rebera,United Bible Societies,Personal communication. 12th August 1998 (Kreitzer, 1993;Kreitzer, 1994) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to-Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page4-  Introduction between source and target texts. The Turner Pictures Old Testament epic mini- series (chapter five) or the BBC2/S4C animated series Testament (chapter six) are typical. The palimpsestic nature of biblical texts, their roots in oral tradition, and the rich interpretive history that began within the pages of the Christian Bible further destabilise the concept of an identifiable source text. The notion of a source or original text and the derivative nature of translation, implied by the language of target/source oppositions, is further complicated by questions about the nature of translated texts. The strict opposition (endemic to Romantic discourses on translation) of a creative "source" text to a "target" text which, by virtue of its derivative nature, merely reproduces cannot be attributed to the intrinsic nature of texts. (Bogatyrev, 1929) The concept of a source/target text opposition reflects the linguistic essentialism of certain comparative methodologies. The Bible's inter- textuality undermines definitive questions about translation based on this dichotomy. It problematises the ideas of source and target texts as autonomous entities, and of certain types of textual relationship as explaining the concept "translation". Resisting the temptation to treat translations and their originals as independent entities raises the question of their common ground. To what does a translation refer if not to an antecedent text? These considerations expose thehistorical and cultural relativity of definitive questions about translation. One of the principle difficulties that confronts an organisationsuch as the Bible Societywhen it comesto translatingthe Bible from one mediumto anotheris that people regard the languagesof word and image as structured in radically different ways. Whereasthe semanticuncertaintiesof languageare thought to be contained by its syntax, RolandBarthes,for example,describesimagesas"a message without a code."' The problem of translation from word to imageis, therefore,one of interpretive excess:how to achievea semblanceof equivalence,how to contain the meaningof the Bible oncereleasedfrom its written form. But this is a problem of perspectiveand habit. For organisationssuch as the Bible Society, the habit has beenformedby the ubiquity of print as the technology of mass communicationfor three centuriesor more,by the uniformity print hasimposedon languageuse, andby 5 (Barthes,1977, 17) p Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page5  Introduction resultant perceptions of the Bible's textual unity. (Anderson, 1991) This unity was not apparent when the Bible in existed scroll or manuscript form. The habit has also been formed by the Society's reliance on modem structural linguistics to support its theory and practice of translation. For an organisation whose credibility rests on a policy of translating without doctrinal note or comment and whose understanding of translation has been constrained by structuralist definitions of language, the difficulties of interpretive excessreflects a conception of the image's resistance to being tied down to a single or specific meaning- These perceptions and habits are not unique to organisations such as the Bible Society. As Yves Gambier's presentation to the conference on multi-media translation in Misano, Italy (1994) illustrates, they invade twentieth century theories of translation in a much more generalway. 6 Rather than treat certain types of text and certain types of relationship as definitive of a phenomenonwe call translation, this study uses contemporary adaptationsof biblical narrative for television to examinethe theory and practice of translation. Its purpose is to considerthree relatedissuesinvited by an attempt to understandliterary adaptationin terms of translation. First, the relation between word and image: do these constitute separate spheres of meaning or ways of organisingour perceptions of the world? Does languagerepresent our perceptual experiencein a more precise way than images? What is the relation between perceptionandlanguage?Second, questionsabout representation:If languagedoes not representthe world, if it turns out not to be a function of our perceptual experience,to what doesit refer? What broaderimplications doesthis question have for understandingany kind of code,visual, kinetic or verbal as representationsof a separatereality? If words and imagesare not representations,if the conceptual validity of representation is uncertain, can the notion of translation as a representationof another text be sustained? Third, the implications of these questions: How do they affect the limits and possibilities of translation? What alternativesexist for thinking about the relationship between words and images, betweenwritten texts andtheir audio-visualinterpretationsin terms of translation? 6 (Gambier, 1994) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom Onedfedium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 pag6  Introduction The polarisation of languageand vision, and its material expression through word and image, simply cannot be sustained outside the narrow fields of linguistics and textual criticism informed by structural linguistic theory. Several interesting dimensions to this debate are taken up in the following section. Graphic artists and poets see words and images as a continuum of the way the world is described through language. Thus the written word has a visual quality as much as imageshave formal (even narrative) elements. (Bal, 1991; Drucker, 1998; Kress and van Lceuiven, 1996) The contemporary art form of comic strips exploits the continuum of word and image as a central formal element of their meaning. (Fresnault-Deruelle, 1992) The American Bible Society exploits this same continuum in their newmediabible translation. Chapter one explores the formal nature of images through a discussion about the semiotics of imagesand film. In so doing, it challenges the marginalisation of "intersemiotic" translation that has dominated translation theory over the past forty years since Jakobson published his article on the linguistic aspects of translation. (Jakobson, 1959) Chapter two examines the convergenceof the visual and verbal in a case study of the Visual Bible, a production that claims to be a "word-for-word" visual translation of the NIV English translation of the Gospel of Matthew. The case study seeks to demonstrate the value for a critical theory of intersemiotic translation of treating the visual elements of this film as a text in its own right rather than an illustration of the written text. Chapter three explores the translatability of word and image through a discussion about reference. In many respects, this chapter represents a logical conclusion to the exhaustion of the conceptual usefulness of equivalence realised as a representational relationship between source and target texts. Instead, it takes up the view that, from a philosophical point of view, meaning is based in a perceptual, visual organisation of languageand that languagemay be accounted for by its power of reference. I argue that translations may be accounted for similarly by their power of reference. The analysis of a translation's power of reference demands a close, formal reading, or in contextual analysis order to discover its ground of interpretation in preference to a comparative methodology that identifies the similarities and differences between source and target texts as a translation's representational ground. This perspective constitutes the principal theoretical and methodological parameter of this study. It Joy Sisley,Translating from OneMediumto Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page7  Introduction imposes a particular philosophical rigour. Firstly, it presumes that all translation is interpretation. However, the fact that a text and its translation have a separate material existence does not mean that the translation is an interpretation of its original nor that interpretation and translation are separable processes. The language of referenceunderstands translation to be an experienceof reading. This implies that the ground of interpretation lies in the texts themselves, not in a reality external to the experience of interpretation. It also implies that the translator has made judgements of value based on the languageof the source text itself and on her own experience as a reader. In treating translation as an experience of reading and interpretation this study attempts to understand translation as the power of reference irrespective of whether it involves inter-semiotic, intra-lingual, or inter- lingual interpretation. It attempts to go beyond the boundaries of word and image, or source and target texts, to consider the limits and possibilities of translation. This considerationinvolves taking position on a number of issues. Since -a the majority of translations examined in this thesis make some kind of claim to faithfulness or integrity, the referential power of translation has a bearing on the questions of what a translation shares with its original and how to evaluate their common ground. Chapter four takes up this question through an analysis of framing and its function. Narrative frames in chapter four's casestudy function as a kind of raise-en-abyvnewhere interpretation, in the first instance, involves unravelling the story from the narrative and its 7 narration. Chapter five considers the power of reference through an analysis of the discourses of similarity in historical reconstructions of biblical narrative, not as a relational phenomenon (which on the surface appears to be the intention of the translations examined), but from a phenomenological perspective in which the aims of their historiography appear as an endeavour to represent biblical characters as "just like us". Whereas chapters four and five focus on the internal structures and contexts of the text itself, (AvMi, 1990; Morot-Sir, 1993; Niranjana, 1992) chapters six and seven take up a That is, Genette'srecit, histoire, and narration. See(Scam,Burgoyneand Flitterman-Lewis, 1992, pp 95-96) for an explanationof theseterms and their application in film theory. See also (Avni, 1990, pp 137-145)for an application of the conceptof mise-en-abymeto the problems of translationin Merime's "Lokfis" Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page8  Introduction translation's context as something that is socially produced. (Bal, 1991; Bogatyrev, 1982, Bourdieu, 1993). This perspective adds a somewhat different inflection to the question of limits and value discussed in chapter four by situating value within the larger frame of the translation "system". Chapters six and seven also mark the site on which the terminology of narrative theory and semiotic theory converge in an understanding of context or system as the structures that give meaning to individual- texts. This helps to understand the translated text as a sign and to make a connection between the referential power of translation and its ground of interpretation. Chapter six approaches this question primarily through textual analysis in keeping with the other chapters in the same section. Chapter seven departs radically from this method to locate an understanding of a translation's referential power explicitly within the social contexts of translating and its discursive habits. My analysis employs three conceptions of context: Firstly, there is the contextof the text itself as a narratively and semanticallycoherentunit. Secondly,as Bal hasdemonstratedin her methodof readingiconographically,texts do not exist in a vacuum. The recognitionand interpretation of significantfeaturesin a text depends on a knowledge of the representational traditions by which texts are formed and which give them coherence. As texts are irreducibly inter-textual, their context may, therefore,alsobe understoodas cultural. Thirdly, the-social-and material matrix of a text's production and reception forms a significant elementof its meaning. This constitutes the social context. While the social and economicconditions that give rise to individual works and their translations exist independently of the texts themselves,they may only be apprehendedas signs. Thus the-socialcontextswithin which such works circulatemay alsobe treatedas a text. Thesethree conceptionsof context intersect in ways that may account for the referential- power of any individual translation,or in Mieke Bal's terms, its groundof interpretation. Semioticand philosophical investigationson the nature and relation of word and image do not exhaust the possibilities for reconsideringthe boundaries of translation and its theoretical language. One of the richest fields for this is art history. The scopeof this study prevents but a brief consideration debatesin all of Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page9  Introduction this field via Mieke Bal's method of reading iconographically. Close attention to the narrative themes, the visual tropes, and formal structures of the audio-visual translations examinedin this study, however, reveal a trend that may provide a more radical challenge to the ways in which translation is thought about than the reconsideration of translatability introduced in the first section suggests. An underlying and ever-present theme in all the translations considered comes from- the establishment of a shared interpretive ground with their "sources" through the narration of space and spatial form. W. J. T. Mitchell challengesthe argument that literature differs from the plastic arts because of the connection of writing to a temporal conception of narrative versus the- plastic arts' connection to a spatial conception of interpretation. He argues that even theorists who have strongly contested the concept of spatiality in literature resort to spatial metaphors in their defence of the temporality of literary narrative. Spatial form, he writes, provides "the perceptual basis of our notion of time we literally cannot "tell time" without ... the mediation of space [it is] our basis for making history and temporality ... intelligible It may help us to seehow a theme is embodied, where a narrator stands ... in relation to his story, what structure of imagery provides the grounds for symbolic meaning. "8 This study considers questions of spatial form in chapter four in the analysis of narrative framing and point of view and again in the analysis of the American Bible Society translation project in chapter seven. These questions appear in a more muted way in the analysis of the narration of space in chapter five-. A more sustained theorisation of spatial form in relation to questions about translation from word to image awaits further research. Although the examplesused here are taken from the Bible, this study deals with more generalquestionsabout translation from one medium to another as they pertain to the central defining quest for understandingtranslation as its power of reference. This is taken up in detail in chapter three. Apart from the rather serendipitousbeginningfor researchin this area,other more important reasonshave emergedfor exploringtranslation from one mediumto another from the perspective- of adaptationsof biblical narrativefor television. In the first place, Bible translation 8 (Mitchell, 1980, 274 pp and294-295) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page10  Introduction has had a powerful influence on the development of languageand literature and the visual arts (including film). So much is common knowledge. But, as a result, Bible translation in its many guises provides a broad inter-textual base to explore the referential power of translation. These translations offer more scope to trace-the semiotic value of a text through its successive translations than any other individual text with few exceptions - Homer's Iliad, for example. More importantly, however, the Bible and its audio-visual interpretations present a more visible challenge to definitions of text, authority, and equivalence constructed around the central notion of originality in theories of literary translation. This it makes possible to explore the productive and creative nature of translation in ways often overlooked in studies of literary translation. Secondly, becausethe Bible occupies such a privileged place in the literary and cultural history of the English language, and because of its special status as a sacred text, the dichotomies of translation theory are often more polarised. Audio-visual translations of biblical narrative-are interesting becausethey often make explicit what is only implicit in cinematic adaptations of literature. Finally, the translations studied here deliberately blur distinctions between sacred and secular, high and popular art, literary and theological, verbal and visual, making it possible to see more clearly the- connections between different text types and the- more generalnature of translation. If George Steiner arguesthat we do not need to go beyond literature and languageto discover the-grey areas of translation, this study arguesthat we learn more about translation precisely in going beyond language-9 Two questionsof terminology not developedelsewherein this work require explanation. First, what namebest applies to the- processesand texts describedhere. I opted for "translation" for severalreasons:To borrow the term "adaptation" from film studiesis problematic,becausein translation studiesit hasa more-specific sense that indicates an absenceof equivalence. Since one of my opening questions concernsthe implication of equivalencein perceptions of translatability, the use of the term "adaptation" would introduce an undesirablequalification at the outset. The term "multi-media" recently introduced into translation studies to refer to translations involving more than one medium of communicationpresented similar 9 SeeUnni Wikan in (Pälsson,1993)for discussion a about the art of going beyond words in translation. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Afedium toAnother BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 PageI1-  Introduction problems of focus. Although it may refer rather loosely to any number of communication media - cinema, television, personal computers - its introduction often signals a rather spurious differentiation between the organisation and processes of translation in each medium. Certainly, it- is interesting and important from a to practical point of view, say, consider the importance of icons in the "localization" of computer software for different markets, or to point out that multi-media translation involves more than a single authorial translating mind. But the collaborative and collective nature of translation is not unique to multi-media forms. More importantly, the use of the term "multi-media" often covertly imports a technological determinism into translation analysis. I am particularly anxious to avoid this perspective. The American Bible Society, having originally adopted the term to distance themselves from the connotations of audio-visual translation, later dropped it in favour of "translation from one medium to another" because "multi- media" is too vague a term and overburdened with all kinds of theoretical baggage. (Soukup, 1999) In the interests of sustaining my criticism of Jakobson's translation categories, or any other kind of category for that matter, I do not see the need to qualify my examples by drawing attention to them as video, film, or television translations. Evidence of the use of the term translation in other fields (such as the history of art, and anthropology) amply challengesits exclusive use in linguistic and literary theories of translation. (Perhaps more striking, in this context, is the absence to of any reference or concept of translation in biblical studies)1°. My unqualified use of the term translation is therefore at once provocative and reflective of the necessary inter-disciplinary nature of my thesis. The other issue,perhaps more difficult to decide,is what name to give the "source" text. Except for some specific contexts,I have rejectedthe pair "source'-' and "target" text. The terminology brings an associationwith particular types of comparativemethodology generally underpinned by a very mechanicalmodel of communication. The pair imports a set of assumptions about communication 1° Many biblical scholarswho write aboutthe interpretivehistory of the Bible in an, literature, music, and film quite rightly, in my opinion, treat these"translations" as anotherform of textual criticism. Their analyses are therefore not prejudiced by questions about how true these representationsare to the-text, or whether-theyare "faithful translations". See (Exum and Moore, 1998;Haskins, 1993;Kreitzer, 1993)for a rangeof critical methodologiesin this area. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium taAnother BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 Page12  Introduction anachronistic to any but the most technical considerations about translation. They function as a metaphor for a communication model that assumes the passivity of (McQuail,. 1993).. The terminology of "target" and "source" thus has a reception-" tendency to impoverish debates about translation, especially those that take a Eventually, I settled for the term "original" because it seems culturalist perspective. better description about the Bible embedded in the a of popular perceptions discourses of originality and translation in my corpus. In this context, the concept of originality is self-reflexive. It has a number of rich and problematic semantic for exploring how producers have associations which provide a springboard biblical Chapters two and four approached the very tricky question of authority. pay particular attention to this question. In fact, originality and authority are, virtually inseparable concepts. Several semantic possibilities in their association are worth mentioning. "Original" is a problematic term because- it has an historical association in literary theory and textual criticism with Romantic concepts of authorship. The Romantic idea of literary or artistic authorship is, however, demonstrably a cultural construct that is linked to the economics of literary or artistic production. (Bourdieu, 1996) In film studies, this question surfaces in Auteur theory where the problem of authorship is tied to the collective nature of film making imposed by the technologies and structures of film production. Again, the parameters of authorship are invariably debated in the romantic terms of artistic originality. 12 In the context of biblical writing, where individual books are a redaction of several sources, the concept of authorship is defined by modern text criticism intended to establish the authenticity of a text's origins. While the techniques of text criticism are literary and linguistic, their motivation is irreducibly theological. Besides the overtly cultural parameters of its semantic field, the concept of originality is also unequivocally connected to, the- economics and technologies of " See,for example(Fiske, 1987;Hall, 1980;Livingstone and Lunt, 1994; Sperber,1995)for counter-arguments to this view. 12 It is also interestingto note in passinghow considerablyindebtedfilm studies is to literary theory. There is an historical explanation for this. In its early development, the cinema «as modelled on literary and narrative forms instead of documentary forms of representation. Consequently,the cinemaadaptedthe repertoiresof literary production. While film making also has its own rich tradition of documentaryproduction, the terms of contemporarygenrecriticism in. this tradition aremore closely affiliated to debatesabout historiographyand ethnology. Seefor example, (Renov, 1993, Sobchack,1996). Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page13  Introduction reproduction. From this perspective, the distinctions between authorship and originality are more appropriately drawn- from differences between folk traditions and written traditions (Bogatyrev, 1982) than from distinctions between different types of mechanical (or now digital) reproduction. For example, the- history of copyright law, which has invariably been designed to protect producers not artists, fascinating ' provides a counter-argument to a Romantic conception of authorship. Unlike literary translation or cinema adaptation, where questions of fidelity popularly weigh with the authority of an original author, in Bible translation questions of fidelity weigh equally with the authority of the sacred Scriptures' divine inspiration and the authority of their interpretive communities. The term "original" in this connection reflects quite appropriately the notion of an origin in divine authorship and a beginning lost in the mists of time and overlaid by a rich interpretive history that nevertheless always assumes an original. The impulse to return to or recover an original, reflected in the promotional literature and historical reconstructions of audio-visual translations, is also a reflection of the interpretive habits of Bible readers. They are, as Josipovici suggests, "completing a series", in this case, the originary image of the Christian Old and New Testaments' opening narrative trope, "in the beginning... " 13 (Seefor example(Jardine, () 199on the print revolution and (Mann, September2000) on the digital revolution and copyright in the music industry). Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page14  CHAPTER ONE Translation as a semiotic interpretive event The understandingof signs is not a mere matter of recognition (of a stable equivalence);it is a matter of interpretation. ' Roman Jakobson distinguishes three ways of interpreting a verbal sign-irr his essay On Linguistic Aspects of Translation. ' He calls the translation of signs into the same language"intra-lingual translation" or rewording; translation into another language "inter-lingual translation" or translation proper; and translation into another sign system "inter-semiotic" or transmutation. By titling his chapter "On linguistic aspects of translation", Jakobson follows Saussure-in subsuming semiotics under linguistics and thus reduces the interdisciplinary power of semiotics. His distinctions have contributed to some common misconceptions in translation studies: the treatment of these distinctions as discreet and irreducible categories; a reduction of his inter-semiotic, intra-lingual, and- inter-lingual translation types respectively to Charles S. Peirce's iconic, indexical, and symbolic signs; and a further reduction of Peirce's iconic signs to non-verbal (primarily visual) forms of communication and his symbolic signs to verbal communication. This reductionist delineation of the field of translation stems from Jakobson's sleight of hand- in identifying "inter-lingual" translation as translation proper and conflating Peirce's notion of symbolic sign relations with Saussure's concept of the sign- as wholly arbitrary and of semiotics as a branch of linguistics. Jakobson's definition of translation proper rests on a particular condition- of translatability understood as a seemingly paradoxical conception of equivalence or synonymy within difference which may only fully occur, according to his argument, at the level of arbitrary and conventional sign use. In order to appreciate how he arrives at his concept of I (x. 1984.p 43) 2 (Jakobson,1992) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page15  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event translatability, it is worth examining the process whereby Jakobson uses his essay to translate Peirce into a Saussureansemiotic frame.3 The identity of Peirce's iconic, indexical and symbolic signs stems from the quality of their relation to their object, or the respect in which they refer to their object. An iconic sign resemblesits conceptual object in a qualitative-, or immediate sense that it shares some properties which the object possesses. Photographs, paintings, sculpture, but also graphs, maps, diagrams are iconic in this respect. Its firstness, or its unmediated relationship to its object determines the qualitative nature of iconic signs. The signifying value of firstness is the immediacy of experience. Thus, The Icon has no dynamical connection with the object it represents;it simply happensthat its qualities resemblethose of that object, and excites analogous in sensations the mind for which it is a ' likeness. As Peirce's definition suggests,the quality, suchas colour, odour, sound, etc. of the is to object essential the icon as a-sign. Jakobson''sidea of iconic signs more-closely- resemblesSaussure'sdefinition of a symbol as motivated, or never wholly arbitrary. As such, symbols fall outside the scope of semiotic investigation. Likewise, inter- semiotictransformationsfall outsidethe scopeof Jakobson'sinvestigationby virtue of their untranslatability. An indexicalsign resemblesits object by virtue of an existential bond. It bearsa causalrelationship to the thing it signifiesinsofar as it points directly to its object. For example,a weathervaneprovides an index of the-direction of the-wind, just as smoke indicatesfire. Secondness,or the law-like characterof its existential bond determinesthe qualitative-nature of indexicalsigns. The relationship tends to be a simple and straightforwardone. Thus, The index is physically connected with its object; they make an organic pair, but the interpreting mind has nothing to do with this connection, except it, remarking after it is ' established. 3 See,(Gorlee,1993, ch. 8) on the structuralistinflection of Jakobson'sinflection of Peirce. ° (Peirce,1931-1966, 299) p ibid., p 299 Joy Sisley, Translating from one-Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 pagc 16  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event The signifying value of indexical signs lies in its capacity to make the object conceptually present. Jakobson equates indexical signs with intra-lingual translation on the basis of a necessary relation between code units and their synonyms. For example, the statement "every bachelor is an unmarried man, and every unmarried man is a bachelor"6 demonstrates the logic of necessity, or the law like character of the equivalence. Inter-lingual translation may be similarly indexical. The translator will always find a word or code unit if there is no already existing equivalent. "Whenever there is a deficiency, terminology may be qualified and amplified by loanwords or loan translations, neologisms, or semantic shifts, and finally by 7 circumlocution .,, Again Jakobson excludes indexical signsrntra-lingual translation from the scope of his analysis, becausethey are not wholly arbitrary. A symbolic sign resemblesits conceptualobject in a generalsensein that the relationbetweensign and object is imaginary: A symbol is a sign which refers to the Object that it denotes by virtue of a law, usually an association of general ideas, which operates to cause the symbol to be interpreted as referring to that object Not only is it general itself, but the ... Object to which it refers is of a general nature. ' Its thirdness, or the generalnature of its signification determinesthe qualitative natureof the symbol. Thus, The symbol is connected with its object by virtue of the idea of the symbol- using mind, without which no suchconnection would exist. 9 The signifying value of a symbol is its conventional nature that permits sign and object to be interpreted as connected, based on a general agreementor habit. Jakobsonconnectssymbolic signs and inter-lingual translation on the basis of the conventional nature of the relationships: "messages may serve as adequate " ° (emphasisadded) However, his interpretationsof aliencodeunits or messages. conception of translatability most definitely relates to the arbitrary nature of the 6 (Jakobson, 1992, 145) p ibid., p 147 8 (Peirce,1931-1966,Vol. 11. pp 143-144) 9 (Peirce,1931-1966, 299) p 10 (Jakobson,1992, 145) p Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page17  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event Saussureansign, and only in a limited sense to Peirce's symbol. The elision of Peirce's symbol into Saussure's sign occurs through Jakobson's understanding of equivalence- something linked to the idea of arbitrariness. The sign's arbitrariness depends on both its independence of the real object and its position in the regulated play of differences in the signifying system. Hence the significance of Jakobson's concept of equivalence as synonymy in difference. Differences occur on two levels: first, the relation of signs in different languages, for example, the English word "cottage cheese" and the Russian word syp. Insofar as both refer to cheese made from pressed curds, the two terms can be used synonymously, but they differ becauseRussian cheeseis only syp if it is fermented-" As code units the terms are equivalent because speakers recognise the difference while maintaining synonymy on the basis of an arbitrary rule or convention. Complete equivalence, therefore, relies on a notion of difference. Iconic and indexical signs may substitute for other more or less synonymous signs, but lack full equivalence because the relation is not (i. arbitrary e., there is no difference involved). Second, Jakobson maintains a thesis of arbitrariness at the level of language structure, not at the level of code units. Translation involves two equivalent messages in two different codes, by which Jakobson means linguistic codes since, following Saussure,it is clear from his essay he means, Signs that are wholly arbitrary realise better than others the ideal of the semiological process;that is why language,the most complex and universal of is all systemsof expression, also the most characteristic.t2 To give credenceto his assertionthat languagesare translatableat a syntactical level Jakobson relies not only on a Saussureanconception of meaning where the combinatory rules of languagegive the individual units coherencebut, as Eco points out, proposes further that "the code is not so much a mechanismwhich allows communicationas a mechanismwhich allows transformationsbetweentwo systems what matters is that they are systemswhich communicateamong one another"13 ... " Jakobsonhints the at cultural disparity of theseterms, but his real interest in his essayon translationis the structuralnatureof equivalence.Like Saussure,he separates langue andparole and makesmeaninga function of the former, at leastat the level of translatability. 12 (deSaussure,1966, 68) p 13 (Eco, 1984, 168) p Joy Sisley, Translating from one Aledium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page18  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event This implies that the system gives meaning. Translation is therefore mono-logical and univocal, resting on a conception of equal exchangewhere, for example, one can exchange"bachelor" for "unmarried man" or "screw" for "rotating nail". But the equivalence of these terms comes only from the structures of the system in which they occur. While he owes his working definition of signification to Peirce's triadic conception of the sign, Jakobson's transposition of these into three kinds of translation is dependanton Saussure'sconception of the sign. The logic behind Jakobson'sargumentthat inter-lingual translation is translation proper dependson shifting Peirce's concept of a Symbol as a sign whose interpretant has an entirely arbitrary relationshipwith its conceptualobject to a conceptof languageas a system of entirely arbitrary signs. By changingPeirce's conventionalnature of the symbol into Saussure'sarbitrary nature of the sign, Jakobson successfully excludesiconic and indexical signs, therefore inter-semiotic and intra-lingual translation, from his definition of translationproper. Furthermore,as Derrida points out in his critique, Jakobson proposes a definitional equivalent for intra-lingual and inter-semiotic translation. He definesinter-lingual translation, however, as translation proper, he doesnot translate. In the first casethe "translation of `translation' is a definitional interpretation." In the secondcaseJakobson supposesthat it is not necessaryto translate; everyone understandswhat that means because everyone has experiencedit, everyone is expected to know what is a language,the relation of one languageto another and especially identity or difference in fact of language." Jakobson's definition of equivalence thus classically combines the structuralist thesis of arbitrariness with its principle of transparency. By definitional fiat rewording and transformation are excluded from translation. Translation studies has inherited this legacy which imposes epistemological boundaries on the definition and scope of "multi-media translation". In fact, all translation (whatever the medium) is intersemiotic translation. Therefore, this thesis about transfers from one medium to another ( somewhat misleadingly and narrowly labelled "inter-semiotic" translation) 14 (Dcrnda,1992, 225) p Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page19  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event must begin with a discussion about the semiotics of translation, if only to clear the ground of inadequately theorised processes and prejudiced conceptions about the limits of translation. " In principle, any process which adapts a prior conception that serves as a model for the new composition could be called a "translation". In practice, however, various conventions qualify definitions of translation: the view that only certain forms of inter-lingual transfer constitute translation proper, or the idea that translatability is synonymous with certain types of semiotic equivalence. 16 Emergent emphases in "multi-media" translation research indicate a conformity to what Umberto Eco has termed the political and epistemological boundaries of a discipline. A general view of languageas the primary modelling system of human signification has set the boundaries of translation theory. (Lotman 1967, de Saussure 1966, Barthes 1977). Roland Barthes, for example, arguesthe linguistic sign anchors the meaning of all other visual and auditory signs within mass communication: "We are still, and more than ever, a civilisation of writing, writing and speech continuing to be the full terms of the informational, structure."", Umberto Eco,. quoting Barthes, remarks on the perceived pre-eminence of linguistics as "not only the most important branch of semiotics but the model for every semiotic activity. " He concludes that "without doubt verbal languageis the most powerful semiotic device that man has invented. i18 Any discussion about transfers from one medium to another ultimately has to deal with the dominance in Western thought of a structuralist linguistic paradigm which not only privileges verbal communication over other forms, but also assigns 15 It is typical of writers on translationto admit the possibility of including translations between media in the field but then draw back to discuss Jakobson's translation proper. See (Even- Zohar, 1990; Steiner, 1975; Toury, 1995). Steiner, for example notes: "we need not go immediately or entirely outside.language. There is between `translation proper' and `transmutation' a vast terrain of `partial transformation' These include paraphrase, graphic illustration, pastiche, ... imitation, thematic variation, parody, citation false attribution plagiarism, collage, and many " (p 437) ... ... others. 16 This view persistsin spite of attemptsby scholarsto articulate the terms of "translation" in a broadersemiologicalframe 17 (Barthes,1977, 38) Of p course,this view is invariably contradictedby the art-historical perspectivethat "The imageis the essenceof the society in which we live." (David Salle, exhibition catalogue,Madrid, Spain, 27 Septemberto 13 November1988, quotedby (Sailer, 1996)) 18 (Eco, 1976, 174) p Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page20 op, Translation as a semiotic interpretive event the origins of truth and stability of meaning to the word. This paradigm sets the indeterminacy of non-verbal languages against the determinacy of verbal communication. Such indeterminacy has been attributed to the polysemy of non- language Barthes has described "a 19i. e. a verbal which as messagewithout a code", language. But in messagewithout the combinatory rules that govern meaning within theories of meaning medium-bound conceptions of the intrinsic properties attributed to verbal and visual signs express a more fundamental conceptual opposition between the referential character of signs and their codification as meaningful Ultimately, questions about "translatability", however systems of communication. named in different fields, converge on the problem of whether meaning is a function of the codes that it structure or of the signs that represent an independent reality habits that determine their interpretation. 20 The opposition and the conventions and is embedded in Jakobson's essay on translation. One perspective holds that is inscribed in by the text itself is ;21 the meaning and circumscribed - contextual other, that meaning is inscribed in the context of interpretation is inter-textual and - open ended. The first perspective grants the possibility of translation based on a conception of the universality of codes; the other asserts that the radical heterogeneity of signs makes translation, in the narrow sense, impossible and open to manipulation. This Jakobson, who treats poetry as "parole" in the explains why Saussureansense, cannot include it in his concept of translatability. These polarities in share a common ground the conception of equivalence as a particular inter-textual relationuniqueto translation andin many respectsdefinitive. 19 (Barthes, 1977, p 17) 20 For a succinctdemonstrationof this confrontationseeOm Avni's analysisof "De la sorisete desestopes"("The little mousein the Rag Basket") in (Avni, 1990) 21 Context is anotherterm that is fraught with conceptualdifficulties that are not necessarily solvedby defining everythingwithin the translatedtext as para-textualand everything outside it as meta-textual. The separationis only possible if sourceand target texts are viewed as distinct entities. In this context a translation's prefaceis viewed as meta-textual. Once the reception of translationsis includedas integral to the dynamicsof intercultural communication,the prefacemay be treatedeverybit as much as part of the translatedtext. It becomes,in fact, the authorial voice of the translator. In general,I takethe view that the contextsof interpretationarea significant factor in the meaningof any text I find it more helpful to makedistinctions betweenthe formal structuresof a text and the cultural and social contextsof production that form part of the text's discourseand give coherence to any individual interpretationof a text. In this sense,cultural and social contexts may be "read" as texts themselves.Meaning, in this case,is nevergiven, it is alwaysnegotiatedbut neverwholly idiosyncratic. Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page21  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event While linguistic and literary paradigms circumscribe the terms in which* people think about translation from one medium, and even determine the scope of research, might it not also be the case that the cultural and symbolic value of a written source text overdetermines the practice of translation from script to screen ("adaptation")? Indeed there is considerable evidence to support this possibility, particularly in the ubiquitous popular and critical observation that a film rarely matches up to the novel it has 22 adapted. ' Similarly, the ubiquity of print as the medium of literary translation has contributed to a tendency to take for granted the technologies through which translations have come into being. Thus the relevance of communication media for considerations about the form and content of translations and translation practices is generally overlooked. These two tendencies are linked. They reflect the logocentrism of Western thought which not only privileges verbal over other forms of communication but also assignsthe origins of truth and stability of meaning to the word. Frederic Jameson neatly summarised the ideological realities of a cultural confrontation between word and image, or between print and audio-visual media when he wrote: What is paradoxical about this displacement of literary terminology by an emergent mediatic conceptuality is that it takes place at the very moment in which the philosophical priority of languageitself and of the various linguistic philosophies has becomedominant and well nigh universal. Thus, the written text loses its privileged and exemplary status at the very moment when the available conceptualities for analysing the enormousvariety of objects of study with which `reality' present us (now all in their various ways designatedas `texts') have become almost exclusively linguistic in orientation. To analyse the media in linguistic or semiotic terms therefore may well appear to involve an imperialising enlargementof the domain of languageto include non-verbal - visual or musical, bodily, spatial - pher}omena.23 22 The issue of "faithfulness" is as much part of the critical and scholarly vocabulary on adaptation in film studies as it is of the critical and scholarly vocabulary of translation studies and many of the same kinds of arguments are rehearsedin this context. (See for example: Andrew, 1984; Bluestone, 1957; Cohen, 1979; Moliterno, 1995). Their arguments boil down to two principal themes: one is the antecedenceof the adapted work which, as Dudley Andrew points out, "delimits representation by insisting on the cultural status of the model", (p 97) the other is the specific differences between the two media, the `very nature of cinema and literature" (Moliterno, p 206, emphasis added) Attempts within film studies to invigorate debates about adaptation tend to focus on formal relations between novel and film, i. e. their narrative similarities and dissimilarities. (Chatman, 1978; McFarlane, 1996) 23 (Jameson,1985,p 200) Joy Sisley, Translating, from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of WVarwick,2000 page22  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event The difficulties for theory begin when translators need to establish an adequate point of comparison between two semiotic systems that construct their in significance apparently radically different ways leaving little common ground on which to decide a level of equivalence. In spite of a rather general resistance to equivalence as a definitive term, nowadays, it serves well as a concept that organises the parameters within which the polarities of similarity and difference apply to relations between languages,cultures, texts, and media. In sum, Jakobson's basic problem: synonymy within difference, though not unique to translation, constitutes the ground of meaning that informs questions of "translatability" in a range of comparative contexts. Yet the discourses of comparison resonate in such consistently similar ways across different fields that it raises the question whether, for the purposes of understanding translation as translation, the definitional distinctions within these fields are all that remarkable. For example, film studies use "adaptation" in almost identical ways to "translation" in translation studies. But the distinction between /translation/ and /adaptation/ does not carry the same value in each of these disciplines. 24 The difficulties of comparison are therefore teleological as much as they are structural and must be confronted as such. The following discussion will not attempt to resolve the difficulties of comparison, but rather, will explore translation as a semiotic interpretive process that may apply to a broader range of circumstances than circumscribed by Jakobson's narrow definition of translation proper. This exploration bears on the limitations of comparison and the descriptive validity of the categories used to account for similarities and differences. It focuses, therefore, on the paradoxes of equivalence encountered when Saussureis confronted with Peirce. Semiotic perspectives appear here primarily as 24 A fairly extreme,but not unrepresentative,exampleof the distinction between`translation' and `adaptation'is expressedin an essaytitled "The cultural factor in the production and use of educationand training software"in ResearchPerspectiveson Open Distance Learning. (:Martinezet al., 1997) The authornotes: "the quest for linguistic equivalencesmakestranslation a work of in- depthstudy of cultureswhich constitutesone of the foundationsof interculturalism. Translation is the task of making a cultural product appreciablein a cultural context different from that which surroundedits creation,while respectingthe original cultural identity of the product. Adaptation, i. e. the translationof non-linguistic determinants,pursuesobjectives which are quite the opposite... Adaptation is not a flawed translation. It is used instead of it when translation has proved impossiblefor want of equivalents. The radical distinction betweentranslation and adaptationcan be seen in their respectiveobjectives. While the translator's main concernis to be the faithful interpreterof the original creator,that of the adapteris to servethe future userof the product adapted and caterfor his needs." (p 200) Seealso (Moliterno, 1995) who arguesthat adaptation is not translationbecauseit requiresa completetranscodificationof the text. Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page23  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event an argument to overcome anticipated objections to a more inclusive conception of "translation", not as the theoretical frame for an analysis of intersemiotic translation. To begin with, one cannot simply adapt existing literary or linguistic translation models on the assumption that any signifying system is structured in the sameway as verbal language. Each sign system differs irreconcilably at the level of 25 sign structure. In A Theory of Semiotics Umberto Eco offers an extensive critique of two positions: (1) that linguistics should serve as the model for every semiotic activity; and (2) that sign systems that do not measureup to the linguistic model are imperfect. This view holds that the only sign systems to be conferred with the dignity of "language" (meaningful communication) are those that consist of a double articulation between single code units, which are not analysable into smaller meaningful units, and their combination into broader 26 syntagmatic units. Eco argues that interpretations are made on the basis of the recognition of signifying codes and their contents. Expressions in different sign systems may be subject to two, one, or no articulation depending on their pertinent levels of meaning. To use his analogy of Poker vocabulary, 27individual cards in a pack are not distinguished merely by the, position they hold in a system (ace, two, three, four, and so on) but also by the value they carry in various winning combinations: suits, pairs, three or four of a kind, full house, royal flush. These combinations constitute the pertinence levels conferred by the rules of the game. This illustrates what he terms systems containing elements of second articulation similar to verbal language. "The units of the suits combine to form signs endowed with meaning in relation to the game ... ... [which] may combine into `card-sentences' such as «full» or «royal flush>>. " (p 233) To continue the analogy, he notes that Poker, forms a sub-system of a pack of French playing cards (52 plus one or two jokers), which another sub-system, such as Bridge, (constituted by a different sets of combinatory rules and card values) can 25 UmbertoEco concludeshis discussionof the problem of the typology of signs (Eco, 1976, pp 172-174)with the suggestionthat "it is absolutely necessaryto demonstratethat (i) there exist differentkinds of signs or of modesof sign production; (ii) many of these signs have both an inner structureand a relation to their contentwhich is not the sameas that of verbal-signs;(iii) a theory of sign productionmust and can define all of thesedifferent kinds of signs by having recourseto the samecategoralapparatus"(p 174) 26 (Eco, 1976, pp 228-231) 27 ibid., p 230 Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page24  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event replace. Playing cardsalso contain elementsof first articulation, namely signswhich subdivide into smallerunits, e.g. the Queenwhich breaks down into the denotations «woman» and «queen». Eco notes that signrecognitionoccursnot only on the basis of a unit-to-unit correlation suggested by linguistic models that establish meaning primarily on the level, but also at the level of larger meaningful units that he calls "super symbolic These larger expressions are analysable into smaller discreet units but have signs". conventionally come to be recognised as single meaningful units. Iconic signs are generally super signs: In fact when looking at the hing of Spadesor an image of the Virgin Mary we do not really have to graspthe representative meaning of the image, we do not interrogate the expression in order to guess, through a sort of backward projection at the format of the content-type. We immediately recognize this large-scaleconfiguration as if it were an elementary feature. 8 Evenlargerconfigurations,suchas stylisation, may function as a single conventional expression.These include musicaltypes (such as those associatedwith a particular film genre),or literary or artistic genres(Western, animation,folk music video), or iconogramssuch as "The Nativity", "The Sermonon the Mount", "The Prodigal Son". Although a supersignsuchas "The Sermonon the Mount" breaks down into the smallerunits of /sermon/and /mount/ and a visual representationof those two words, in fact, the larger configuration is immediately recognisedand provides the is signwhich endlesslytranslated in and parodied a further, more developedsign. Eco proposesthat cinematographiclanguageconsists of a triple articulation. At the first level of significationit consistsof visual non-significantlight phenomena (figrirae) that combine to form single meaningful frames: images, icons, or supersigns. This relationship relies on a double articulation. The transition from frameto shot relies on a third articulation basedon a temporal movementof kinesic signs or gestureswhich break down into discrete kinesicfigurae that are not at all significantfrom the point of view of kinesic 29 language. Cinematographiclanguage 28 (Eco, 1976, p 238) '9 ibid., p 234 Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page25  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event consists of a multiplicity of visual, auditory, and kinesic signs systems. Each of these possesses discrete units, which only become intelligible through their interaction. Eco's analysis of different sign systems has important implications for any questions about translatability. Clearly, in this context, one cannot maintain even Jakobson's minimalist definition. It would seem advisable, therefore, to abandon sign structure as the ground of meaning that establishes a correspondence between texts in different media and look for alternative ways of describing the relationship between two such texts as translation. An examination of semiotic approaches in other disciplines will contribute to a foundation for a new description. Both Saussurean and Peirceansemiotic models have strongly influencedfilm theory. Christian Metz has shown that the languageof cinema does not compare with spoken languagebecause it lacks the double articulation of the 30 latter. Even the smallest unit of signification in the cinema (the shot) is equivalent to the phoneme(the minimal meaningfullinguistic unit) and therefore is not subjectto the same combinatory rules of language. The filmic shot, he argues,"resembles the statement rather than the word" (p 79). However, it differs from the statement because,unlike the statement, it is not reducible to discrete arbitrary elements (words, morphemes,phonemes). The elementsof spokenlanguage, are always given or discrete, hencetheir arbitrariness,whereasthe elementsof filmic languageare unlimited and variable or non discrete accordingto Metz_ Thus to `speak' a languageis to use it, but to `speak' a cinematographiclanguageis to a certain extent to invent it". 31 Nevertheless,drawing substantially on Saussureanlinguistics, Metz attempted to elaborate a grammar of film based on an extended analogy with language.In the context of the present discussionabout the translational problem of equivalence- definedmomentarily as a congruenceat the symbolic level of linguistic 30 Metz distinguishes cinematic"language"from a languagesystem (langue). Cinema can be called a language"to the extent that it orders signifying elementswithin ordered arrangements ... and to the extentthat theseelementsarenot tracedto the perceptualconfigurationsof reality itself." (Metz, 1974,p 74) 31 (Metz, 1974, 73) p Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page26  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event articulation - it is worth picking out some aspects of Metz's argument and implications to the development of film semiotics. examiningtheir with respect One of the principal distinctions Metz makes between cinematic and verbal languagestarts from his definition of the sign as always "motivated" (that is codified in some way) but not necessarily arbitrary. At the level of film denotation, the its the by analogy. In similarity of the signifier to significate supplies motivation filmic is iconic. Whereas the meaning of a word is established. other words, the sign through a process of differentiation in the Saussurean sense, (e.g. the meaning of the brown by `not brown') the filmic signifier derives colour exists virtue of the concept its character from a distortion of the object not its transformation as in the case of Moreover, the cinema transforms the world into discourse by verbal signifiers. virtue of the fact that a film maker always shows a particular view of an object. Thus a shot is "an activated unit, a unit of discourse...which always refers to a image of a house does not signify `house' but `there is a house."' (p 79) reality-The In this senseMetz understands the shot (or sequenceof shots) to be indexical. He distinguishes between denotative and connotative levels of meaning in a manner borrowed from Barthes and attributes denotation to iconic and indexical clearly levels of meaning and connotation to the world of symbolic meaning. However, the example he gives of a particular trait of any character indicating the character's does not appear on screen, to describe presence, even when the character connotation as symbolic more typically follows the Peircean indexical sense of the than Saussure's the 32 Thus Metz argues that sign rather symbolic sense of sign. it is never entirely arbitrary, but although connotation takes on additional meaning, always has a residue. "In short connotative meaning extends over denotative meaning but without fully contradicting or ignoring it" (p 68). According to Metz, cinematic language most nearly resembles verbal languageat the level of film "grammar" where shots are arranged into a meaningful whole on the basis of a set of "habits" or conventions. Metz's division of film 32 Wollen notes an important distinction betten Peirce-,for whom the linguistic-sigrr is symbolic in a narrow and scientific sense,and Saussurefor whom the symbol is never wholly arbitrary. (Wollen, 1988, p 102). Metz follows the latter readingof symbolic signs. Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page27  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event into eight syntagmatic units is of concern here insofar as he specifically grammar relates the syntagmatic level of cinematic signification to narrative. Although each image is a free creation, the arrangement of these images into an intelligible sequence - cutting and montage - brings us to the heart of the semiological dimension of film. It is a rather paradoxical situation: Those proliferating (and not very discrete! ) units the images wehen it is a matter of - - composing a film, suddenly accept with reasonably good grace the constraint of a few large syntagmatic structures. While no image ever entirely resembles image, the great majority of narrative films resemble each other in another their principal syntagmatie figures. Filmic narrativity by becoming stable through convention and repetition over innumerable films has gradually shaped itself into forms that are more or less fixed. 33 Moreover these syntagmaticunits, which constitute the basic spatial and temporal orderingof cinematicnarrative,are"located in the film but in relation to the plot" (p 88). Hence,they function as a self-referential system necessaryto a structuralist conceptionof language and meaning. In many respects,Metz's structural analysis of cinematic signification presents a degree of circularity similar to Jakobson's conceptionof translatability. This results primarily from Metz's understandingof cinemaas a closed system which in the significates of the filmic sign take on an intelligibility only in relation to eachother. His ignoring of the iconic and indexical is if elementsof the cinematicsign of greatsignificance, only because his work helps form a structuralist tendency in film theory basedon Saussureanlinguistics and its exclusivefocus on the symbolic or arbitrary natureof the sign. Peter Wollen, on the other hand, seesthe cinemaas primarily indexical and iconic in the senseof Peirce's categorisationof signs. Wollen identifies different levels of signification with different kinds of film aesthetics34and argues, consequently, the importance of admitting the existence of the symbolic as a "guaranteeof objectivecriticism".35 He locatesthe poetics of the cinemawithin its 33 (M1etz,1974, 73) p 34 In his scheme the semioticsof cinemaWollen equatesrealist aestheticswith a projection of of the indexical, "pictorial" aestheticswith the iconic and "discursive" aestheticswith a stress on conceptualmeaningwith the symbolic. (Wollen, 1988, p 168) 3 "In the cinema,it is quite clear, indexical and iconic aspects by far the are most powerful. The symbolic is limited and secondary.But from the early days of film there has been a persistent, though understandable,tendencyto exaggeratethe importance of analogieswith verbal language. Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page28  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event iconic and indexical levels and associates the creative and elusive nature of the iconic sign with poetry. "The iconic sign is the most labile; it observes neither the norms of convention nor the physical laws which govern the index... [It] is shifting and it defies by capture, the critic. " 36 This argument does not differ greatly from elusive; Jakobson's comment about poetry. In fact, Wollen bases his argument on a discussion about Jakobson's description of language with reference to Peirce's iconic, indexical, 37 symbolic signs. But like Barthes, Wollen identifies the symbolic level of meaning in cinema with the connotative and with a political aesthetic or, to put it another way, with filmic discourse. Thus in commenting on Metz's interpretation of a shot from Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico! of the expressions of three peasants who have been buried in the sand after they have been trampled by the horsesof their oppressors,he states: There is also a connotative level: the nobility of the landscape,the beautiful, typically Eisensteinian, triangular composition of the shot. At this second level the image expressed`the grandeurof the Mexican people, the certainty of final victory, a kind of passionate love which the northerner feels for the sun- drenchedsplendourof the scene.'38 Wollen wants to downplay the linguistic model used by Metz. He works out his description of the cinemaaspossessingan amalgamof iconic, indexicaland symbolic in signs which "films are texts be which should structured around contradictionsof "39 codes. more fully in his film own project of avant-garde makingto hold in tension what he regardsas a comprehensiveaestheticof the cinema. Although these argumentsare based on different perspectives, Metz and Wollen have both identified cinematic languageas primarily discursive at the indexicaland iconic levelsand narrativeat the symbolic level of signification. While this does not bear directly on the problem of translatability in the conventional understandingof the term, it becomes relevant to a consideration of relations The main reasonfor this, there seems little doubt, has been the desire to validate the cinema as an art." (Vollen, 1988, p 97) 36 (Wollen, 1988, 105) p 37 ibid., pp 97-100 38 ibid., 105 39 p ibid., p 118 Joy Sisley, Translating, from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page29  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event between word and image in the more radical terms proposed by Mieke Bal. (see chapter two) For the present, the emphasis placed by Metz and Wollen on the discursive and narrative aspects of cinema suggests an alternative perspective as the starting point for considering the translatability of whole sign systems. Certainly, the incommensurability of sign systems proposed by Marco de Marinis40, whether it spoken or written, written or visual, written or performed, makes more difficult to think about transfers between them in terms of the transcodification of fixed messages. The application of a Peircean semiotic frame to understanding translation as an interpretive process, inclusive of a wider set of relations than those that are assumed to pertain between semiotic codes, strongly supports alternative perspectives. Susan Petrilli, for example, equates the human capacity for signification with "translative thinking", a term she borrows from Victoria Welby (1837-1912). Petrilli takes a much broader view of translation by turning the relation between semiosis and translation around. We could state that semiosis cannot subsist without translation for ... ... semiosisis itself a translation-interpretation process. The role of translation is fundamental in the very constitution of the sign, both verbal and nonverbal, in the very determination of its meaning 41 Her emphasis on translation as a semiotic interpretive process stems from two claims by Peirce: (1) his frequently quoted definition of the sign as "something which stands for something in some respect or capacity"42 and (2) his recognition of interpretation as endlessly commutable through the interpretant which is "nothing but another representation and as representation, it has its interpretant "43 again. ... This allows for the development of three important related issues: the first subsumes translation within a broader concept of interpretation as an infinite semiotic chain; the second gives no special priority to verbal signs; the third emphasises the importance of understanding the mediating role played by 40 (De Marinis, 1993) 41 (Petrilli, 1992, 234) p 42 (Peirce,1931-1966, 228) p 43 (Peirce, 1931-1966, Vol. I, 171) p Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page30  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event translationas sign betweenits referent (the sourcetext as sign) and its interpretant (which, for the present,I shall describeas its reception). The formulation of this concept of translation has its foundation in the philosophical proposition that our knowledge of the world is available only through our representations of the world. In semiotic terms, our understanding of reality arises from intuitive inferences made about our perceptions. That is, although the object determines the sign, it is only knowable through the sign. Peirce, The object of a representation can be nothing but a representation of which the first representation is the interpretant 44 This implies that meaningis not givenby the sign,as assumedby structuralism,but inferred through the interpretant. According to Peirce, three types of reasoning ground inferencesabout the world The first, hypothetical (abductive) reasoning constitutes unanalysed,immediate feelings or instinctive or intuitive responsesto events or things (a First or iconic sign). The secondinferential premise leads to deductive reasoningwhere predictions about things or events rest on observable facts (a Secondor indexicalsign). Finally, inductive conclusionsabout feelingsand observationsderive from rules and conventions, habits of interpretation instituted through a generaland pre-establishedpremise(a Third or symbolic sign). Translation theorists have applied Peirce's semiotic theory, that meaningis constituted through an endlesschain of interpretant signs, together with his three types of inferential reasoningto a description of translation as a processof semiosis. (Gorl6e,1993;Petrilli, 1992; Ponzio, 1984; Stecconi,1994). Dinda Gorlee develops Peirce'snotion that the interpretant signproducesan "equivalent sign, or perhaps a more developedsign"45into an evolutionary model-of"semio-translation" namely a unidirectional, future-oriented, cumulative, and irreversible process, one which advances, in successive instances, toward higher rationality, complexity, coherence,clarity, and determination a6 44 (Eco, 1976, 69) p "S (Gorlee, 1993, 200) p 46 ibid., 223 p Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page31  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event Her thesis is modelled on the premise that the translator is both the interpreter of the primary sign and the utterer of the translated sign; "the translator interprets ... and translates in fact his/her own interpretant&"47 Translation theorists who use Peirce's semiotic theory, conceive translation relationships in radically different ways to the Saussurean model. Rather than accounting for equivalence in terms of the relative proximity of a translated text to its source, in which translation consists of searching for pre-existent equivalents in the target language,they link Peirce's three types of sign production to three stages in the translation process48 The first stage, the translator's first encounter with a text, provokes an intuitive response comparable to the firstness of an iconic sign. The second stage,a process of translating or making,choices from a range of possible interpretants, corresponds to the secondness of an indexical sign. The process consists in finding an appropriate equivalent from a range of possibilities that already exist in the target language. The third stage constitutes the logical conclusion to the translation. This corresponds to the thirdness of Peirce's symbolic sign becausethe final decision rests on a habit of translating in a particular way which is only a temporary conclusion open to further 49 translating. This formula stresses-the fact that translators apply a problem solving procedure in preference to a knowledge of the double structure of reference implied by concepts of equivalence in structuralist semiotics. As Ubaldo Stecconi notes, Equivalences are only apparently central in the system, in fact they are historically constituted by inferential processesand can be altered or subverted by further inferences 50 any time as soon asthe needarises. In this respect,all translationsaregenuinesymbols. 47 (Gorlee, 1989, 83) p 48 (Stecconi, 1994)"After stabilising our interpretantfor A, we guessat a B; then, we conduct relentlessmental experimentsto test it against A itself, against our overall translation strategies, againstthe likely responseof our readers,against the respectunder which A meant whateverit meant,againstwhat we want to meanby B, etc. Only at the end of this seriesof inferencesde %Nc normally reacha satisfactorysolution." (pp 172-173) See (Gorlee, 1993) for a longer discussion abou this processin relation to Wittgensteinand the semioticsof gamesand decisions. '9t Stecconi,A Thought Enginefor Translation. Unpublished paper presentedto the ABS New Media TranslationResearchgroup (November1999) 50 (Stecconi,1994, 175) p Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page32  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event If we understand equivalence as "the habit of acting in a given way to desire a given result" S1 it will be necessary to review referential, and representational relationships between translations and their originals and the "crudely referentialist and realist conceptions of content"52 implicit in conventional notions of equivalence. There is a striking resemblance between the different theoretical discourses on translation, adaptation, and raise-en-scene. (Andrew, 1984; De Marinis, 1993; Gorl&e, 1993; Pavis, 1988) In summary, this literature identifies three types of relationship: The first self-referential type holds that translation/ adaptation/mise-en-scene is a literal interpretation of its prior text (total constraint). The second relationship acknowledges the source and target cultures of the transformed text, and the third referencesthe prior text only in passing in the act of totally recreating it (total freedom). Andrew, writing of cinematic adaptations, identifies these relationships as (1) "transformations" which aim faithfully to reproduce the original text and measure up to the literary work; (2) "intersection" where the film-maker attempts to represent the distinctiveness of her/his source while honouring the specificities of the adaptation's aesthetic; and (3) "borrowing" which takes the original work's idea, or basic plot, without attempting to replicate it. Patrice Pavis offers a similar typology of raise-en-scene.S3 In this case, (1) an "auto-textual" relationship attempts faithfully to reproduce the play text without any reference to anything beyond it. Literally it "tries to understand the textual mechanisms and the structure of the plot according to an internal logic". (2) An "intertextual" mise-ensture "relativises every new production as one possibility among others, placing it within a series of interpretations, every new solution trying to dissociate itself polemically from the others." (3) An "ideotextual" raise-ensture functions almost as a metatext that tolerates the play text as nothing more than a "dead weight" and seeks to open up the political, social and psychological sub-texts of its source. These compare with Gorlee's three categorisations of translational equivalence which she describes as (1) "qualitative equivalence" (iconic because characterised by its similarity to the internal features of the text), (2) "referential equivalence" (characterised by an inferential similarity between source and target sl (Gorlee, 1993, pp 104-105) 52 (De Marinis, 1993) 33 (Issacharoff and Jones, 1988, pp 98-99) Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page33  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event texts rather than a representational similarity of qualitative equivalence), (3) "significational equivalence" (represents a whole new text based on the connotative depth of its source) - in other words, it takes the idea of the source text and re- it different text with its sa presents as a new and own signifying structures These typologies relativise the hierarchicalrelation between "source" and "target" texts, suggestinga model of subordinateand dominant relationships that varieswith the type of reference.However, as descriptive and theoreticalcategories they may not prove asuseful as their frequency in critical literature 55 might suggest. In the first place, they are value laden. The writers cited here express a covert preference for one type over the others, depending on their initial definition of "translation" (or its equivalent)andtheir views on the role of the "translator". For example,it emergesquite clearly from Gorlee's description of translation as an evolutionary, cooperative process which moves successively towards a higher rationality and clarity that shevaluesher third typology more highly than the other two. 56 If, as with Jakobson's categories,these typologies provide some kind of definitional criteria, the individual preferences calf for a degree of scepticism. Secondly,these typologies do not necessarilyfunction discreetly as a translation strategy within any individual text. Even if it were possible, as in some cases,to identify the discreetuse of these categories,this raisesa further question about the signifying value of any particular strategy. For example, what is the value in m (Gorlee, 1993, 169-176). See also (Dryden, 1962) who makes the distinction between pp metaphrase (literal translation),imitation (free)and paraphrase,wherebythe translatorendeavoursto be true both to the authorand to the readerfor whom he is translating. The relative discretenessof thesetypologies is challengedby Stecconiin an unpublished essay,"A Thought Engine for Translation" (1998) who arguesthat all translationsare symbols that containindexical and iconic elements. The conventionalnatureof translation is establishedby the receivingcommunity of readers,critics, and theoristswho accepta text as a translation on the basis of prevailing norms and habits: "receiverscan only rely on texts that areprescribed as translation, the fact that translatinghastakenplaceis representedin a claim locatedin or aroundthe text." At the symbolic level, it is the claim madeabouta text that matters,not its empirical relationship to a presumedsourcetext (which in the caseof pseudotranslationdoes not exist). In the context of the argumentspresentedbelow, an empirical relationshipin terms of the equivalencebetweentwo texts may only be establishedat the indexical level of translation- '6 Stephen Prickelt makes a similar point about the aesthetic agenda implicit in Dryden's valuation of paraphrase(Prickett, 1986, p 30) and George Steiner's more general critique of the three categories (Steiner, 1975). Susan Petrilli makes the point that the task of translation is to convey the "sense" of a text, by which she means its ideology. Consequently, she notes, "what emerges is not so much the ideological character of translation as the inevitability of taking into account the problem of sense and therefore of ideology in translation theory. " (Petrilli, 1992, p 259) Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page34  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event identifying Kristoff Kieslowski's Dekalog, an adaptation of the Ten Commandments, as "ideotextual", or as "borrowing" from its Old Testament source, and Pier Pasolini's Gospel According to Matthew as a "transformation" or "auto- textual". Clearly these categorisations apply to the films' plots and narrative structures, but an examination of the discourses of each film makes it apparent that Pasolini's film "seeks to open up the political, social and psychological sub-texts of its source" while Kieslowski's Dekalog "[tries] to understand the textual to an internal logic". s' The mechanisms and the structure of the plot according comparison reveals a paradox which has not gone unnoticed by Stephen Prickett who comments on the interpretive results of different strategies used to translate ambiguity in the Bible. Prickett criticises conventional assumptions behind the apparently common-sense distinctions between "transparent" and "opaque" modes of textual interpretation that underpin definitions of literal versus free, or archaising versus modernising translation strategies. Dryden's metaphrase aptly describes the interpretive conventions of "literal" translation which aim to render all the idiosyncratic singularity of the original. Literal translation takes the original at face value and focuses on the form of the text; it does not attempt to comprehend it. It treats the original text as transparent and accessibleto the modern reader. Dryden's paraphrase best describes the interpretive conventions of "free" translation. Modern translations based on Nida's theory of functional equivalence also examplify Dryden's paraphrase (since few translators would credit Dryden's third category with the title translation). Free translation recognises the difficulties of translating ancient texts rendered opaque to the modem reader through their historical distance and attempts to make them transparent by using modernising translation techniques. Prickett's paradox lies in the tension between the text- critical methods translators use to understand the original and the methods of translation they employ. He notes, We are left with the paradox that an apparently `transparent' approach to the Bible turns out to be, in reality, severely (if unconsciously) formalist and `opaque', while an apparently `opaque' technique seems to be the only way to restore a genuinely `transparent' reading. To put it another wi'ay, it is those who would look through the text, who, disconcertingly see least; those who 37 Seenote 53 above Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page35  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event would look at it and study the detailed patterning of its surface as an artefact, who discover most. For the former, the text has become ever more transparent behind; for the latter, the text's apparent opacity has - revealing nothing become even more richly revealing. " The paradox does not necessarily require a resolution. Rather, it may help to open it up a little more by considering further the function of iconic, indexical and in symbolic signs translation. In an attempt to recover allusions to Peirce's theory of semiotics in Jakobson's essay on translation, Susan Petrilli argues that all translations are symbolic whatever the medium. Petrilli's analysis throws light on Jakobson's rather enigmatic conclusion that poetry is by definition untranslatable - "only creative transposition... is possible: either intralingual transposition ... or inter-lingual transposition ... or finally intersemiotic transposition". 59 The ambiguity stems from whether Jakobson intends his three categories as three distinct types of translation, is as most commonly assumed,or whether his categoriesrefer to three strategiesin the samevein as Dryden's typology. Successivereadings of Jakobson's essay through a structuralist linguistic lens have compounded this ambiguity. Petrilli confirms a doubt that Jakobson intends relations between sourceand target text in the hierarchical sense inferred by some commentaries on his essay60 Instead of viewing intra-lingual, inter-lingual, and inter-semiotic translation as discreet and irreducible categories,Petrilli argueseach of these processesrepresentsa relative predominanceof sign-interpretiverelationsin any one text. Shenotes, "these three types of translation as identified by Jakobsonare always interrelated,are more or m (Prickelt, 1986, pp 35-36). See chapter 5 for an application of Prickett's paradox to my analysis of archaising and modernising. translation strategies.. But it should also be noted that the context for Prickett's comment is a comparison of the theory and practice of literal translation (in the sense used by Schleiermacher) and paraphrase (in the sense of Nida's dynamic equivalence) as solutions to the problem of translating ambiguity. -" (Jakobson,1992, p 151) 60 (Bassnett, 1991; Gorlee, 1993). Gorlee, wrongly in my view, equates Jakobson's inter- lingual translation with Peirce's Indexical sign, and his intra-lingual translation with Peirce's Symbolic sign. She arrives at this conclusion because, contra Jakobson who thinks of inter lingual translation as "reported speech, she thinks of translation as a linear process - `°The translation procedure itself has been commonly but arguably hypothesised as a chronological scenario involving variously three or four stages. It is tempting to view the nature and role of these stages in the light of Peirce's process of interpretation, which is systematically described by him as a threefold reasoning-processconsisting in the production of three successive interpretants." (Gorlee, 1993, p 182) Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page36  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event less co-existent with a relative predominance of one or the other."61 In inter-lingual translation, conventionality (the definitive characteristic of a symbolic sign) But indexical and iconic signs are equally present. Indexicality is predominates. always present "when it places the vocable and its equivalent(s) in the target languagealongside each other" (p 238), that is, when the translator places "cottage cheese" alongside "syr". She relates iconicity to the discursive nature of sign production, following Bakhtin. She notes that iconicity is also present with respect to everything when the relation between the sign and its object is not established by rules as in the case of symbols, or necessary contiguity as in the case of indexes. Iconicity relates to Bakhtin's concept of meaning as "all which is original and in unreproducible an utterance." Thus Petrilli associatesiconicity in translation with "dialogism, alterity, polyphony, polylogism, and plurilingualism - all essential properties of language which render such things as critical awareness, experimentation, innovation and creativity possible." (p 240) In inter-lingual translation, indexical and iconic signs exist as well. Indeed, Petrilli argues that if translation processes "remain at the level of conventionality and indexicality, the translator ends in failure The translator must necessarily deal with [the iconic] ... component by moving beyond the conventions and obligations of the dictionary and entering the live dialogue among ... languages verbal signs and nonverbal " signs. (p ... 240) Petrilli's interpretation of Jakobson's typologies undermines the rather simplistic oppositions described in my opening paragraph and makes possible a critique of the reasoning that attempts to equate visual images with iconic signs and literal translation. Augusto Ponzio spells out the rather important point that "all signs participate in symbolicity, iconicity and indexicality. "62 Never purely a symbol, a sign, he argues,always contains elements of iconicity and indexicality. Similarly an indexical sign always contains elements of iconic and symbolic relations, while an icon bears indexical and symbolic traits. Wollen's example, cited earlier, of the shot from Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico gives substance to Ponzio's argument. Several layers of signification may be identified within the shot. It is symbolic with 61 (Petrilli, 1992,pp 237-238) 62 (Ponzio, 1984, 284) p Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page37  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event indexical and iconic elements both at the level of sign production and the sign's content. As an image the shot is obviously iconic because it represents a particular scene,it bears a relation of similarity with its pre-textual referent. It functions as an index because it is both an effect of the work of film production and establishes a necessary relation between the peasants' expressions and the fact they are dead. Finally, the shot is symbolic because it obeys conventional rules that obtain within its production and because its composition invites an interpretation based on a typically Eisensteinian aesthetic founded in turn on his theory of montage. We may describe the inferential processes of interpretation as iconic, indexical and symbolic. Wollen infers the denotative level, the information that the peasants are dead, through a deductive process of interpretation based on the peasants' expressions (an index). He connects the shot's composition to his interpretation of it as "the grandeur of the Mexican people, the certainty of victory, a kind of passionate love which. the northerner_feels for the. sun drenched splendour of the scene"63 He bases this reading of the cinematic conventions used by Eisenstein on an inductive process of interpretation (a symbol). He bases the specificities of interpretation on an abductive process that does not rely on a necessary or conventional relation of the interpretant sign to its referent. It is an icon that stands for the pluralistic, creative, dialogic character of the sign and its interpretation. This is close to what he calls the shot's connotative level. Whereas Ponzio views abduction as proof of the sign's alterity and the dia-logic (as opposed to univocal and mono-logic) character of interpretation, Wollen views the open-endedness of connotation as a threat to meaning. He assigns the symbolic sign a critical function, the possibility of "maximising lucidity, minimising ambiguity". (p 105) Wollen's symbolic sign therefore serves as a code, a form of ideological criticism that anchors the proliferating meanings of connotation. In this respect he makes an essentially post- structuralist argument which owes more to Barthes than Peirce. Ponzio would regardthe symbolic level as evidence of the shot's materiality, or "textuality" in the sense that he refers to the textuality of writing, a concept that he borrows from Bakhtin. The symbolic accounts for the sign within the totality of a semiotic process that Ponzio identifies as: 63 (Wollen, 1988, 105) p Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page38  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event a comprehensive, unitary sense of the sign [that]_ is inseparable from concrete communicative contexts, social interaction, and from its connection to a concrete situation with particular tiuluesrideological orientations, etC 64 Whereas Wollen locates meaning in the sign, Ponzio locates it in the relation between signs: between the sign and its object. This relation is necessarily mediated by the relation between the sign and its interpretant. As a sign, the interpretant refers to another interpretant which itself becomes a sign. Meaning is therefore an infinite chain of deferments which has no fixed definitive interpretant. According to Ponzio, this accounts for the identity of the sign as oilier. Identity of the sign requires displacement of the sign, this means that each time it is interpreted it becomes other: it is in fact the other sign that acts as interpretant. 65 Ratherthan seeingthe sign and its interpretant as two perfectly correlatedparts, the signifianntand signifie, whose equivalenceis representedby the formula a=a, the relation of the interpretant andthe sign is one of continual defermentrepresentedby the formula a=b=c=d,and so on. This relation is not one of mechanicalsubstitution, but rather requiresinterpretation basedon hypothetical inferences(of the deductive, inductive, and abductivekind) about the identity of the sign. Furthermore,Ponzio arguesthat the different characteristicsof those hypothetical referencesmay account for the degreesof alterity between the sign and its interpretant, where deductive inferencesof the indexical variety present the most limited degreeof alterity and abductivereasoningof the iconic variety, the most exaggerated degree. Ponzio's model of the dialogicalterity of significationbasedon his readingof Peirceand Bakhtin offers a more complex readingof translation strategiesthan the typologies outlined earlier. It also accountsfor the-apparent paradoxesinherent in attempting to categorisetranslations. In applying his model to the more specific exampleof translatingbiblical narrative from a written to an audio-visual medium, onemust necessarilyrecognisethat all translations are symbols that may present a predominanceof indexicality or iconicity at different levels of sign function. 64 (Ponzio, 1984, 284) p 65 ibid., 275 p Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page39  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event Arguably, therefore, a literal translation, which may be characterised by its attempt to reconstruct the historical or geographical context of the original text, presents a predominance of symbolicity. At the level of their visual portrayal of biblical history, literal translations stand on conventional visual representations of biblical narrative. Any similarity with past events, people or places is only apparent. Most of the translations presented as case studies in the following chapters are predominately symbolic in this sense. However, narrative strategies used to retell the biblical stories present a range of generic styles that mark each translation as thoroughly inter-textual in unique ways. At this level, some translations, such as The Visual Bible (analysed in chapter two) are predominately indexical in their use of an existing Bible translation as a script. Others, such as the Turner Pictures epic television mini-series (analysed in chapter five) present a greater degree of iconicity in the sensesuggestedby Ponzio and Petrilli, because they freely adapt the biblical text. Thus even within the group of translations broadly characterised as literal, there is a marked degree of heterogeneity. At the other end of the spectrum, there are productions that may be characterised as "free" at the level of visual representation. For example, the American Bible Society newmediabible project (discussed in chapter seven) appropriates the contemporary generic idiom of music video; or Veggie Tales, an extremely popular American series, represents biblical characters as animated vegetables. However, on another level, both productions present marked degreesof conventionality which mediate the visual creativeness of their interpretations. Despite its visual imagination, the theology inscribed in Veggie Tales' interpretation of biblical narrative presents a very orthodox brand of American Protestantism. The ABS adaptation of functional equivalence for its nevrmediabible translation indicates a high level of conventionality at all levels of practice in the context of modem Bible translation. The interpretive paradoxes that this strategy introduces to the programme are analysed in chapter seven. In summary,the habit of characterisingtranslation strategiesby the levels of equivalencebetween sourceand target texts is untenablewithin a Peirceansemiotic frame becausePeirce's signs are not conceived as fixed types but interpretive relationships. Peirce's notion of the interpretant encouragesa focus on the Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page40  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event contextual nature of signification. In this context, Saussure's parole is a necessary and significant component of linguistic and other forms of sign analysis. The translation critic and theorist alike must think through the semiotic value of each translation (its "meaning") in terms of the interpretive-translative practices (including their own) that ground it within particular social and cultural communicative practices. This study takes the interpretive-translation practices of translation theory as its starting point. It targets the convention that reduces semiotic analysis to a linguistic model on the one hand and the claim that pure signs are necessarily arbitrary on the other. This reasoning seems to represent a principal objection to the translatability between print and audio-visual media.66 The objection rests on two assumptions: a) a conflation of the iconic nature of images with the mimetic character of translation, leading to the reasoning that imagesmust somehow resemble the words they represent; and b) photographic images function iconically by virtue of their special correspondence to the real world. These assumptions make a distinction between the specific nature of images and the generic nature of verbal language. They apply the criteria of linguistic equivalence by assuming that the meaning of the image is intentional, rather than inferential, in that it stands for the object it supposedly represents in a one-to-one relationship. In view of the argument that visual imagesare coded, we must examinethe first objection in light of the discursive character of images and the creative nature of iconic signs. This will include an investigation of the implication of languagein vision and of the symbolic character of visual representation. We must examinethe second objection in view of Giardetti's argument that the degreeto which a photographic image of the real world is acceptable depends on intelligent inferential processes of recognition made by the viewer. So that, in the case of pictorial representation, "We have the habit of combining certain concepts and conceptual relations (propositions) so definitely with certain sense experiences that we do not become conscious of the gulf - logically unbridgeable which separates the world of sensory experience from the - 66 At this point, in order to simplify my argument, I will risk criticism by following the same path of reducing multi-media texts to their visual components. Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page41  Translation as a semiotic interpretive event world of concepts and propositions. "67 In this case, the opposition of the generic nature of languageand the specific nature of images needs to be examined in light of the implication of vision in language. Placed within the context of a logocentric structuralism that gives them coherence, these objections represent epistemological and political frames that police the boundaries of translation. Even this brief review clearly revealsthat the boundariesof translation are constructed and maintained on fairly tenuous grounds based on a cultural bias towards the dominance of verbal communication. Shifting from a notion of translation as fixed set of relations between source and target texts to a concept of conventional and creative contiguity between texts and their common referential ground, and getting rid of the notion that audio visual translation functions as an equivalent to its written source by virtue of an iconic similarity between word and image,makes it possible to account for referential relationships that do not depend upon assigning a one-to-one correspondence. I propose, therefore, that it is not only conceptually possible, but also necessary, to include non-verbal transformations of written texts in other media within the field of translation studies. The key problem, in my view, is not whether we should include adaptations, dramatisations, remakes, or visual representations, within the boundaries of translation studies, but how we may adequately define and analyse non-verbal elements of communication (including the paralinguistic elements of verbal texts) as translations. In the remainder of section one, I shall consider the impact of conventional word/image oppositions on the theory and practice of translation from one medium to another. 67 (Giardetti and Oller, 1995, p 105) Joy Sisley, Translating from one Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page42  CHAPTER TWO Figuring the Word I Visuality erupts, insists.interrupts But I and the eye is massaged. authority continues to seem to re- WORD side in transcendence, a denial of the actual existence in material form of the word-as il the disembodied terms of language could better serve to stabilize the positions of power seized by a fear and a trem- bling in the face of the face of the I I I If we can turn structuralist and post-structuralist formulations of the equation literal=similar=iconic on their heads, it is equally important that we examinethe idea that iconic signs are purely visual and, consequently, that we refuse to take at face value Jakobson's reduction of inter-semiotic translation to "transmutations" between media. In this chapter, I will examine the fallacy of iconism (the idea that iconic signs are purely visual) that not only sustains the conventional separation of word and image, but also validates the use of historical reconstructions of biblical narrative to stand for literal translation. In fact, the equivalenceof literal translation and historical reconstruction doubly depends on the binary polarities of word and image and of source and target texts. The normative assumptions supporting this set of relationships allow challenge on two premises: first, the significantly symbolic nature of visual images and second, the function of literal translation as a sign to bond the translation to its original. The arguments of these two perspectives support an attempt to theorise the question of translation A photocopytakenfrom p 138 of (Drücker, 1998)and pastedon to this page. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS. University of Warwick. 2000 page43  Figuring the word betweenmediaand elaboratethe difficulties of similitude inherent in concepts of historical reconstruction. Mieke Bal's description of Peirce's iconicity, indexicality and symbolicity as "ground[s] of meaning production" or codes that establish a relation between sign and meaning accentuatesthe semiotic reductionism outlined in chapter 1? She cites perspective in figurative art as a particular example of a so-called iconic sign which is significantly symbolic. "We accept perspective as "natural", as realistic, because we are accustomed to it, even though we know there are many art forms, within and outside our own culture, that are not perspectival. "3 Bal's point is consequential because she suggests that perspective results from its conceptual organisation. Perspective is a code, a way of ordering spatial relationships that give a particular coherenceto representations of reality. Moreover, she arguesthat codes are cultural constructions grounded in the social practices of interpretation. 4 Bal's concept of "ground" accentuates the importance of relations between signs and their interpretants. In the context of translation studies it becomes more difficult to understand translation in terms of the resemblancesbetween source and target texts; to categorisethose resemblancesas literal versus free, archaising versus modernising, domesticating versus foreignising; or to categorise translation strategies as "metaphrase", "imitation", and "paraphrase", or any one of the many variants of this formulation. More importantly, her argument emphasises the methodological value of a contextual analysis which aims to account for the significance of translations as interpretant signs without reducing that significance to an iconic, indexical, or symbolic relationship. The claims of literal translation presupposed by historical reconstruction collapse under the scrutiny of Bal's concept of "ground". This scrutiny also highlights the logocentrism of theory and practice in this particular form of translation. The identity of historical reconstructionand literal translation is not a simple or straightforward one. It reflects a theory of representationalequivalence 2 (Bal, 1985. 32) p ibid., p 32 (Bal, 1992) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 Page44  Figuring the word founded on textual conventions that have developed through historical and social practices of representation rather than on logical relationships inherent in texts themselves. In this chapter, I will focus on a specific example, Visual International's production of The Gospel According to St. Matthews The producers explicitly identify the programme as a "word for word" account of the Gospel, of Matthew which uses the MV English translation as a script. 6 The producers have clearly acted on a principle ofliterat translation in their generic choice ofhistorical drama. In addition, the video cover announces"the Bible is now visual" suggestinga further assumption that the visuals transparently reflect the written text. M y_ example is interesting not only because it highlights many of the normative assumptions behind historical reconstruction as a literal translation strategy, but also becauseit demonstrates the logocentric foundations of its own version of iconic literalism. The Gospel According to St. Matthew raises a cluster of interesting questions that range from the teleological implications of treating visual images as literal representations of written texts, to broader semiological and narrative considerations of how images communicate. A significant number of iconographic details in the video disrupt the purportedly literal representation of The Gospel and undermine the effect of the real encoded in its visual style. These disturbances of its representational transparency draw attention to the social contingency of convention and emphasise the work of textual production. In the following discussion, I will treat the images in this video translation as a narrative text in its own right in order to demonstrate the theoretical and methodological usefulness of the notion that signs are the grounds of meaning production for resisting representational conceptions of equivalence that pervade so much of translation theory. Chapter one showed that the iconiclindexical, in contrast to the predominately symbolic nature of verbal signs, characterisesphotographic images s The Gospel According to St. Matthew, Visual hrternatiaml, South Afri Cr 1994. Distributed in the U. K. by The Visual Bible Ltd. Slough, Buckinghamshire,U.K. , 6 TheHoly Bible, New InternationalVersion. Copyright O 1973,1984 by InternationalBible Society Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page45  Figuring the word (still or moving). The photograph7 may be considered iconic insofar as it resembles its referent in some respect, while the image stands as an index of the physical presence of the person or object in the photograph. The photograph may be considered technically and aesthetically to have a unique relationship with that which is/was in front of the camera. From here, it is a small step to think of representations in film of the historical and geographical contexts of biblical narrative as literal translation on two counts: firstly, taking the written text as referent, one may imagine that the actors in some respect resemble the narrated characters that they bring to life (an iconic relationship). Secondly, if the video text's referent is taken as an historical account, one may also imagine that the actors fulfil an indexical function of standing in for the real historical people portrayed in the narrative. Of course, this is a necessary illusion. It serves a function in "bringing the stories to life" of sustaining a fantasy for the spectator of "being there". This thinking motivates Matthew's introductory description of himself as a young man who lived in Capernaum on the shores of lake Galilee during the Roman occupation of Palestine. The same point applies to geographical settings. Insofar as narrative reconstructions of biblical space and time treat their relation to the real as unproblematic, these representations bear a closer affinity with the aesthetics and ideologies of documentary film than with fiction. The motivation for the use of historical reconstruction as a literal translation strategy, therefore, presumes an intellectual tradition of historical criticism reinforced by popular images of ancient Palestine both in travel documentaries8 and photographs included in some editions of English Bibles. The institutional ideologies of-objectivity that* inhere in an aesthetic of representational realism invests these images with a powerful guarantee of "what is you see what there was." The illusion of iconicity promoted by realist aesthetics of historical reconstruction (the denotative element of the photographic Note the use of "photograph" here in a genericsensewhich can apply to cinematic images (Wollen, 1988)and figurative painting (But; 199t. " See Burke 0. Long, "Parlour Tours of the 'Holy Land" a summary of which is published in Religious Studies News, 28th November 1998 (An tAeademy of Religion) and `travelogues' of The Holy Land presented by actors such as Charlton Heston, Jonathan Frakes, and Alexander- Scourby. Representations such as these assume Palestinia* time and space has remained unchanged throughout biblical history. Consequently the modern Bible reader is able to easily make the imaginative leap back through historical time because the, temporal-distance has been-collapsed. It - supports a populist twentieth century imperialising tendency to view people of the past and from other cultures as "just like us"_ Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page46  Figuring the word sign) serves to mask its cultural content (its connotative value). A realist interpretation such as The Visual Bible focuses on the form of expression rather than the content of the sign. It attempts to establish the convention that what is displayed to the viewer is the meaning of the sign, or as Barthes states, the denoted image./iconic sign "naturalizes the symbolic message, it innocents the semantic artifice of "9 connotation. Choicesof framing, cameraangle,lighting, composition - the rhetoric of an image- not only supply its connotativecontentbut also indicatea preferred way of seeing. The illusionistic transparencyof productions suchas The Gospel According to St. Matthew serveto sustain a particular senseof narrative truth. It promotes a particular view both of the story as history and of historical accuracy. Bal and Wollen, who both seenarration as the symbolic content of visual images,refer to this as the discursive,or ideological,elementof figurative language.1° In their view, imagesserve a narrative as well as visual purpose. Narrative organisationgives to coherence individual iconic and indexical elementsof visual images. This makes symbol(icity), the analysisof the narrativity of images,a powerful critical tool. In other words, a critique of the narrative or symbolic content of images undermines is the assumptionthat visual art purely iconic andverbal art symbolic." The use of historical literalism to construct a narrativetruth rests on another powerful myth that Derrida describesas the logocentrismof Western metaphysical concepts of "presence"; a myth that assigns all meaning to the natural and indissoluble relation between the spoken word and the speaking subject.12 This conceptualisationof the relation betweenmind andword, andbetweenword and the 9 (Barthes,1977, 45) p 10 (Bal, 1991, Bal (pp 1-4) pp 31-33 and 177-179;Wollen, 1988, pp 100-106). Elsewvhere, showshow narrativity is insertedinto painting by meansof a sign that at first glancemay be taken as a realistic detail. Bal's method indicatesa resistanceto a realist readingof her exampleand a preference for readingthe contentof the sign. In this way the sign becomesnarratively significant. There are significant differenceshowever. Bal grounds her reading in the social and cultural practicesof interpretationforegroundingthe work of reading. Wollen, on the other hand ignores the historical and social circumstances of reception. For Wollen, symbolicity involves an ideologically correctinterpretationof a meaningthat is alreadyin the text. " On this point, Bal is more explicit in her use of Peitte's iconic, indexical,and symbolic signs than Eco who usesPeirceincidentally,but maintainsthat iconic signsarevisual (Eco, 1976, p 215) 12 (De rida, 1998)seepp 10-13for an introduction to this idea. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of War ick, 2000 page47  Figuring the word speaking subject, has an iconic, indexical and symbolic content. The voice of the speaking subject has an "essential and immediate proximity with the mind", (an iconic relationship). As producer of the first signifier, voice signifies "mental experiences", (an indexical relationship). "Between being and mind, between mind and logos, a relation of conventional symbolization". 13 Western literary cultures treat the relationship as entirely transparent because phonetic writing as a representational form has become so closely associated with the spoken word. Like perception, writing is therefore significantly symbolic. This suggests that productions such as The Gospel According to St. Matthew use historical literalism as of a code, a ground meaning production, to link the idea of "presence" (the speaking subject of the written text brought to life by the actors' performances) with their particular version of narrative truth. The Gospel reveals a romance with the historical-critical fiction of an oral tradition which, as Harold Bloom argues so persuasively in The Book off,, obscures the undeniably literary textuality of biblical writings. 14 The Gospel reduces a revival of the supposed oral tradition of Matthew's Gospel to a set of crude visual aids: a fist banged on the table, a sorrowful shake of the head, a pregnant look, a skinful of water poured jokingly over somebody's head. The paradox of The Gospel's literalism dissolves the conventional word/image opposition by assigning meaning to a decontextualised, universalist principle of "the Word of God". Thus one must treat its literal translation strategy with a scepticism justified by a critique of its iconism. I turn my analysis, therefore, to the symbolic content of images in The Gospel According to St. Matthew, which give narrative coherence to the relation between word and image, and not to the adequacy of the film's visual representations. The first iconic fallacy of literal translations such as The Gospel rests on the assumption that certain properties of image/word relationships may be reduced to their similarity in a naive sense, as when people equate the visual image of Jesus to /Jesus/ in the written text. However, the fact that words and images are differently coded undermines this assumption. Eco notes, in his discussion about iconic equivalents between word and image, that the iconic articulation of images is not 13 (De 1998,p 11) 14 rida, (Bloom and Rosenberg, 1991) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page48  Figuring the word resolvable to the discrete units of verbal expressions. To use his example here, the visual representation of the word /horse/ may be expressed in a thousand different non-foreseeableways. Recognition of an image as a horse depends on the isolation of certain commonly accepted features of /horseness/, its shape, for example, rather than a single image equivalent to the word /horse/. This leads to his first description of iconic signs as "texts" that relate to different kinds of speech acts, not to individual units of meaning. An iconic sign is indeed a visual text, for its verbal equivalent (except in cases is of considerableschematisation) not a word but a phrase or indeed a whole story; the iconic representation of a horse doesn't correspond to the word /horse/ but rather to a description.15 It follows that iconic signs depend on the context of their expressionfor their recognition. Accordingto Barthes,this is becauseiconic signsare characterised by an indeterminacyanchoredonly by verbal description. Eco prefers to attribute the indeterminacyof visual communicationto the fact that it uses weak codes or "systems of vaguecorrelation" fixed only by their context. On the strengthof Eco's assertion that iconic signs are descriptive texts whose signification may be by recognised their context, one may arguethat the recognition of cinematicimages of /Jesus/occurs on two planes: the commonly accepted features of long, wavy hair, beardand robeswhich identify him on the denotativeplane, and the projection of Christian values such as holiness, martyrdom, humility (conveyed through gesture,expression,and posture) which identify him as "Jesus" on the connotative plane. The is context of recognition conventional, supplied by a long tradition in painting and Bible illustration of associatingcertain personality traits attributed to Jesuswith a certainset of iconic features.The controversy over Scorsese'sThe Last Temptationof Christ and Pasolini's The GospelAccording to St.Matthew resulted in part from the to challenge conventional iconographicrepresentations of Jesusposed by the actor's portrayals of Christ in eachfilm. Eco's differentiation of denotation and connotation helps greatly here. In A Theory of Semiotics,he arguesthat the code or semantic system, not the "difference between `univocal' or `vague' 's (Eco, 1976, 215) p Joy Sisley, Translating from One Aledium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page49  Figuring the word signification, or between `referential' or `emotional' communication"16 establishes an denotative Denotative and connotative markers differ expression as or connotative. "only insofar as connotation must rely on a preceding denotation"17 Both cultural units function as sign-units rooted in social conventions that establish the code. Therefore, the semantic system (by which he implies context of use) and not their referential features gives both denotative and connotative markers their stability. If, as Eco points out, iconic signs are discursive, one may "read" them as "texts". This doesnot mean,in the senseof the dominant linguistic paradigm,that one can reduce images to an underlying verbal text. It means,specifically, treating iconic signs as narrative and readingthem for their narrative content. Bal defines this processas readingthe imageiconographically. Iconographic reading is itself a discursive mode of reading because it subordinates the visually represented element to something else, thus privileging the symbol at the expense of the icon, while displacing the indexicality that in first Iconography literally, writing by allowed this semiosis the place. means, images. " means of Bal suggeststhat an iconographicapproachinvolves interpreting the senseof an imageby placing its elementswithin the representationaltradition that gives it meaning rather than processing its immediate content for an effect of realist representation. Therefore, in figurative representationalsystems, the iconic details of an image,which on a superficialviewing may merely denote the reality of a scene, take on a signifying force in which the elementsfunction not as symptoms of the image'srealismbut metonymically as tropes within the meaningof the text as a whole.19 This meansthat iconographicinterpretation involves a recognitionboth of the meaningfulunits of an image and of their genericforce within a tradition of representation. Moreover, Bal argues that the "readerliness" of iconography 16 (Eco, 1976, 55) p " ibid., p 85 18 (Bal, 1991, 178) p 19 Throughout Reading Rembrandt, Bal "text" in three senses: a) an individual narrative uses work, b) the entire corpus of any artist together with its critical reception, and c) the "effect of representation" or the thematisation and narrativisation of social realities such as rape, father-son relations, and so on. In this particular case I follow her use of "teat" to refer to a body of individual works which constitute the representational tradition of any written or visual story or image. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page50  Figuring the word depends on the ability of an iconographic detail not only to place the work within a tradition as a whole but also to import into an individual work the whole story tradition for which the detail functions synedochically. That is, an iconic detail functions inter-textually; "it operates through the discursive rhetorical strategies of meaning production" to "import into the image an entire story with all its verbal ')120 elements. In this sense, an individual is element at once iconic, insofar as it is a descriptive detail; indexical, in that it establishes a continuity within a representational tradition; and symbolic, because through its discursive strategies it becomes a text in its own right. Eco's "supersigns", mentioned in chapter one, function in a similar way when, for example, the Christian image of a baby lying in a mangerevokes a whole narrative tradition of the Nativity. 21 Bal's method of reading iconographically (recognisingthe fundamentally verbal or textual signifying force of iconic details) presents a number of important theoretical and methodological implications for understandingthe extraordinary conceptual complexity of translations between media, understood here in the broadestsenseof (a) (re)presentationsof biblical texts as oral/performative,written, or audio and/orvisual narratives,(b) the linguistic, visual, or aural representationsof cultural border crossings,and (c) the politics of interpretation. 22 First of all, Bal's method makes it impossible to reduce "translation" to a representativerelation betweena sourceand a target text. Jakobsonsolved the problem, articulatedin his essayOn Linguistic Aspectsof Translation, by reducingPeirce's symbolic sign to Saussure'sdefinition of the sign as a linguistic code. Bal's iconographic reading deniesthis solution. Peirce's symbolic sign may rely on conventionalagreementor 20 (Bal, 1991, 181) p 21 In fact, an iconographic readingof the very word "manger" involves the same processof recordingthe whole Nativity tradition which is lost when the Greekword is translatedas "bed of straw" evenif "manger"is an archaismthat may be meaninglessto modernreaders. 22 I use the term `politics' here to denote the radical politicisation of both the concept of translationin postcolonial and feminist writing on the subject (see,for example:Niranjana, 1992; Simon, 1996; T)moczko, 1999) and of a parallel emergenceof a cultural agendain biblical scholarship(seefor exampleJournalfor the Study of the Old Testamentsupplementseries:Gender, Culture, Theory, SheffieldAcademicPressand Semeiaan experimentaljournal for biblical criticism publishedby The Society of Biblical Literature, (Bach, 1999; Prior, 1997). For publications that dealexplicitly with the politics of Bible translationsee(Ilaskins, 1993; Pippin, 1996; Stine, 1990). Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page51  Figuring the word a rule as the ground of its interpretant, but the conventions do not inhere in the sign itself, they are socially produced.23 Secondly, Bal's method raises the difficult question of the value of discussing translation in terms of source and target text at all. One example from my According 24 to commentaries, the writings on casestudy will clarify this problem. Jesus' teaching have been collected into five discourses in the Gospel of Matthew the first of which, chapters 5-7, English translations commonly title "The Sermon on the Mount", although the publications of the NIV do not. Graham N. Stanton in his commentary notes that the "Sermon on the Mount" has been understood throughout the history of the Church as a compendium of Christian ethical 25 teaching. Apparently, Augustine first used the term, De Sermoni Domini in morste,in his commentary on Matthew 5-7. The Oxford English Dictionary cites a referenceto its use in 1200and againas a marginalnote in the 1582 Douay-Rheims Bible, "The Sermonof Christ upon the Mount". The term did not gain wide currency until the sixteenthcentury, probably encouraged by its use as a title for Matthew 5-7 in the original edition of the King Jamestranslation of the Bible. /The Sermonon the Mount/ may, therefore,be describedas one of Eco's supersignsthat provides an image of a text - the sayings of Jesusremembered by eyewitnesses and gatheredinto a singleand continuousrecord of his teachings- although, since the beginningof the twentieth century, scholarsrecognisethat the author of Matthew's Gospel compiled these from various sources. Stanton notes: "Jesus did not `preach' Matthew 5-7 as a sermon. But even in recent decadesmany [scholars] havepaid only lip serviceto the fact that the sermonis the first of the Evangelist's five discourses.The sermonis often taken without further ado to be a summary of the ethical teachingsof Jesus. ,26 The title, a relatively modern interpretation, supplies universal status to Jesus' ethical sayings collected in Matthew's first discourse. The word /the/ suggestsa continuous narration which implies that Jesus uttered all thesesayingsat one time in the sameplace. The use of the word "the" 23 See (Silverman, 1983) 2' See (GNB Study Bible, 1994; Oxford English Dictionary, 1933; Buttrick, 1951; Coggins andHoulden, 1990) 25 (Stanton, 1990) 26 ibid., pp 625-629 Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page52  Figuring the word universally unifies in this case, as in the case of The Ten Commandments, or The Story of Jesus. /Sermon/ defined in the OED as "A discourse, usually delivered from a pulpit and based upon a text of Scripture, for the purpose of giving religious instruction or exhortation"27 seems to have appeared in English usage around the sametime as the title. In the Churches and Cathedrals of medieval Europe, stained glass windows, mosaics, murals, and statuary provided visual aids for religious instruction. Modern preachers often resort to their own visual aids. Severalaspects of the text become important for my analysis. Preachers in Western Churches generally stand to address their congregations. The NIV translates Matthew 5: 1-2 as "Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples cameto him, and he beganto teach them, saying:"28 (emphasis added) Commentaries in other translations note that (a) the "mountainside" was probably one of the hills around Capernaum.29 In fact, the Good News Bible30uses "a hill" in their translation, which may be a more accurate description of the topography around Capernaum. (b) On the words "Jesus sat down" commentaries note that in Jewish custom teachers sit. 31 (c) Verses 1-2 suggest, even in translation, that Jesus withdrew from the crowds and began to teach his disciples, although the Good News Study Bible notes that the verses anticipate a more generalaudience.32 In this context, how have the producers of The Gospel According to St. Matthew used the image of /The Sermon on the Mount/? The producers translate the image quite literally. They set the scene on a barren, rocky outcrop high on a mountain side (wide shots establish its altitude relative to the surrounding countryside) that people have climbed to hear Jesus (played by Bruce Marchiano). A previous scene shows people scrambling up a narrow rocky path to reach the location. 33 As Jesus 27 (The Oxford English Dictionary, 1933) 28 (the NIV, 1995, p 683) 2' (The New Jerusalem Bible, 1994) 30 (Ellin-worth, 1994) 31 (Johnson and Buttrick, 1951). These commentaries focus on the surface details of the text's content, not its literary structure whose parallelisms mark the Gospel's discourse as a radical reinforcement of Jewish law. I am grateful to Philip C. Stine for pointing this out to me. See also A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew B. M. Ne,"man and P. C. Stine, United Bible Societies, New York (1988). 32 See also (Johnson and Buttrick, 1951) 33 I will resistthe interpretiveallusions hereto Matthew 7: 14 "But small is the gateand narrow the roadthat leadsto life, and only a few shall find it. " (The NIV, 1995, p 685) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page53  Figuring the word speaks, he paces among the gathered crowd seated around him. The cadences and pacing of Marchiano's oration resonates with a particular style of public reading rather than a performance in the role of Jesus as a narrative character. In effect, Marchiano's delivery more closely characterises that of a twentieth century Anglo- American preacher complete with rather literal visual aids used in this style of 34 rhetorical address. We can usefully compare Marchiano's performance not with the written word itself, which does not give many clues (especially in translation) as to how it should be read aloud, but with other rhetorical traditions such as the Greek one contemporaneous to the Gospel of Matthew, or more recently with modern story-telling techniques that have attempted to revive oral traditions as an interpretive approach to the Bible, as for example the. Story Tellers GOP. What is translated here is not so much a particular set of messagesgathered together in a fixed source text but a whole tradition that is continually reworked with each successive presentation of a residual collective memory from an unimaginable, distant past. Did an historical character named Jesus really sit down and say to his disciples "µaxapLoL of TTW)(OL iw nvcvEi(XTL.oii, aUTWVEQtLV71ßaQL%cta TWV oupvwv" (`Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom Heaven"). 36 of For practical and theological purposes of "faithful translation" one must assume a source text as origin, however, for the theoretical and philosophical purposes of asking "what is translation?" the concept of an original text as a concrete entity may turn out to be superfluous. I will return to this difficult question in chapter three. (See Clip 1) Thirdly, Bal's method of reading,iconographicallyextendssemiotic analysis beyond an identification of individual signs and their classification. Her method, as she herself demonstrates,is fundamentally and-irreducibly interdisciplinary,37 It radically transformsthe equationof iconic signswith literal representationby taking up Eco's argumentthat iconic signsare discursiveand may be "read" as"texts". Bal 34 In Ch 7 vs 3-5, Marchianojokingly- holds-a"stick tu- the side-of his facestcy-iltastrate the friend for having in . problemof a speakerwho criticisesa a speck his eyewhile he hasa plank in his own. "Jesus'" audiencelaughson cueat thejoke. 35 Seehttp://www. nobs.org/ 36 Matthew 5:3, NN 37 (Bat, Winter 1990) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of WVanvick,2000 page54  Figuring the word her to read against the grain of dominant realist interpretations of uses approach figurative painting, in "to make sense out of what the image is /lot other words, rather than viewing it. -)i38 To do so, she uses the symbolic sign as a critical tool gives senseto iconic and indexical signs or intervenes in the signs. which An iconographic The Gospel According to St. reading encouragesa view of Matthew as a translation that attempts to establish a relation of iconic similarity with its source, the NIV English translation. The iconic codes of similarity also index a typically idealistic attitude in translation that identifies the idea of origin with an authorial voice that represents the mind of the speaker and assumes writing to transparently reflect authorship. The Gospel forms the first episode of an to bring the Bible to life by transposing it, quite literally, into a ambitious project dramatised version for video. It was produced by a South African film company based in Johannesburg and shot on location in Morocco. The project to date has only completed Matthew and Acts. Both Matthew and Acts were shown quite recently on British Television. (ITV, 1998 and 1999)39 However, the producers have made no attempt to adapt the text to the narrative techniques and conventions of another medium. They simply transpose the written text, word for word, to a by dressed up as first century CE Palestinians and set in an oral narration actors appropriately Middle Eastern looking location. The flowing robes and head-gear worn by the actors typify Sunday school performances of the Nativity, while locations stereotypically reproduce a twentieth century Western vision of ancient Palestine created, for example, by photographs and illustrations included in some publications of English Bibles. Obviously, the topology of the Moroccan landscape, the film's location, is intended to literally represent the historical Palestinian geography of the Gospel narrative's setting. (see fig. i) 38 (Bal, 1991, 178) p 39 SeeVisual Bible web site address:http://ivww. visualbible.com. The original companyand copyright to the films wereownedby an Americanorganisation,Visual International. The company wasbought in August 2000 by an AmericanChristian media organisation,AmericanUranium, with headquarters in Toronto. They arelisted in Nasdaq. AmericanUranium have changedtheir nameto The Visual Bible. The companyproposescompleting the visualisation of the entire Bible. Their co-productionpartnersinclude the AmericanBible Society. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page55  Figuring fhe word ýfi I) Matthew . functions in a different However, as narrativised space, the video's rnis-earn-scene way from the narration of space in the Greek text from which the NIV is translated. For example, place namesconstruct a specific point of view in the first century CE text that would have resonated with the cultural politics of centre and periphery in the Roman Empire and the Jewish diaspora, for whom Matthew is understood to have written. 40 And so, in the written text, the Gospel writer intends the mention of Bethlehem as Jesus' birthplace to establish the credibility of his ancestry and therefore his credentials as "the saviour of the Jews". The video's Iris-en-scene constructs an imaginary space more concerned with evoking and perpetuating an image of first century Palestine that typically distances the average twentieth century Western viewer historically and geographically while allowing a colonisation of the imagethrough the construction of the gaze. The film thereby encouragesthe audience to view this representation of Palestine as an exotic and unknown 10 See L. 0. Dorn -"Going down' and 'going up"' in The Bible Translator. Vol. 49 No. 2. Apnl 1998. A senseof the geopolitical significance of location for an understanding of the Gospel of Matthew can be also be gained from Robert D. Kaplan's essay "Israel Now- in The lt/antic Afonih/t', Vol 28-5. No I. (Jan 2000). The locations picked for The Gospel According to St. . ' make no referencewhatsoever to the political context of the narrative that give a different _tlatthei, view of Jesus' identity. Joy Sisley'. T,'anslatinag/roin One 1lediunt to -lnolher BCCS. University of Warwick. 2000 . . page56  Figuring the word landscape made familiar and domestic through repeated uses of this form of representation. The mis-en-scene thus functions as a symbol established through conventions of accuracy.4' Matthew, played by Richard Kiley, who identifies himself in the opening scene as the author of the Gospel of Matthew and gives some autobiographical detail, missing from the written version narrates the video. He describes himself as an outsider shunned by his community because of his collaboration as a tax collector with the occupying forces of the Roman Empire. Narrator and author are embodied in one character.42 The scene shifts, periodically, from Matthew's oration to a dramatisation of Jesus' life and teaching in which Jesus becomes the central speaking character. Usually, but not always, when such scene shifts occur, other characters who speak in the written account speak their own lines as well, while Matthew carries the rest of the account in voice over. Matthew tells his story to an audienceof his immediate family, apparently, of wife and son or grandson; a small family of neighbours, perhaps, who appear in an early scene and stay throughout most of the video drama; and two scribes who appear, usually in the background, diligently and faithfully transcribing Matthew's every word. The spoken word and written word are treated synonymously to the extent, even, that chapter and verse referencesare burned into the bottom right hand corner of the image so that viewers may follow the story in the NIV translation if they choose. On the face of it, therefore, the translation represents a caseof Pavis' "auto-textual" translation. The intention of the video to bring the story to life appears in the promotional details of the video's packaging which reads: "as his story unfolds, the centuries melt away and we are intimately involved in the life of Jesus". This intention is also implicit in the mis-en-scene and the repertoires of photographic realism that fit within a tradition of iconographic representation that values the Bible as an ancient historical document. The stated and unstated intentions of the video production thus signify 41 The ideological of travel and spatial distancesin ethnographic parallelswith representations television documentariesareinterestinghere. See(Nichols, 1992) 42 "It is not known who the authorof Matthew's Gospel was. The text itself does not say who wrote it, and the title "According to Matthew" was probably not part of the original text. Scholarly opinion ascribesauthorshipto a secondgenerationChristian who wrote for Je«ish-Christian readers. (The GNB study edition, 1994,p 1453) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Aledium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 57  Figuring the word formal literal translation strategy. 43 The disruptions of iconographic anomalies, a or however, prevent the practices of literal translation from making the relation between word and image completely transparent. For example, the Crucifixion is depicted in naturalistic and gruesome detail in keeping with a Christian narrative tradition of the martyrdom of Christ. But the carnivalesque interruption of two jeering soldiers who abuse Jesus loudly in broad white South African accents disrupts the dramatic naturalism of the 44 scene. Since very few characters in the lines, intervention these two dressed video speak more than one or two the of actors Roman is in 45 as soldiers all the more startling the context of the video's realism. Despite an inevitable temptation to treat it as an example of ludicrous amateurism, the sceneinvites a consideration of word-image relationships and the subordination of the visuals as illustrations of the spoken and written word. Such carnivalesque details as these foreground a tension between "seeing" and "reading" that betrays an anxiety about the capacity of audio-visual translation to sustain the authority of the written word, even while the images project an idea of the video as a "faithful" translation of the written text. Rather than focus on these details as evidence of a 43 Since my intention in this chapter is to raise critical questions about the cultural values encoded in the equation of formal/literal translation with certain repertoires of visual representation, I will continue to use these terms rather than invent new ones despite the difficulties, raised in chapter one, of matching linguistic and audio-visual translation processes. Since, in many respects this terminology constitutes part of the ground of meaning, I prefer to follow Derrida's example of putting these terms "under erasure" and thereby highlight the contradictions embedded in their everyday use in discourses on translation. For example, comparative methodologies in translation studies persist in the contradictory pairing of `representation' and `equivalence' that obscures a enduring belief in a transcendental signified mobilised through post structuralist translation metaphors like "abusive" or "foreignising". See (Worthington, 1996) on the problems of post- structuralism, (Snell-Hornby, 1995) on equivalence. 44 Kiley speakswith an English accentand Marchianowith a mid-Atlantic accent. as There is, however, long tradition of representing these soldiers differently from other a charactersin the story. Susan L. Ward has pointed out to me in medieval and early Renaissance art the torturers of Christ are frequently depicted in accurate contemporary costumes while the virtuous have generic clothing. Since irony or satire do not appear to be a general rhetorical feature of the video, it may be misleading to assume that the inclusion of carnivalesque detail in the Visual Bible functions to undermine interpretative authority in the same way that it does in medieval mystery plays. In fact, Bruce Marchiano's account of his experience of playing Jesus and the heavy promotion of this film by Visual International as an evangelical tool does not support a thesis of carnival. (Extracts from Marchiano's book about his experience are advertised on the Visual Bible web site) This does not, however, rule out the possibility of an oppositional reading generatedby disruptive iconographic detail. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of War ick, 2000 page 58  Figuring the word poorly conceived strategy, I propose to examine how they draw attention to the producers' intentions manifest in their reworking of /the story of 46 Jesus/. On first viewing, spectators may be struck by a significant detail in the portrayal of Jesus who seems to smile broadly all the time. It is a very particular and flashy gesture. (See clip 2) On the denotative level of The Gospel, the smile the real, human qualities of the Jesus portrayed. 47 But Marchiano's smile signifies is arguably defamiliarising since it departs from the generic depictions in film of Jesus as a grave and rather dignified character. Marchiano's smile marks The Gospel's Jesus as different from the interpretive abstraction of Jesus as the "Son of God", or the "suffering Christ" of Christianity. Because Marchiano's smile is an unfamiliar gesture in traditional Western iconography of Jesus it draws attention to itself. Consequently, it becomes an iconic detail that demands interpretation. The identification of Marchiano's smile as a significant iconographic detail entails a process of interpretation that, as Eco suggests, depends in the first place on an ability to identify it a as sign. This requires a knowledge of the iconographic and narrative traditions from which Marchiano's expression deviates. His smile intrudes on viewers' consciousness not only because of its iconographic unfamiliarity, but also becauseof its exaggeration. To account for the smile as significant within the overall economy of the story depends on being able to "read" it as a "text". This meansthat it has a narrative coherencebeyond its purely denotative signification of "friendly or happy human being". Its interpretation must occur in the context both of the narrative that gives it coherenceand of the way that it gives coherence to the narrative. To return to the scenesof "The Sermon on the Mount": as Jesus speaks to the gathered crowds he smiles. His smile invites a response from his audience who smile back at him. But these smiles differ qualitatively. Jesus' smiles self- assuredly. Viewers recognise his smile becausehe has already been identified as the son of God in earlier scenes. The people in Jesus' diegetic audience smile more 46 The universalismof this conceptis problematicbecause,as biblical scholars have shown, this versiongainedcurrencyin the early Christian churchas an outcomeof a power struggle between Paul and Jesus'brotherJames. This is a power strugglethat hasre-emergedin moderndiscoursesof liberationtheology. 07 This readingis confirmedby Marchiano's own publishedaccountof his interpretation of the Gospel. Seethe Visual Bible web site, http:/hiiviv. visualbible.com Joy Sisley, Translating fron One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 pagc59  Figuring the word tentatively. They express both a response to what Jesus says and a dawning wonder. Whereas the viewer already possesses a superior knowledge, the smiles of the people in Jesus' audience signify the response of characters who only have accessto a knowledge of Jesus' identity through his preaching and action. Reading the smile iconographically means identifying its indexical and symbolic functions. The exchangeof looks between Jesus and his audience points to the relation between the speaker and his audience, while the relation evokes the specificities of the video's narrative theme of faithful discipleship. In this sense,the is it smile symbolic; animates the dynamics of focalisation in the translation. Or as Bal suggests,it "dynamize[s] the activity of the viewer. Attracting attention to the work of representation as well as to the work of reading or viewing. "48 To this may be added that it attracts attention to the work of interpretation and translation since the theme of discipleship in the video does not compare with the theme in the original text. For the moment, I will pursue Edward Branigan's rather concise use of focalisation because it helps to identify and distinguish the various roles of Matthew as narrator, Jesus as actor/story teller, and their respective audiences. Branigan defines the term as a display of character perception. He notes: "Focalisation (reflection) involves a character neither speaking (narrating, reporting, communicating) nor acting (focusing, focused by), but rather actually experiencing something through seeing and hearing it. " Thus focalisation "displays character perception as a consequence of events of the character's world even if other (nondiegetic) worlds are also affected. That is, focalization represents the fact of character perception"49 whether it occurs as external focalisation, what the character sees or hears, or as internal focalisation, what the character thinks or feels. The focalised object is what the actor has seen or heard; the focaliser, the character who looks or listens. However, focalisation belongs strictly within the domain of the implied viewer and not the diegetic field of narrator or narratees. In Branigan's definition, focalisation is a purely narrative construct through which the implied viewer has accessto what characters see and hear, or think and feel. It is controlled both by the direction of the character's looks within the frame by the camera's and 48 (Bal, 1991, 4) p 49 (Branigan, 1996, pp 101-102) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 60  Figuring the word point of view and camera movement. The syntax of shot/reverse shot forms one element of the grammar of focalisation in film. For example, when Jesus looks out of frame, the shot cuts to what he sees from his angle of vision -a case of external focalisation. An example of internal focalisation is provided when Jesus' gaze seemsto be fixed on an empty space in front of him, and the cameramoves in on his face. Within the overall economy of The Gospel According to St. Matthew as a translation, the dynamic of focalisation belongs to the relation between the sign as an audio-visual translation and its interpretant (its reception). Focalisation is, therefore, a highly significant element of the video's function as translation to bring the story to life. 50 The story world of The GospelAccording to St. Matthew has three distinct levelsof narrationandtwo diegeticgroups of narrator and narratees. The first level consistsof the implied narrator and narrateesof the video translation.These do not coincidewith the implied narrator and narrateesof the NIV translation who appear as the charactersof Matthew and his audiencein the second, diegetic, level of narration. As fictionalised characters,they stand in for the implied narrator and narrateesof an "original" Greekversion. The third level of narration belongsto that of Jesusand his addressees.It is embeddedin the secondlevel of narration which framesthe story of Jesus' life andteaching. Jesusappearsas both a characterand a story teller in his own right with his own diegetic audience. The inter-relation of thesethree levels of narration is exceptionally complex. As focalisers,Matthew's audienceand Jesus' audiencefulfil rather different functions. Matthew's audience draws attention to Matthew's narration as an oral performanceand to the necessity of an audiencefor such acts of communication. Matthew's narration may be understoodas a proclamation,an announcementof the `good news' in the tradition of Gospel writing. But the presenceof the scribes createsan awarenessof his performanceas dictation of a narrative thus marking it as a pre-text. The scribes function as an index of the Gospel's presumedorigin in an earlieroral tradition. The 50 This concept focalisation is derived from Genette of - see(Starr, Burgoyneand Flitterman- Lewis, 1992). It has been adaptedfor film theory to distinguish between point of view which designatesthe physical location of spectatorsin relation to the screen and focalisation which describesthe imaginary relations of the spectatorto the narrative. It is thus a purely narrative constructwhich designatesthe relation of the implied spectatorto the implied narrator. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page61  Figuring the word video thus elides the primary orality of the Gospel and the secondary orality of the television performance in a way that foregrounds questions about literacy and a written text. Matthew's audience plays the role of both the addressees of Matthew's proclamation and of the diegetic narratees of his story. They therefore stand in for the real and implied viewers of the video translation, but the implied readers only of the written narrative. This act of standing for is achieved through the grammar of shot/reverse shot that is commonly recognised as one focalising device designed to persuade the real viewer to identify with a particular act of looking or with a particular character, or set of characters, in the film. This operation of identification has been called "interpellation" by film theorists who have borrowed the term from Louis Althusser's description of how individuals are symbolically constituted as subjects within the cultural and ideological matrixes of society. Interpellation describes an element of the speech act of "hailing" or "calling" when the hailed individual recognises herself as the subject of address. This is equivalent to Branigan's focalisation, but extends to it the concept of an imaginary or illusory subject position for the spectator constructed by the grammar of cinematic address. As Silverman notes: Interpellation designates the conjunction of imaginary and symbolic transactions which results in the subject's insertion into an already existing discourse. The individual who is culturally "hailed" or "called" simultaneously identifies Nsiththe subjectof the speechand takes his or her place in the syntax which defines that subjective position. The first of these operations is imaginary, the secondsymbolic." The terminology of interpellation also incorporates negative concepts of ideology in the discursive positioning of subjects within social power relations. In this case, for an effective interpellation the processes must be seamless or transparent. Thus the grammar of shot/reverse shot usually obeys another rule of film syntax in which, in order not to disrupt the singular perspective of the film's spectator, the reverse shot must remain within 180° of the invisible axis of the motivating shot. S' (Silverman, 1983, 219) p Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page62  Figuring the word The scenes with Matthew and his audience are carefully constructed to achieve an identification of the real viewer with the diegetic audience,by creating the effect of a shared singular perspective. Matthew/Kiley appears frequently to look straight at the camera and, therefore, beyond the diegetic audience to the real viewer seated in front of the television screen. The symbolic erasure of the intermediary 52 agent of representation establishes a direct link between viewers and the object of 53 their gaze. Photography and cinema or television, of course, require a further erasureof the mediating technology by requiring the spectator to imagine a position immediately behind the camera. This is a particular, but not the only mechanism of interpellation. Each time Kiley looks at the camera,the scene cuts to a reverse shot of Matthew's audience. In order to maintain the 180° rule of shot/reverse shot syntax, the shot cuts to a view of the diegetic audience from Matthew's angle of vision. The audience takes the same perspective as Kiley's imaginary audience: a frontal view of spectators seated in a row. In the reverse shots, the diegetic audiencelooks off-screen in the direction of Matthew. The angle of vision remains within the same 1800axis thus formally within the diegesis of the narrative. The conflating point of view and focalisation collapses the distance between diegetic and non-diegetic audience. This conflation is reinforced by another typical point of view shot of Matthew from behind his audience whose heads and shoulders fill the foreground of the shot. (See Clip 3) Jesus, too, has a diegetic audience. Sometimes it is the crowds who come to hear him speak; at other times (such as in the scene of the final meal before his arrest), it is his disciples. Jesus' status as a character is only ever once violated. This extremely interesting deviation from the grammar of focalisation in the film disrupts Jesus' narrative position as a character in Matthew's story. Towards the end of the film, Jesus begins to tell his disciples about the end of the age and the second coming of Christ. The shot cuts from a shot of Jesus to a pan from a guttering candle to a dozing Matthew. In this disruption of the video's syntax, 52 In this case,the cameraoperator,but in other casesit may be the animator, graphic artist, or painter. The grammarof looking works in the sameway for all of theseprocesses.For example,see (13al,1991,chapter4) 53 See (Bal, 1991) and (Berger, 1980) for possible readings of this exchange of looks. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 63  Figuring the word Matthew cedes the authority of own narration to Jesus who thus appears to become the author of his own destiny. In fact, Matthew does not reappear as a narrator until after the crucifixion. Whereas Matthew looks at the camera, Jesus looks only at members of his audience. Whereas Matthew's gaze takes in his entire audience,Jesus seesonly those individuals in his line of vision. Whereas Matthew is generally shown in close up looking out towards his audience, Jesus is often in shown close up looking inwards, his eyes focus on an empty space just in front of them and symbolically on his thoughts. Bal's analysisof looks and focalisationin Rembrandt's work movesbeyond the economy of looking within the formal organisation of the story to a considerationof how the act of looking thematises the position of viewers in relationto the socially discursive- contextsof the work. " Bal between distinguishes- the gazeandthe glance. The gazeconflates actor and character(model and figure in Bal's application). It encourages an attitude of looking that accepts the transparencyof cinematographicrepresentation,effacingthe traces of the work of production. This resembles Branigan's use of focalisation and the particular dynamicof interpellation discussedabove. The glanceemphasisesthe viewer's own position as viewer, encouragedby traces of the work of production. The two modesof looking suggestedby the work's structure arenot mutually exclusive,they may coexistin the sameact of looking. Bal's distinction betweenthe gazeand the glancemay accountfor how The Gospel thematisesthe problematicsof translation from one mediumto another the investment of authority in the written word and the originality of the Gospel's oral tradition. While Bal makesthe actual materiality of representationand Rembrandt's depiction of his models her starting point for a discussionabout the differencesbetween the glanceand the gaze, her analysis of who looks at whom andhow theselooks narrativisethe very act of looking interests me here. Matthew looks at the camera,disrupting the conventionalrepresentational realismof The Gospel that is held togetherby its mis-en-sceneand syntax. Thus, while the shot/reverse shot grammar of Matthew's scenes should narrow the distancebetweenhis diegeticaudienceand the viewer, Matthew's look at the camera 54 (Bal, 1991) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page64  Figuring the word encouragesa mode of viewing that is best characterised by Bal's description of the glance. Matthew's look functions in a similar way to the illocutionary act of direct address. It demands a response of the viewer as the person addressed. While the direction of Matthew's look implicates the viewer in the narrative, it also makes the act of looking on the part of the viewer a self-conscious one. The mode of looking encouraged by the direction of looks within Jesus' scenes, however, is closer to Bal's description of the mechanisms of the gaze. The focalisation of Jesus' looks is entirely intra-diegetic. It cements the act of looking with the act of narration and implicates the viewer within the story rather than within the process of telling. The separation of the glance and the gaze in the two narrative frames of The Gospel has important consequencesfor a construction of narrative authority in relation to the video's status as translation. Matthew's claim to authorship at the beginningof the video is significant in the contextof the story's presentationas an oral accountbecauseit raisesquestions about the authority of the written word in the formal exposition of the video. Matthew's introduction, reinforced by the presence of the scribes, may be interpreted as a prefatory closure on such questions. This little sub-text clearly equates authorship and authority with the written word, not with the oral performance.I would arguethat the video producershaveconceivedthe question of authority in terms of writing and translation and, sensing a problem in the conventional dialectic between word and image, have tried to reinforce closure throughthe dynamicsof focalisationand point of view. In this way, the meaningof the words are, supposedly, left intact and in no need of further interpretation. However, the senseof the visual narrative revealsa discourseof biblical literalism that, as a hallmark of fundamentalevangelicalChristianity, assumesa universal and unproblematic meaning in the written text. This is signified by the different functions of Matthew's and Jesus' audiencesas focalisers. As noted earlier, Matthew's audiencestands for the subject of enunciation,the `you' who is hailed and who recognisesherself as such. His audiencethus representsthe recipient of the kerygma,or the goodnews accordingto Matthew, andby extension,the crowds anticipated in the introductory verses to "The Sermon on the Mount". Jesus' Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page65  Figuring the word audience, on the other hand, signifies the response of individuals to the content of enunciation. The different attitudes assumed by the two audiences matter, therefore. Matthew's audience merely listens; they are never seen reacting to his oration even when he dramatises a point by banging his fist on the table. Matthew's audience never betrays an emotion that would enlist a particular interpretation of what is said. Similarly, the scribes write impassively, giving no evidence that they might have added their own interpretive gloss on Matthew's words. Jesus' audience, on the other hand, focalises the response of the implied audience. Members of Jesus' audience react to the speaker, laugh at his jokes, smile when they have understood a point he has made, hug him in gratitude when he heals them. But because the film makers keep focalisation and point of view strictly separate in the image of Jesus' audience, they restrict the meaning of the spoken words safely to the formal boundaries of the audio-visual narrative, i. e. to the script on which it is based. Jesus' audience thus fits into the already existing discourse, the ideology of the text into which the narrative specificities of looking and hearing interpellate the real viewer. This dynamic symbolises the logocentrism of the literalist strategy used for the Visual Bible, but at the same time highlights in a more general sensethe problematic of its translatability in formal terms understood by the conventions of inter-lingual translation. The video raises the question not so much whether the visual images function as a translation of the written text, as the producers evidently see it, but how the video problematises the very notion of representational equivalence implicit in dominantdefinitions of translation. In fact, the very notion of discussing The GospelAccording to St. Matthew in any kind of representationalterms seems faintly preposterous.55 The concept of equivalencebetween word and image signalledby efforts faithfully to reproducethe historical and geographiccontexts of the Gospel story canonly be sustainedif we maintain the theoretical opposition of word and image and the reduction of visual images to their iconic and indexical functions. Once the implication of language in vision is admitted via an understandingof the symbolic or discursive characterof visual images,it becomes ss This would be true of terms suchas "adaptation' [of], "performance"[of], or other synonyms usedto get aroundthe definitive limitations of translation. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page66  Figuring the wora more difficult to see word and image as autonomous planes and to subordinate images to words. As I noted earlier, words do not order the sense of images (as Barthes would have it). The images' context supply this order. In this production, iconographic detail frequently produces a defamiliarised text that also "speaks" for itself and undermines the intent of literal translation. By the same token, the opposition of source and target texts raises fundamentalquestions about origin and authority. These questions are usually by in suppressed a conception theory and practice of the translator's invisibility, thereby maintaining the source text's authority. A ready assumption of the transparencyof writing also works to supply this suppression. As a consequence, the contextsof production are subordinated to the context of the text. A shift of media disrupts the assumedtransparency of writing, foregroundingthe context of in it. 56 The production and the questions of origin and authorship embedded Gospel treats transparency as an issue and attempts to restore it by rolling real author, implied author, and narrator into one character, thereby making no distinction at the level of authorship between the context of production and the content of the story. Matthew as "author" and the scribes acquire a dominant presence in the video narrative itself. That this gives the video producers a theological headache in the metaphorics of "bringing the story to life" may be by evidenced the video's interesting deviation from the grammarof its focalisation discussedearlier. At the moment Jesusbeginsto narratehis own story, the video text, it seems,can no longersustainthe all too solid presenceof a "real" author and "human" Jesus; Matthew is caught napping. Jesus looks at Matthew and the viewer, following his gaze, also looks at Matthew rather than back at him. Matthew's authorialpresenceis thereby deferredto the transcendentalsignifier of a divine author. 56 The prevalencein audio-visual translations of the-Bible- of frame narratives that-deal explicitly with the problem of authorshipwould seemto be a distinguishing featureof this genre. Seemy chapters4-7 for more discussionabout the function of frames. While frame narrativesare rarely used in cinematic adaptationsof literary works, it is not an exclusive feature of Bible translation. The analysisof the function of frames in audio visual translation in other genres,e.g. children's television, is beyondthe scopeof this study. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page67  Figuring the word The issues of authority embedded in the transparency of writing are, however, more clearly focalised by the self-effacing scribes who enter the narrative before Matthew begins his story and who write so diligently and faithfully throughout. The scribes provide the most visible clue to the video's logocentrism for they inscribe a far more profound opposition than that between word and image. What then do they transcribe? Viewers receive a privileged insight through the reverse shots of what Matthew sees when he looks over their shoulders. We must assumethat they write down what they hear. But this can only be an imaginative guessbecausethey write not in English but in some ancient orthography - whether Hebrew, or Aramaic, is left to the viewer's imagination the signs relate arbitrarily - to Matthew's words. But that arbitrary and imaginary reference forms the written sign of an oral performance, or an authorial presence in the text, and of an origin that precedes the written source, and predates an English or Greek version. 57 (See Clip 4) Questions about the original languageof the Gospel of Matthew aside, the scribes' demeanour calls attention to another factor of the arbitrariness of writing and its assumed transparency: the split between form and content, or langzie and parole. The contrast between the scribes' impassiveness and Matthew's passion arouses curiosity as to what exactly they transcribe - Matthew's interpretation of events contained in his oral performance or merely the content of his words? The question is intriguing because it confirms the valorisation of writing in Western literary cultures that Derrida has criticised as idealist. The scribes' inscrutable expressions perhaps provide a clue to the philosophy of language and of writing inscribed in the video. The scribes' looks narrates their invisibility in the orthography of Matthew's Gospel. Their invisibility functions metonymically as a trope for the invisibility of writing as a graphic representation of the text. The trope puts under erasure the work of textual production signified by the scribes' presence in the video as characters. It is significant that the scribes also disappear from the audio-visual narrative after the scenein which Matthew is caught napping. 57 Textual criticism is almost unanimouson the fact that the Gospelof Matthew was written in Greek. If therewas a Hebrewor Aramaic manuscriptfrom which the Greek was translatedthere is no proof becauseit hasbeenlost. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page68  Figuring the word In order to reassert the the idea of a transcendental authorial presence in the video text, the film must present writing as secondary to the primary signifier, the sound- image of the word. Writing is represented as the "signifier of a signifier."" The derivative nature of writing depends on a radical break between speech and-writing, (symbolised in the video by Matthew and the scribes), which reduces writing- to an instrument, or a technology of representation. In this view, writing is a symbol, a graphic representation of speech. As Derrida argues,this separation of writing from the interior system of languagepermits the logocentrism of language. In order to sustain the separation of speech and writing the relation between the two must, however, be considered arbitrary or unmotivated. Writing thus functions as a sign system in its own right. The individual units of writing, graphemes, equal the phonemes of languageand are ordered similarly by their distribution in a system of similarities and differences. In writing, as in language,the system regulates meaning. Graphemes relate arbitrarily to an external referent. Derrida maintains that this thesis of arbitrariness, however, "must forbid a radical distinction between the linguistic and the graphic sign"59 because it accounts for the symbolic or conventional nature of the relationship between spoken and written words. The thesis of arbitrariness deals with the contradiction of speech and writing by treating the relation as conventional and therefore transparent. But, "by the same token it forbids the latter to be an "image" of the former-"'O The_conventional- character of the relationship arbitrarily suppresses difference at the expense of similarity while simultaneously insisting on the difference. Thus the logic of this thesis mirrors that of Jakobson's definition of translation proper which deals with the problem of "difference in similarity" in precisely these terms. By excluding other semiotic relationships from his definition, Jakobson surreptitiously and indissolubly links inter-lingual translation with written translation in a relationship of transparency that makes language and writing and translation synonymous and excludes other forms of notation from the circle. The inscription of invisibility and transparency in the scribes' performance functions as an important index of the video's ideology 58 (Derrida, 1998) See especially his discussion about the Saussureanformulation of the pp 30-37 arbritrarinessof vNTiting. 39 ibid., 44 p 60 ibid., 45 p Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page69  Figuring the word of presence.An iconographicreadingof The Gospel,therefore,makesit possible to carry the critique of word/imageoppositions to the very heart of translation theory andthe assumptionsthat inform its definitions. The mechanisms that maintain the opposition of speech and writing, while assuring a relational transparency, function somewhat differently in relations between word and image. While Bal and Eco argue that the implication of language in vision undermines the opposition of word and image, it does so discursively and not conventionally. The thesis of arbitrariness breaks down under the pressure of the tension between word and image. Confronted with the undeniable iconic and indexical dimensions of visual images, but denied the possibility of transparency by the discursiveness of iconic signs, one must necessarily account for the relationship between word and image by other means. In The Gospel the scribes function metonymically for a translation strategy that attempts seamlessly to interpellate the spectator in the audio-visual text's ideology of translation as a faithful reflection of the written text. The Gospel presents itself at one and the same time as the original messagebrought to life and as a translation of a written text. The audio visual sign thus becomesthe signifier of a written signifier. It functions as a supplement that is added to writing as an image or representation. Within the metaphorical construct of translation as "bringing to life" the visual image adds to the written the fullest measure of presence. This idea finds support in extending Derrida's concept of supplement, where "the art of writing is nothing but a mediated representation of thought" to a concept of audio-visual translation- as nothing but_ a mediated '61 representation of the written word. The scribes function symbolically to effect this representation. They supplement the main narrative. A visible reminder of Matthew's oration as dictation and of his presence as author of the Gospel each time he looks over the scribes' shoulders. The direction of Matthew's look and the reverse shot of what the scribes are writing focalises the theme of faithfulness in the video and inscribes spectators in this theme by including them in Matthew's point of view. But the ideaof the supplementalso signifiesa lack. Derrida: 61 (Dcrrida, 1998, 144) p Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page70  Figuring the word The supplement supplements. It adds only to replace. It intervenes or insinuates itself in the place of. if it fills, it is as if one fills a void. 62 Derrida makes the point that if writing as supplement acts as a substitution for "presence" - the idealised proximity of mind and word that is the foundation of logocentrism - it is because as substitution it defines the absence of an external referent (in this casethe mind) as a guarantor of the meaning of a text. For Derrida, writing confirms that no meaning lies beyond the text: "the concept of the supplement and the theory of writing designate textuality itself. "63 Notwithstanding Derrida's own logocentrism in his theory of writing and the idealism of his formulation of a thesis of arbitrariness, this idea has some important implications for the representation of writing as translation in the video. The vision of the scribes writing designatesthe material textuality of the Gospel of Matthew. Thus on the one hand they secure a Christian view of the inscription of authority in the written word. Writing is therefore already itself a translation. However, in its. representational practices, the video does not go so far as to confirm the inscription of meaningwithin the very texture of writing. Far from it. I would argue that the. scribes' inscrutability, the cutaways to a written representation of an originary verbal narration, the focalisation of invisibility, are all efforts to introduce closure to the excessof the supplement. The greatest anxiety encoded in the literal strategy of The Gospel According to Matthew is a fear of the discursiveness of the iconic sign, hence the emphasis on writing and its transparency. Consequently, only when the "true" author of the /story of Jesus/ reveals his identity can the producers dispense with the scribes. The Visual International translation expressesa generalbelief in the Judeo- Christian tradition that the "Word of God" is not only divine utterance,but is itself'' evidenceof a divine presenceand of a transcendentmeaningbeyond the mere words of the page. Symbolically, Marchiano's smile functions to cementthe ideology of presence in the conflation of the video's visual realism with conception of representationalequivalence.There is thus a metaphoricalplay/ploy in the video's 62 (Dcmda, 1998, 145) p 63 ibid., p 163 Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page71  Figuring the word invocation of the literal=iconic paradigm which indissolubly connects The Gospel's theology with its translation strategy. To pursue the rhetorical and narrative function of Marchiano's smile in this context is to explore the politics of the valorisation of writing as an extension of logocentrism. That in turn points beyond a superficial question of equivalence to the central philosophical problem of the tension between word and image that structuralist definitions of translation have evaded by prioritising inter-lingual translation. In sum, the politics of valorisation necessitates an analysis of the ground of meaning in translation which, in other words, calls for an examination of the contexts in which meaning is socially produced through translation. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page72  CHAPTER THREE Translation, Vision, Reference The perfect expression of reference is vision, and the perfect expression of is vision reference. The two words `vision' and `reference' form a reciprocal ' state of understanding. In the previous chapters, I have considered several difficulties connected with understanding translation a) as a concept of translatability based on structural similarities between source and target languages,and b) as a concept of equivalence based on the representational similarity of target to source texts. In this chapter, I will examine the conceptual foundations of these difficulties before I explore an alternative approach in theories of reference to the problem of how to talk about translations from one medium to another. One of the principal challenges of translation studies motivates my discussion: how to strike a balance between an understanding of translation broad enough to include the many forms it takes (from literary translation, to adaptations and remakes, to ethnographic description) and a definition rigorous enough to demarcate some intellectual boundaries to the subject. However, I should make clear at the outset that I do not aim to elaborate yet another general theory of translation, especially not a theory of multi-media translation, to give coherence to the "extraordinary number of dichotomies" that inhabit the world 2 of translation. I am more precisely interested-in- the- resistance of translations- to- generalrules occasionedby the central paradox that the practice is at once derivative and creative. In this context, the more appropriate question is how translation between two different sign systems is possible and, consequently, what light a focus on explanations for apparent elements of untranslatability or mis-translations casts on theories of translation. In the first instance, it will be helpful to examine $ (Morot-Sir, 1995,p 23) 2 (Hatim and Mason, 1997) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Afedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page73  Translation, Lision, Reference more closely one of the central orthodoxies of translation studies; the relation of languageand translation. Generally, the production of "better" translations has informed the goal of definition in translation theory. 3 This has consisted in the conceptual of refining what might properly be called "translation" and complementary process translation models which, in turn, has involved creating constructing appropriate taxonomies or corpora to validate these models. The whole process rests on the in Western philosophy of languageand identity, whether in terms classic separation linguistic the independence of word and object, or in of a realism which postulates idealistic independence thought language. In terms of an conception of the of and have translation as a representation of a prior object (the either case,people viewed They have treated language and, by source text) or of the mind of an original author. extension, translation as transparent and overlooked its referential power. Translation theory has been pre-occupied with the extent to which translation achieves invisibility, by helping the original text or the imagination of successfully its author shine through the work of interpretation, rather than consider the question `what is the ground of meaning in a translation and in what respects does it its ' The translation be better than its transform object? possibility that a may original, or have an independent existence, has an aura of heresy. Functionalist approaches,such as those of EugeneNida or Gideon Toury, have not effectively challengedthe Cartesian dualism that marks the theory and practice of translation. Nida's model of functional equivalence,however subtly inflectedby his substantialreferenceto C. S. Peirce,reflects a realist conception of Peirce's sign. For Nida, utterancesmay be functionally equivalent becausethey expressa commonexperienceand producea similar effect in the hearer,in the same way that Peirce's "dynamical object", or real object (which he excludes from the sign)motivates or determines the sign's immediate object, or the idea of the object which is immanent to the sign. Toury's influential attempt to resituatetranslation studies within an inductive approach, which proceeds from an examination of a 3 Seefor exampleHolmes' seminalessayon the-goalof translation studies where-the-purpose of descriptivestudiesis to provide more sophisticatedtheoriesthat in turn servean improvementof translationpractice.(Holmes, 1975) Joy Sisley, Translating, from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page74  Translation, Vision, Reference particular relationship (e.g. the comparison of target and source text) to a discovery of general translation principles or laws, amounts to an elaborate restatement of the transparency of the Saussurean sign.4 His functional definition of so-called translation cloaks a realist conception of language and communicative instrumentality. By making the target text and target text norms the focus of an science he does not overcome the problems of discussing translation in empirical representational terms. Toury problematises the source text as the ultimate comparative value, but his notion of an intermediary comparative value introduces a ghostly third term (a universal languageperhaps) which is external to both source and target text. The conceptualisation of translation in terms of particular theories of languagehas tended to overshadow an understanding of translation as translation. As Andrew Benjamin notes in his commentary on Walter Benjamin's essay The Task of the Translator, "translation pertains not to meaning-but to languageitself. "5 Typically, translation theorists have tended to classify translation by the communicative function of language, in which the translator acts as some kind of broker or mediator in a communicationexchangebetweenlanguagecultures, (Hatim and Mason, 1997) or by text-types and their function, such as literary, general or special. (Snell-Hornby, 1995) The "cultural turn" in translation studiesreflects an effort to accountfor the discursive nature of translating in its full contextual complexity as a corrective to the limitations of text-linguistic approaches to translation. (Bassnett and Lefevere, 1998; Niranjana, 1992; Simon, 1996; Tymioczho, 1999) A culturalist approach applies a conception of translation as both an effect of inter-cultural communication (a necessity epitomised by the myth of Babel) and the evident cultural and social effects of inter-lingual translation. As Sherry Simon notes, The globalisation of culture means that we all live in "translated" worlds, that the spacesof knowledgewe inhabit assembleideasand styles of multiple origins, that transnational communications and frequent migrations make every cultural site a crossroadsand a meeting place.6 (Toury, 1995) (Benjamin, 1989, p 89) 6 (Simon, 1996, 134) p Joy Sisley, Translating from One. ATediumto Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page75  Translation, Vision, Reference The so-called cultural turn does not necessarily overcome the problem of thinking about target/source text relations in indexical terms or as the effect of a cause. But as an alterative approach to defining translation it does reflect an effort to explore its application in the various fields of language, literature, and culture. This has promoted a vastly expanded delimitation of the concept of translation, but left a nagging doubt, inspired as much by Mary Snell-Hornby's classification of texts in her integrated approach to translation, that somehow each of the textual practices described as translation refers to something rather different formally and semantically. The examples selected as case study material for this dissertation demonstrate that the function of Bible translation has proved remarkably heterogeneous and manifestly resistant to the primary function of the original, whatever that may have been. Bible translation has, and continues to manifest a whole range of intentions through its translation strategies from devotional, to literary, to historical, to informational, to unabashed entertainment. Even given the tendency of cultural perspectives to turn things on their heads and argue that translation is definitive of language (Steiner, 1975) or of culture (Bassnett and Lefevere, 1998), Bible translation continues to evade the totalising constructs of attempts to define translation. The black hole that remains at the centre of translation has been described variously as the invisible working of the translator's mind, as supplement - the result of finitude or a lack (Derrida in Niranjana, 1992), or as cultural transfer and its appropriation or manipulation of translation's Other (Bassnett and Lefevere, 1998; Hermans, 1996). None of this invalidates the achievements of scholarly research in translation studies. I raise the inherent in problems each of the approaches summarised above primarily as a starting point for the search for a conceptual languagethat will integrate all three of Jakobson's categories within "translation" without needing to qualify each use of the term. This entails restating the question "what is translation?" as what is the implication of language in translation and what is the implication of translation in language. However, given the presence of symbolic, iconic and indexical signs in the translated sign, it is important to qualify the question by the referential relation of languageto the real world; the implication of perception in languageor the languageof images.? This is a problem that has been raised quite specifically in connectionwith ethnographic Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page76  Translation, Vision, Reference In the previous chapters I have played on the tension between two approaches to translation: that which relies on a conception of the deictic force of languageand that which makes the semantic force of languageits starting point. I have borrowed these terms from Ora Avni's' work on reference and literature where she uses them to contrast two different forms of meaning or knowledge of the world experiencedthrough 8 language. The deictic aim refers to the philosophy of language which sees meaning as a function of the reference of words to their objects. Avni uses the semantic force of language in the Saussurean structuralist sense where language aims at producing meaning within a closed system of differences and oppositions. The one view presupposes an indexical or vertical relation between expressions and their non-linguistic elements, the other presupposes a horizontal or semantic relation between expressions independently of their object or referent. Typically, translation studies expresses the tension through the antinomy of word for word and sense for sense translation and its variants. I have argued that sign systems are similarly organised with respect to their aims: in structuralist semiotics, the sign's deictic force corresponds to its denotative elements and its semantic force to its connotation. In a Peircean semiotic system, the deictic aim of sign use is indexical and its semantic aim symbolic. However, I do not want to make too close an analogy with the "semantic" and "symbolic" because different theories of linguistic or visual sign use put different values on these terms. Besides, to associateOra Avni's use of "semantic" with my use of "symbolic" in chapters one and two would muddle her argument. Notwithstanding the differences in the way verbal and visual signs function the triple articulation of film (Eco, 1976), the - discursive character of iconic signs (Bal, 1991; Eco, 1976), the apparently non- arbitrary or motivated character of images (Metz, 1974) - once it is recognised that word/image oppositions are based on a reductive description of images as purely iconic and indexical (or having a primarily deictic function) or words as exclusively symbolic (or having a primarily semantic function) it becomes necessary to reconsider the question of equality between word and image, or language and vision, dismissed in structural linguistics. writing as translationof other cultures,see(Clif orb-1988; Gccrtz 1993; Pälsson, 1993) (Avni, 1990) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Aledium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 pagc,77  Translation, Vision, Reference In my first chapter, I argued Jakobson's restriction of "translation proper" to a concept of translatability based on the formal structures of language does not necessarily confer the unique title of translation on any particular corpus. I noted the fallacy in making the leap from assuming that meaning is a function of the syntactical structures of languageto assuming that images are untranslatable because I they are polyvalent or weakly coded. suggested, following Eco, that visual images are also meaningful because they are coded, thus contextually significant. In the terminology of narratology based on Peircean semiotics, images are significant at the level of their symbolic content which comprises the field of intersubjective discursivity. I was obligedto include the context (convention and circumstances)of sign use,a factor that logical or structural theories of meaningfind in problematic, order to contest the priority of language over vision. However, this does not infer the implication of vision in language.9 Before I explore the automatically significancefor translation from to one medium anotherof an identity of perception andvision in language, another contradiction provoked by the conceptualseparation of word and imagemerits closerattention. The contradiction has emerged from my hypothesis that a "literal" translation is iconic by virtue of its similarity to the source text, but recognition of its similarity is based on the symbolic (or conventional)relation between source and target text, not on an iconic similarity because, paradoxically, iconicity is associated with the alterity of signs, a characteristicwhich renderspossible such things as experimentation,innovation and creativity. There is more to the paradox than the confusion of terminology in different semiotictheories. The paradoxis fundamentallyconnectedto the problem of referenceand sense in languagewith which Western philosophy has grappled for 9 The AmericanBible Society multi-media translation programmehas made this a cornerstone of their translationphilosophy (seechapter 7 for a fuller discussion of the project). Their approach is basedon the principle that languagecontains both sonic and visual elements that must be recoveredif functionally equivalentimagesareto be found for audiovisual translations. (Hodgson, 1997;Soukup, 1999)Given their appropriationof Nida's theory of functional equivalence,it is not difficult to seehow its applicationto translating from one medium to anotherwould encouragethe projects'translatorsto resistany temptationto treat the linguistic sign as transparent. The gradual refinement,among membersof the researchgroup that advisesthe translation team, of what they meanby "one-to-onecorrespondence" in the context of the project is as much a recognition of the heterogeneityof languageat its referentiallevel (let alone its semanticlevel). Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of \Varn ick, 2000 page78  Translation, Vision, Reference two thousand years. My identification of literal translation as iconic (in the sense its text) (in the sense of its of similarity to the source and symbolic conventionality) while, at the same time, recognising the character of iconic signs as discursive is really another way to. say that two apparently irreconcilable inform descriptions of translation: its referential function and its perspectives function. This is basically the problem that Jakobson recognised in his semantic essay on translation and tried to solve by restricting translation proper to the symbolic or semantic aims of language. In so doing, he reveals Saussure's persistent influence on his writing, despite his interest in Peirce. But are deictic and semantic aims irreconcilable if and, so, why? Ora Avni- puts the problem succinctly in her comparison of Saussure's and Frege's meditations on the problems of reference (or the relation of word and object). 10 Frege seesreference as an essential component of language;Saussureclaims that words name not objects but differences between their representations. In short, where Frege advocates a shuttle between things and words, the Saussurean tradition crossesthings out and dealswith the distribution of meaning among words independently of any reality One advocates the absolute, and the ... other, the relative. ... [Blut we must not forget that, both assume (at least at ... some level of their discussion) that the order of things and the order of words are radically distinct and heterogeneous. Their projects can therefore be consideredas diametrically opposed solutions to the conceptual difficulties that the radical heterogeneity of words and objects imposes on "theories". " Avni comesto the conclusion through her close reading of the manuscripts from which Cozirs Saussure's de linguistique generole was edited, together with some of the main criticism of the Cours, that (despite efforts by Saussure'seditors and to critics smooth over the contradictionsin his theory of signs) Saussure never fully reconciledthe dual nature of the sign or the subject and object of '2 language. If the relation between signifier and signified is arbitrary (or un-motivated) and if the sign's meaningis fixed only by its relative position within the play of differencesor oppositions that constitutes the system (lrnngue), wherethe meaningof the signified is subjectto changethrough its interaction, horizontally, with other signifiers, how 10 (Avni, 1990) 11 ibid., p 231 12 Indeed,shearguesthat he deliberatelychosenot to. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Ifediu? n to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page79  Translation, Vision, Reference is sign interpretation possible? On the other hand, "if entities have to remain identical in order to be recognised and to allow for communication by becoming language, free longue " 13 units of what of the play of values essential to as a system? Avni notes, through Benveniste's criticism of Saussure, that the contradiction presupposes the "surreptitious recourse to a third term which was not included in the initial definition" of the sign.'4 Benveniste calls this term "reality" and Avni calls it the "referent". Avni argues the difficulty lies not in the irreconcilable contradictions of Saussure's theory of language and the sign but in its object, in languageitself. Is meaning a function of the relation of signs to their objects, or a function of the code (system) that regulates the signs' interaction? The possibility of intersubjective communication collapses if the immutability of signs is removed altogether from the equation (which it must if meaning is a function of the play of differences within the code), or if there is no value within the system against which other terms can establish their relative value.- In this case, individuals would wake up to the absurd world of Alice in Wonderland where the pieces in Alice's game of croquet with the Red Queen keep moving about and Humpty Dumpty makes a word mean whatever he 15 chooses. Jakobson's essay on translation is enigmatic for the same reasons; by excluding reference from his definition he raises the difficult question of a common representational ground between languagesthat he relegates to infra-lingual translation, or rewordingJ6 Theoriesof representationalequivalencethat entertaina notion of the parity of terms in different languagespresent a related set of difficulties. I have already drawn attention to the problem of assumingan equivalence,say, between the word /horse/ and the image of a horse, but what of the ontological or epistemological problems of the theory of representationitself? The concept of representation 13 (Avni, 1990,p 55) 14 ibid., p 56 Quotedfrom Emile Benveniste,"Problems in GeneralLinguistics", trans. Mary ElizabethMeek (Coral Gables,Fla.: University of Miami Press,1971, p 44) 13 In fact, the incompatibility of semiotic theories can be attributed in part to these opposing perspectiveson the relation of signs to their referentsand their relative value within the system (code). Eco's definition of an iconic sign as both a visual imageand a relationship with other signs marksthis dichotomy. 16 Wollen's and Bal's descriptionsof symbolic signs discussedin chapter 1 presentthe same philosophical problem - what is "value" in visual/film languagesand how can it be pinned down whenit seemsto be culturally and historically contingent? Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page80 w Translation, Vision, Reference between and its referent: either the assumesone of two causal relations an object perceived object causesa corresponding image, idea, or impression on the mind - the is the object or sensory data perceiver aware of the object through an experience of (an indirect sense of realism), or the perceived object causes a corresponding its the intermediary of an image or idea (a experienceof essential qualities without direct senseof realism). While one may mistake an object for something else, both between the object and its representation. In concepts assumea transparent relation its its description. 17 The sum, the object and perception precedes recognition and principal philosophical objections to this understanding of representation are, on the hand, is that there no way to verify whether the image produced is an exact one (an accurate representation) of the perceived object and, on the other hand, replica becausethe image is but a representation of the object, it is impossible to ascertain whether individual perceptions of the object are identical. Arguments about the conventional nature of representation and reality are linked to particular intellectual formations, especially post-structuralism, which has produced a radical critique of the repressed realism in structuralism. But the post- structuralist textualisation of the human subject and meaning does not necessarily provide a corrective to realism. Post-structuralism is a "negative structuralism [which] promotes a conception of the human subject as a discursive " 18 position. The idea that languageproduces the human subject merely inverts the paradigm. It shows itself as part of the idealist-realist antinomy that affirms the independence of the human mind. Edouard Morot-Sir pushes the problem of representation still further by questioning whether its habitual use as a basic function of common, scientific, or philosophical vocabularies justifies its status as a critical conceptual term of language. He asks, within a referential system of language "what does [representation] refer toT'19 He claims that from a realist perspective, A fine example of this form of representational realism can be found in Gideon Toury's differentiation between translating literature and literary translation (Toury, 1995) where literature may be identified as a particular genre of writing, while literary writing is literature. Apart from the unhelpful tautology of this conception - Literature is a style of writing characterised by its literariness - Toury's distinction merely presents two sides of the same coin. It does nothing to clarify concepts of translation becauseit assumesthat everyone is expected to know what is literature and therefore what is the proper senseof translation in that sense. 18 (Worthington, 1996, p 28) 19 (Morot-Sir, 1993, 48) p Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page81 LIJ Translation, Vision, Reference representation implies the belief in a non-linguistic being, reality exists outside of and, in some sense,is constitutive of its mirror image as a linguistic entity. From an idealist perspective, representation as a word that refers to a non-linguistic experience,represents nothing since the language of experience is no more than the subjective projection of mental images on the exterior world. If representation refers to a pre-linguistic entity, or to nothing at all, it does not seem to have much to do with languageper se. In either case, therefore, Morot-Sir judges the concept of representation as "of no assistance in the understanding of language. On the contrary ... it has contributed to the obfuscation of the consciousnessof language,as if languagewere a pure and simple signification of our representation and of the represented world. "20, It is worth asking at this point whether the concept- of representation has also contributed to an obfuscation of the consciousness of translation. To ask the question `to what does representation refer?' in the context of relations between source and target texts, whatever their media of expression, opens up some tricky questions about the antecedence of the source text and the semantic realities of the target text. Arguably, for the same reasons, representational equivalence, and the typologies associated with it, contributes nothing to an understanding of translation. The separationof languageand being has had someimportant consequences for both realist and idealist conceptualisationsof translation. It has led to the conclusionthat translation,like language,always representssomethingand that the object or subject of that representation is also its cause. Representational equivalenceis, therefore,open to the samecriticisms as philosophical realismsand idealisms. Dependingon the historically social circumstancesunder which reality (as an objective entity) is interpreted, this understandingof representation can be seento have overtly ideologicalimplications. To seewhat has been made by the specific social practicesof writing, painting, and film-making as "reality or as the faithful copyingof reality is to excludethis active elementand in some extremecases to pass off a fiction, or a convention, as the real world '21. Tejaswini Niranjana, 20 (Morot-Sir, 1995, 49 pp -50) z0 (Williams, 1976, 225) p Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page-82  Translation, Vision, Reference among others, uses this negative sense of representation in her criticism of Western (or westernised) translation principles and practices. She notes, "Conventionally, translation depends on the Western philosophical notions of reality, representation, and knowledge. Reality is seen as something unproblematic, "out there"; knowledge involves a representation of this reality; and representation provides direct, unmediated access to a transparent reality. Classical philosophical discourse, however, does not simply engender a practice of translation that is then employed for the purposes of colonial domination; I contend that, simultaneously, translation in the colonial context produces and supports a conceptual economy that works into the discourse of Western philosophy to function as a philosopheme (a basic philosophical conceptuality). ZZ This be s to is uestionas whether representation necessary to the formulation of a conceptof translation. Niranjana concludes from her critique of the weaknesses and implications ideological of thinking about language and translation in terms of representation,especially the fundamental in ethnographicprocess translation of- representing-theother, that 23 To seethe sign as a reflection or representation is to deny what Roland Barthes has called the productive character of language. Revealing the constructed nature of cultural translations shows how translation is alwaysproducing rather than reflecting or imitating an original. 24 However, so long as one adheresto a concept of equivalenceas a necessary constituent of translation, an emphasis on the productive character of languageand translation runs the risk either of linguistic determinism, which maintains a split between subject and language(in which identity is- arbitrarily constructed-through- language)25 or of linguistic indeterminacy, in which the subject is reduced to an_ endlessly commutable sign. Niranjana appears to avoid these pitfalls in her final chapter of Siting Translation. Meditating on Derrida's question as to whether "`the so-called relation of translation or of substitution' escapes `the orbit of 22 (Niranjana,1992,p 2) 2' The conceptof representationhas been similarly problematisedby critics of ethnographic documentaryfilm-making wherea convergenceof the problems of language,vision and translation is strongly marked. 24 ibid., p 18 25 See(Worthington, 1996)on feminist linguistic determinism. Joy Sisley, Translating f om One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page83  Translation, Vision, Reference she representation"126 considers her understanding, inspired by Walter Benjamin, of translation in a post-colonial context as a re-titiriting of history based on a de- colonisation of Western historical discourses in. translation. 2' In this context, she . describes her own translation of a fragment of the Sunyasampadane28 as "speculative, provisional, and interventionist. v129Significantly, her translation exerciseis also a critical exploration of the elementary constituents of languageand translation. Her exploration is especially instructive in light of Edouard Morot-Sir's on imagination and reference.30. Read through. the lens of Morot-Sir's meditation meditation, Niranjana's translation and her commentary on her translation acquire a particular inflection that helps to elucidate the value of reference for translation. More importantly, read in conjunction with each other, the two texts demonstrate the irreducible complementarity of perception or vision and language within referenceand point a way out of the blind allies of structuralism and representation that inform the habitual opposition of word and- image. As her commentary indicates, Niranjana's translation partakes in a strategy of reference criticism31 which merits fuller discussion because it overcomes the problematic separation of word and image, and of the subordination of words- to syntax in questions- of translatability. Effectively, Niranjana engages in a critical exploration of what Morot-Sir has defined as the elementary constituents- of language and identity understood as the power of reference: perception, indication, nomination and description. 32 My discussion in the following- paragraphs will- serve as- a 26 Derrida,"Sending: On Representation"Social Research49, no 2 (Summer 1982) 302-3 in (Niranjana,1992,p 169) 28 (Niranjana,1992,chapter6 "Translationas Disruption") Sunyasampadane (achievement/attainment of nothingness)is a lengthy spiritual text that is usually attributed to a twelfth century saint, Allama Prabhu, who was born in a small village in SouthIndia. 29 ibid., p 173 30 (Morot-Sir, 1995; Morot-Sir, 1993) 3' See(Morot-Sir, 1993,Meditation Five, pp 139-158)in which he definesit as "emphasisput on the text itself and its effects,not on its surroundings;searchfor its internal structureand senseof its unavoidableambiguities; rejectionof a simple relation of causalitybetweenauthorand work; and finally, with the denunciationof a rhetorical logocentrism, the awarenessof all sorts of referential falsificationsdue to cultural and political accommodations. " (p 150) 32 Morot-Sir's two-volume philosophical work is an attempt to understand language as language,or how the referentialpower of languagemay "contribute to our common, scientific and artistic perceptionof the world." (p 25, volume II) In his first volume, he meditates on the. _ experienceof languagewithout the philosophical support of the- common referentsthat have dominatedWesternculturesfor two thousandyears: the realist postulate that signals a belief in an independentreality, the idealist postulate, the berief in a- mind that is the cause of emotions, Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page84  Translation, Vision, Reference preliminary outline for a model of translation as reference which I will use throughout the rest of this thesis. My comparison of Niranjana and Morot-Sir is presented as a parallel reading of the two texts. However, in the interests of to-Morot-Sir coherence,most of my references- will appear in footnotes. Niranjana compares her own translation of a fragment from the Snit}yasampadanewith two others by "post-colonial" Indian writers. She comments on the challengeof translating a text for which there is inadequate knowledge about its socio-cultural history and therefore of the cultural context of its `origin' which compels her to attempt translation without the help of a realist postulate of representation. Similarly, the prior circulation of the poem-in- a strong oral-tradition before it was eventually codified in the fifteenth century raises the problem of origin. This means she is denied equally the idealist postulate of an "original" author's mind. Faced with the absenceof two basic constituents of representational interpretation/translation,Niranjanais obligedto adopt another translation strategy by relying on the referential character of languageand translation, That is to say, on the one hand by the notion of figure- irr-Saivite poetry, which undoes the insistence on linga, meaning, and representation; and on the other hand, by a consideration of the afterlife, the living on of- atext, and the task of the translator. 33 Niranjana's translation exercise inscribes three movements which distil the connectionbetween perceiving,marking and naming,and the reciprocal characterof languageandidentity. Her translation exemplifiesMorot-Sir's point that "`vision' and `reference' form a reciprocal state of understanding" in which languageand vision are "the common sourceof all possible "34 relations. thought, and ways of expression;and the belief that the externalworld of objects and the internal world of subjectsexist as functions of meaning (see Volume 11,chapter 1 for a summary). He describesreferenceas "languageaware of itself as language" (Volume I, p 139) affirming his postulate that does experience not exist outside of language and language does not exist outside of experience.In his secondvolume, he meditateson the relation betweenperceptionand referenceand on its semanticfield as indicating, nominating, and describing,%rithinthe bounds of which "naming is the paradoxicalcondition of reference"(p 190). "We are only namesand named' he concludes. "Without nameswe would be blind, deaf,and mute indeed." (p 191) 33 (Niranjana,1992,p 177) 33 (Morot-Sir, 1995, p 23) His conclusion comes off the difficult philosophical problem of the priority of languageand perception. He arguesthat we cannot have perceptionwithout language because,to recognisean object is alreadyto havea namefor it, while to havea namefor an object is Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of \'Vancick, 2000 page85  Translation, Vision, Reference In the first part of Niranjana's translation, the poet, Allama, draws back to look at the eye in the sole of his foot. In- that- act-of perception, he sees a-deity. The poet expresses his vision through the figure of light and its metaphors of radiance, sun,- dawning, and lightning. Niranjana emphasises the importance of' vision in relation to the language of being and reference in her comparison of the three translators' interpretation of this movement. Her understanding of perception in the poem does not exist independently of the words that describe it. She remarks, therefore, on the important relation of light (teja "radiance") to the movement of the poem "toward the ostensible simplicity of light" (p 182) and criticises Ramanujan's replacement of the play of lightning by a metaphor ("ganglion") which takes "the "play" from the realm of meaning and plac[es] it firmly within the nervous system of the individual body. " (p183) Her formulation of the translation problem here substantiates Morot-Sir's argument when he says in perception and reference are a state of coexistence without any logical priority between them. Reference and vision belong to the experience of language constituting and instituting itself we ... speak conveniently of a universe of perception and a universe of words as if they are distinct when in fact we exercise our referential power in a ... combination of perceptions and actions, putting the world and ourselves into a simultaneous existence. 35 In the secondmovement of the vacana, Allama names-his--experienceas- Guhesl'ara. Niranjana underscores the importance of naming as part of the semantic field of reference,and of the relation of naming and- identity; in- her - retention of the name of Allama's God. Her reasons are political: "given that colonialism's violence distorts- erases-or- beyond recognition-... the names--of the - colonised,it seems important not to translate proper names in a post-colonial or already to perceive it. Thus we cannot apply a cause and effect relation between word and object, nor will a means and ends relation apply to meaning because both arguments already infer that language and perception are possible. Eco makes a similar argument from a semiotic perspective, as he points out: "... it is equally hard to conceive of a world in which certain beingsonly utter words-, when considering the labor of mentioning states of the world, i. e. of referring signs -to things -(in which words are.so intertwined-' ith_ gestural pointers and. objects taken as ostensivt signs),, one. quickly realises that in a world ruled only by words it would be impossible to mention things. " (Eco2s1976,p 174) (Morot-Sir, 1995,p 24) Joy Sisley, Translating from OneAfedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page86  Translation, Vision, Reference decolonising practice."36 Moreover, she criticises Ramanujan's decision to translate the name, which is of Sanskrit origin, as "assigning Kannada, and by implication English, the ability to make and be transparent. v)37 Her criticism reveals an understanding of the power of naming and reference. She explicitly connects naming, identity and language through her refusal to translate proper names and insists on naming as the source of identification and the power of the name to- confer Guhe. wara a unique identity that is marks, and marked by, the deity's difference on from others. This represents a refusal to assimilate the Indian God to a Christian cosmological system through a translation strategy that rejects the principle of universalism as a common value of languagein translation. By retaining the Sanskrit name she not only insists on the opacity of the sign/name but also resists the temptation to separate word and object. She honours the poet's naming of his perceptual experienceby following his example of keeping the experience within the boundaries of language and thus demonstrates her understanding of existence as reference. As Morot-Sir "I I argues, perceive what am able to name; I name what I is perceive: naming perceiving naming my consciousness "` of naming=. Finally, in the third movement of the vacana, Allama apprehends the identity of Guhesvara and tries to describeit. Niranjana reachesfor a form in her translation that retains the-power of reference in the rather awkward phrasing "if you are become the linga of light/ Who can find your figuration? "39 Shecomments, on her choicein the context of her understanding of linga as a figure in the entire corpus of Saivite poetry that expresses "form for formlessness, a shape for shapelessness. An attempt to articulate that which cannot be articulated in the "40 mystic experience. The phrase "if you are become the linga of light" evadesa psychologistic representation of identity, in which being precedes language, by expressingwhat Walter Benjamin has called the "translatability" of the original " (Niranjana,1992,p 183) 31 ibid., p 184 (Morot-Sir, 1995, p 85) Later on in the same meditation on naming and identity, he notes: "identification with persons, living beings, remains inevitably identification with names, because in our linguistic condition, naming is the only expression of identification and thus, of reference" (p 105) See also an essayby (AN-ni, 1990) on translating names and their symbolic and metaphorical value. 39 (Niranjana, 1992, p 175) ibid., p 178 Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page87  Translation, Vision, Reference work, or the "suprahistorical kinship of language [which] rests in the intention language." 41 Niranjana realises the intention of the original work underlying each (Sunyasanrpadane: achievement/attainment of nothingness) through her use of two tenses in juxtaposition with the idea of Guhesvara's figuration. The verb construction she uses inscribes the simultaneous notions of being and becoming in identity that denies the very possibility of origin and therefore of a concept of time as linear. Her "are become" undermines modem Western concepts of history and of the division of time into past, present, and future. She indicates the principal of identity as an expression of semantic value through the double power of affirmation in and negation naming: Guhesvara is is and not light. 42 But whereas she explains her strategy as deconstructive and her use of "figuration" as a resistance to the strategy of containment typical of colonial discourses, in my view, her translation has much broader implications for the philosophy of translation and reference. Her deliberate choice of tense and vocabulary avails itself of the logical expression of equality and inequality which Morot-Sir uses to overcome the Cartesian dualism of Western philosophical discourses of identity. Here the idea of semiotic value expressesthe power of negation. The concept is essential to the notion of semantic in value any form of textual criticism, but particularly to the form of criticism that precedes a translation such as the one under discussion, because it requires a self- reflexivity on the part of the interpreter/translator. Niranjana's interpretation/translation is self-reflexive on three counts: firstly, she introduces the notion of temporality as a principal element of translation in her use of the construction "are become". (See chapter five for a development of this principle) Andrew Benjamin's conception of time in his depiction of the after- life of a work of art is apposite in this context. He identifies three conceptions of presence,adapted from Walter Benjamin's senseof temporality and translation, in a distinction between information and story. The first presence exists in the temporality of the instant and relates to the finitude of interpretation. This is the sense of presence that Niranjana criticises in Ramanujan's translation, "if you are 41 (Benjamin, 1992,p 75) 42 Compare this «ith Morot-Sir's discussion about the importance of negation for an understandingof reference.(11,pp 2-11) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page88  Translation, Vision, Reference light," as a simplification of the two senses of being and becoming in the poem. Andrew Benjamin's second conception of presence "inheres" or is "primordially present"43but is neither transcendental nor that of the instant. This is the sense of presence at which Niranjana appears to aim in her translation: the temporality proper to the after-life of the original and of the relationship of the translation to the 44 Secondly, Niranjana's translation is self-reflexive because she introduces original the notion of voice, through a negation of tense, that interferes with or destabilises the semantic value of the poem. Her translation "if you are become the linga of light" resonates strongly with the Old Testament account of origin in Genesis in which God calls forth light bringing form to the void, as opposed to the New Testament account of origin in The Word which problematically presumes an original or pure language as absolute semantic value. Niranjana's translation gives significance to the Old and New Testament oppositions between voice and word that contain different concepts of the "origin" of form and meaning. The same opposition is expressed in Saussure's description of longue andparole where parole always threatens to subvert or undermine langzie. Thirdly, Niranjana uses the word "figuration" to complete the complementary movements within the vacana of description, and naming. The associated lexemes of figuration: form, perception, outline, representation embed the semantic associations of vision and being that intersect in the name of Guhesvara. Niranjana's translation demonstrates Morot- Sir's argument about seeing as a fundamental constituent of perception and language and their co-existence in the referential life of experience. Morot-Sir poses the relationship of seeing and perception as a question of what he calls the "cerebralization" of vision, not as a characteristic of seeing, or of the properties of light and its interaction with the brain. His question about seeing in relation to perception and reference is, "what is the reason for the emergence of the word in seeing... our language condition? " He concludes that we have learned to call for " (Benjamin, 1989,p 107) 44 In this case,I referto Niranjana'schoiceof syntax which shejustifies as allowing the text to "affect" the languageinto which it is being translated. (p 185) I am stretching Andrew Benjamin's point somewhat here, but my interpretationseems to be in keeping with Walter Benjamin's analogy of the tangentialrelationshipof the translationto its original (p 81) and the effect of the translation which produces in the target language an "echo of the original". (p 77) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page89  Translation, Vision, Reference the word seeing in appropriate circumstances which lead to the challenging that consequences "we if could not see we were-unable-to say that "45 we-see. The evidence of how Niranjana's translation foregrounds language and perception as reciprocal constituents of referencejustifies my rather long digression. By denying representational concepts of translation, she admits the equality of languageand vision within translation in a far more radical way than the semiotic solutions proposed by Bal and Eco to the problem of wordrmage oppositions. Niranjana demonstrates that vision is implicated in language itself, not in a metaphorical way, but as an elementary constituent of reference, thereby showing how to overcome the conceptual separation of word and image not only by asserting the discursivity of visual imagesbut also the visual nature of language. Niranjana's focus on the language of translation puts an emphasis on the text itself and its effects, not its socio-historical or authorial origin. The semantic value of the translation remains, therefore, within the boundaries of the vacana. She thus self- consciously resites her translation within the context of its production. Her phrase "if you are become the linga of light" is not simply a foreignising element but a graphic rejection of the conception of representational equivalence, not only at the level of the poem's content, but also at the level of relations between source and target text Niranjana draws attention to the power of translation as -referential translation, as opposed to its conception as a function of interlinguäl communication, by affirming the radical otherness of the source text while, at the demonstrating its translatability. 47 In summary, Niranjana's translation same,time exercise suggests a solution to the questions raised at the beginning of this chapter and to the theoretical conceptualisation of translation as representation. 45 (Morot-Sir, 1995,p 174) He notesthat blindness dots- not provide-a counter ecmnple nor doesa physical deficiencypreventblind peoplefrom developing a full languageof perception. See Bal's chapteron blindness in Reading Rembrandt. Bal's example is a reminder that "seeing" participatesin the spatial composition of the world. Or as Morot-Sir puts it: visuality is a dominantpropertyof language. (Morot-Sir, 1995,p 175) 46 As I demonstratein my chapter five, the distinction between foreignisation and domestication,breaksdown eery quickly. Foreignising translation techniquescan be profoundly domesticatingin their attemptto representthe other as other. " Niranjana'smethodologyresemblesthat advocatedby Mieke Bal in her essayon The Point ofNarratology whereshe makesa casefor criticism that is situated within the context of the text andits social production. (Bal, Winter 1990) Joy Sisley, Translating fom One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 90  Translation, Vision, Reference In order to understand how to speak of transfers from one medium to in another terms of translation while using a concept of translation rigorous enough- to demarcatethe intellectual limits of the subject, it was necessary to move beyond the language of representation that designates pre-determined boundaries within which translators act and which fix target and source texts as distinct and observable entities. It was also essential to understand the- referential power of languageboth to confer meaning on our existential experience of the world and to facilitate interpersonal communication. However, in resisting recourse to the categories whereby translation is described as an imitation of its source or as a function of cross-cultural communication and, thereby, resisting the temptation to use either the sourcetext or the effect of translation as definitive criteria, I am obliged to resort to other methods to evaluate any translation or to justify its inclusion within a definition of translation. Value is a critical element of the problem of defining and describing translation. As such, it is connected to two other ideas, knowledge and judgement, and thus to the referential power of language. In the realm of language use, the problem of knowledge and reference has two articulations: (1) how to know the word that designatesa particular object presents the same idea of the object for all languageusers and (2) how to judge the suitability of the substitution of one term for another if the meaning of words is derived from their position within a of similarities and differences.48 If the realm of knowledge system and reference involves the speaker's existential experience of the world- and the modes of knowledge that are brought to bear on that experience, the realm of judgement involves the universals by which a speaker judges a statement to be true or false. The problem of knowledge and judgement as referential functions of value stems from the undermining effect that the social use of language, in all its radical heterogeneity, has on the logical and theoretical construction of language. How can claims to truth and semantic reliability be defended if language constantly proves, to be in excessof theory? As Bal notes, 4 Avni illustrates this problem with the analysis of a fable about a silly peasant on his wedding night in which the bride and groom fail to consummate their marriage because the modes of referenceand the semantic aims within which the pair operate are mutually exclusive. (Avni, 1990) Joy Sislcy, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page91  Translation, Vision, Reference Meanings shift constantly according to social and historical pressures. The predicament of culture, it appears is the instability of the categories used to it, address to analyse it, even to live in it 49 Translation theory has, not unnaturally, imported the difficulties of reference and value and debated endlessly the same predicaments and binarisms. That Steiner turns the problem around and argues"a theory of translation is necessarily, or rather a historical-psychological model of the operations of languageitself' or concludes ... "to study the status of meaning is to study the substance and limits of translation"so is, therefore, no accident. However, to reiterate my original proposition, the problem consists in defining those limits without succumbing to the tautology implied in Steiner's statement - translation is language- and thereby assuming the problems of translation are identical with the problems of language. In this scheme, the question "what is translation" merely returns the counter question "what is " whereby the question of limits is caught up in a vicious circle of language? definition. An example from the Visual Bible may serve to break out- of this vicious circle: When I write, as in the previous chapter, "The Visual Bible translates an imageof the Sermon on the Mount", I simultaneously refer to the irreducible of character the word "sermon" as a speechact, but retain the notion of "Sermon on the Mount" as an image, a supersign which resonates with the experienceof /sermon/as an audio-visualperformancecomplete with visual aides. Commentaries describeMatthew 5-7 as a set of discourseson discipleship framed by the imagein 5:2 "he went up on a mountainsideand sat down."51 This frame establishesJesus- asa in teacher the rabbinicaltradition of his time. The addition of the title "Sermon on the Mount" translatesthe discoursesinto the modernidiom of Christian liturgical tradition. In the samemovementof translation Jesusis (re)presented(in the sense that a new imageis constructed), not as the radically conservativeinterpreter of Jewish law portrayed by Matthew's account, but as someone who sought to.. radically undermineJewish law and replaceit by a new understandingof Christian 49 (Bat, 1992, p 533) (Steiner, 1975,p 436) s0 (MV, 1995). Joy Sislcy, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page92  Translation, Vision, Reference discipline. This characterisation of the discourses as sermons subsequently overdeterminesinterpretations of Matthew's Gospel. The process of renaming the Matthean discourses bears a striking resemblance to the imperialising gesture of translating proper names criticised by Niranjana. In The Gospel, the disjunction betweenthe Matthean frame and the Christian label is marked. The character, Matthew, recites in his commentary "Jesus sat down", whereas visually the Jesus, character, manifestly does not sit, he does not even stand still for more than five seconds.The imagetherefore draws attention to itself as a translatedsign, the visual indexof both a generalised and particular experienceof moral instruction from the Scriptures denoted by the title "Sermon on the Mount". 52 Within the terms of representationalequivalence,this shift constitutes a mis-translation,an inaccuracy, an infidelity, anunacceptablerewriting of the original that hangson the insertion of a title, an amplification. Alternatively, shifting evaluation from a comparison of sourceand target texts to a contextual analysis of the translation itself, one may describethis translation as the manifestation of a power strugglebetween Paul's internationalist version of Christianity and Jesus' disciples' understandingof his ministry. The disciples' version was neverdocumentedand survives only as a trace in the emergingdominant orthodoxy about Jesus' divinity recorded in the New Testament. The history of translation and rewriting is translated into the video itself, but not the content of the original text which remains outside, and in many ways peripheralto, the video translation. Severalimportant points may be drawn from my suggestionthat the content of the originalremainsmarginalto the effort or effect of translation. Firstly, what is at stake is the perpetuation of a particular orthodoxy about Jesus' identity and its for significance contemporary viewers, rather than a faithful representationof an originaltext (despiterhetoricalappearances).Thus the signifying force of the video appearsto lie in its relation to other texts and representationsthat make up the history of the Gospel's interpretation (or its after-life). Rather than produce a unified, homogeneousvision of its source material, the life and sayings of a first century Galilean peasant, turned teacher and miracle worker, who fell foul of n Of course,this hasits secularapplicationsin idioms such as "preachingat someone"which is usedof a speaker«ho wishesto makea moral point. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page93  Translation, Vision, Reference Jewish-Roman politics of his time and was later canonised by a group of diasporic Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE (Christian Era), the video is marked by its heterogeneity, or discursive character. However, someambiguity remainsas to what has been translated into the video through its particular iconographicrepresentations.The ambiguity is founded upon the video's referenceand the status of the New International Version of the Gospelof Matthew which it claimsas its sourcetext. The video's self-referentially repeatsthe classic split in Christian exegesisof messageand medium. Thus the messageremainsintact in spite of the medium of translation. The meaningof the Gospel becomesa matter of revelation indicated by the rather frequent use of expressionsof dawning wonder on the faces of Jesus' audience in the video. Judgementand knowledge are founded on a conception of Christian universalism which createsa problem for post-structural translation theorists, but not faithful 53 viewersor readers. If one judges the fidelity or truth of the video translation by its referenceto an "original" illocutionary act (a valorisation implied by costume, landscape,and cultural artefacts such as the scribes' writing materials), the NIV doesnot provide a very reliablemeasureof the video's fidelity or authority since it too seemsto haveaccumulatednew valuesthroughout the history of translation,not the least of which is its repositioning of the Matthean discourses as sermons. Allowing for the fact that the video doesfu nctiojnas a translation, but disallowing that its function involves a definitive concept of translation, one may justifiably ask how a translation's function assists in evaluating the translation itself without resortingto the culturally relative categoriesof "adequate"or "acceptable". In other words, if the "meaning" of the original is not translated, if there is apparently no common ground between the two, how may one account for the video as translation? The problem lies in perceiving source and target texts as two autonomousplanes,whereasin fact the two areinextricably linked. This problem is ultimately tied to an epistemologyand ontology of representationwhich postulates a view of word and object, or languageand perception, as independententities. This separationplaces emphasison the derivative and deictic value of translation and 53 (Budick and Iscr, 1996; Stine, 1990). Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page94  Translation, LIsion, Reference invests the "original" with a fixed semiotic value. It consequently reduces the referential function of translation and its value to judgements based on extrinsic knowledge of the source text as an independent object. The creative and heterogeneouscharacter of the Visual Bible with its multiple points of reference clearly negates that possibility. Whatever the ostensible instrumental function of translation, whether didactic and/or evangelical, the Visual Bible locates the visual and verbal, as referents of its very title, on a single continuous plane. As such, it is compelled to treat the verbal and visual as equal constituents of meaning without subordinating one to the other. For the Visual Bible, the judgement of value lies elsewhere than a comparative evaluation of the relation between word and image, or of the intentions of the "original" with that of its translation. The argument that the verbal and visual, or languageand perception, constitute a single continuous plane of reference does not deny differences between the construction of verbal and visual languages, (although post-modern art and literature, and post-modern theory makes these differences somewhat debatable54) it poses the in question of reference a fundamentally dif -erentway, especially where it concerns a concept of translatability. Instead of thinking of a translation's heterogeneity as a betrayal of its source, which in itself is a historically and culturally relative attitude, it may be more useful to think of its heterogeneity in terms of how the original text functions as a sign, and therefore how it has come to acquire semiotic value through its circulation as translation. I will borrow Avni's definition of semiotic value as "the manner in which the signifying object evokes the referential circumstances in which it has come to acquire a meaning, and which subsequently govern its evaluation"55 to develop this proposition. Indeed, one may already see how Avni's definition resonates with Niranjana's concept of translatability and with Mieke Bal's method of reading iconographically. Avni's notion of semiotic value aims to account for the relative stability of meaning in the face of indeterminacy generated by the radical heterogeneity of literary texts. She uses an analogy from The Three Musketeers of the function of the King of France's S4 See(Sailer, 1996)for an interestinganalysisof the debatablenature thesedistinctions. of Si (Avni, 1990, p 240) Seeespecially Gregg Hurwitz' discussion about how semiotic value functionsin film adaptationin (Hurwitz, 1997) Joy Sisley, Translating, from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page95  Translation, Vision, Reference gift to the Queen of a diamond to sash explore the contexts in which objects acquire become signs and acquire value through their circulation as signs. Avni meaning,or the depends as much on its non-linguistic argues that meaning of an object-sign context, or the referential relation between the sign and object, as on the semiotic sub-systems in which it circulates. Thus, while deictic and semantic aims of languagepull meaning in different directions, the context of language use anchors the text or utterance.56 Avni's anecdotal use of The Three referential value of any given Musketeers is worth repeating here to illustrate what she means. In her analysis, she shows how the object (the diamond sash) becomes a sign, invested with the its function as a gift. The gift stands for or evokes signification and obligations of is 7 the relations of power between giver and receiver. Each time the sash translates into a new context: is given again, divided, stolen, counterfeited, multiplied and it the circumstances in which it became a sign of power. The returned, evokes Queen's gift of the sash to Buckingham symbolises a similar set of power relations between herself and her lover, but at the same time her action undermines or subverts the King's power. When Richelieu attempts to expose the Queen's infidelity, he evokes the original power relation that the sash symbolises. The the twelve diamond studs in the sash, therefore, does not original symbolic value of change whether there are 10,12 or 14 diamonds or whether some of them are counterfeit. In the context of the narrativer twelve minus the two studs that were stolen does not equal ten, but the proof of the queen's infidelity to the king when she gives the studs to her lover, Buckingham. The restoration of the sash with the two counterfeited diamonds bears the same value as the twelve original diamonds so long as the counterfeit remains undetected by the King since it serves to sustain the original relationship between King and Queen. On the other hand, Richelieu's attempt to expose the queen's infidelity with evidence of the counterfeit backfires. Here, twelve plus two does not equal fourteen, the two are in excess. At no time does the material value of the diamonds affect the narrative shifts that accompany the object become sign in its circulation between the different actors of the narrative. A-svni'spremiseis similar to that of Eco's descriptionof iconic signs (whenhe meansvisual) which possessweak codes of articulation but whose meaning is anchoredby their context. s' In the more generalsenseof its Latin root translatio which refersto various forms of transfer, including power. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 96  Translation, Vision, Reference What is really at stake in the narrative intrigues and twists is the power of the King of France. This provides the ground of meaning which is about social relationships. Crucially for her analytical method, Avni makes an important distinction between a sign's object, its content, and its function (or semantic force within any given context). Her example is a perfect analogy for translation and its referential power. As in the caseof the studs,the original's symbolic value as narrative and its ground of interpretation,not the content of the original, provides for its relative stability in translation. To the degreethat a translation evokes the symbolic value of the original, it is "successful" in the absolute terms implied by the etymology of the term translation. The crucial issuefor an evaluationof translationthereforebecomes how to determineits ground of interpretation! A comparisonof Avni's, Bal's and Niranjana's methodsof referential criticism makesapparent the ground's existence within the ways the narrativeitself evokesthe socialrelations that give it force. In summary, referential criticism requires a close reading of the text to distinguishbetweenits object, its content, and its function. However, it is worth considering,from a semiotic perspective, some of the difficulties of interpretation that this method entails before applying its principles to an evaluation of audio- visual translation. Petr Bogatyrev makes a similar distinction in the semiotic componentsof a text.58 He arguesthe sign's function and its interpretation is an effect of the semiotic system it within which circulates. In other words, a sign is meaningful by virtue of the system of codes and conventions in which it functions as sign.S9 An object must first be recognised as a sign, and secondly as having a signifyingvaluewithin a particular signifying system. But a sign's function within any particular system is only guaranteed if the interpreter understands the conventions of that sign system. (Avni, 1990; Bal, 1991; Bogat)rev, 1972; Eoo, 1976; Jakobson, 1959) Mis-recognition of the sign system, or interpretation of a sign accordingto the conventionsof another sign system, results in the attribution of a different signifying value to an object (for exampleBarthes' "effect of the real" (Barthes,1968). OtakarZich's description of puppet theatre as comic/grotesqueor mythical, that Bogatyrev uses as the starting point for his essay on the study of -" (Bogat)rdv, 1971) (Eco, 1976) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page97  Translation, Vision, Reference theatrical signs, has a direct bearing on some aspects of translation in my case studies. Citing Zich, Bogatyrev if i. if notes we consider puppets as puppets, e. we consider their significance as objects in themselves and emphasise their lifeless material, this is material something real to us, and the puppets' expressions of life strike us as comic, grotesque. On the other hand, if puppets are considered living beings they strike us a marvellous; consciousness of the lifelessness of puppets as objects recedes and their expressions of life evoke a sense of mysteriousness. As creatures of fantasy, they have the potential to provoke a feeling of terror in the spectator. Bogatyrev arguesthat the experience of puppets as comic or mysterious results from interpreting them within a different signifying system than that of puppet theatre. The treatment of biblical characters as historical figures rather than figures within the biblical narrative represents a parallel misreading Putting aside, . for the moment, the fact that an actor in theatre (or film) is the "sign of a sign",60 when biblical characters are treated as historical figures ("real" people, therefore material objects in Zich's first description of puppets) the efforts of actors to bring the biblical characters to life may strike the spectator as comic or grotesque. This has already been noted in the Visual Bible's "realistic" representation of the Gospel of Matthew. A similar effect occurs in the Turner Pictures epic series analysed in chapter five, especially Richard Harris' (unintentionally) amusing portrayal of Abraham as perpetually dumbfounded by his God. One may attribute the comic or grotesque nature of the characters in these films to the result of the parody or stereotyping of narrative figures through costume, gesture, accent, and location. Arguably, the representation of Jesus in the Story Keepers (chapter four) fits this description as well. If, on the other hand, biblical characters are treated as narrative constructs, having a life of their own within the formal contexts of the Bible, they function as living beings. Their representation in film or video, therefore, evokes a senseof mysteriousness. The BBC2/S4C animated series Testament is exemplary. (See chapter sio A biblical video's generic style, whether it uses animation or live actors, cannot account for the appearance of characters as comic or grotesque. The difference results from an interpretation by the translator within a different sigiifying system which invests the biblical characters with a different symbolic significance. 60 (Bogatyrev,1971) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page98  Translation, Vision,Reference Richard Walsh's distinction between myth and fantasy may help here. He argues that "narratives tend to have a mythic or fantastic relationship to readerly realities. Narrative either supports or subverts reality. "" Following Barthes, he defines myth as "realistic" narrative that celebrates, explains, transmits, and/or defends reality. Walsh identifies rational discourse (whether scientific or theological) with- myth. Even though myth incorporates miraculous or supernatural elements, it functions to sustain a human desire for certainty and order. Myth is, therefore, a particular type of narrative rather than a fiction. Treating the Bible as myth does not question its truth, but it uses as a narrative to create a certain order for human experience. Fantasy, on the other hand, subverts and challenges reality. Fantasy is a particular practice of imagination that keeps reality provisional, it subverts the Fantasy "leaves one awfully wondering. ,62 Reading the Bible as fantasy world. does not take it any less seriously or any less real either. It involves paying close attention to those aspects of biblical narrative, its ambiguities, that challenge readerly realities. Stephen Prickett's argument that approaches to translating textual ambiguity in the Bible focuses attention on the language of religious experience confirms Walsh's differentiation between myth and fantasy. Maintaining the ambiguous, fantastical, nature of biblical language in translation is an interpretive move that acknowledges the creative function of language. It insists on a close reading of the detailed patterning of the original that allows its surprising, transformative nature to affect the languageof translation. 63 In summary,to think of sourcetexts as signs, or signifying objects involves temporarily dissociatingthe content of the sourcetext from its semantic force (or function). This seemsto indicate a return to the classicbinarism of word for word for or sense sense translation. However, this is not possible within a Peircean,as to opposed a Saussurean,conception of the sign. Whereas in the latter case,source texts have fixed values which are entered into a translative economy of equal exchange,(Ponzio, 1984) in the caseof Peirce's interpretant, with eachnew context the original text (itself a sign) is translated into another sign which becomes the 61 (Walsh, 1997, p 136) 62 ibid., p 135 63 (Prickett, 1986) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 99  Translation, Vision, Reference referent of yet another interpretant sign. What gives a translation temporary stability is its conventional nature - the habit of interpreting a sign in a particular way. Within the terms of the discussion presented here, the habit consists of the contexts of a translation's production and reception. A text, therefore, acquires an original semiotic value from the social and cultural contexts in which it was produced which in turn continues to affect the text through its displacements as translation, irrespective of its mode as abridgement, paraphrase, amplification, deletion, anthology, or transformation. Since the context of translation (not the content of the original) supplies its semiotic value, it is safe to assume that one may evaluate translations by their contexts rather than the equivalence of source and target texts. As Bal, Avni, and Niranjana have demonstrated, the point of contextual analysis is to account for the relative stability of meaning in the face of the radical heterogeneity of texts and their interpretive indeterminacy. Furthermore, it suggests that a translation's semiotic value (and consequently its definition) is irreducibly connectedto its function. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 100  CHAPTER FOUR Framing the Word There is frame, but the frame does not exist. ' It is not uncommon for audio-visual translations of biblical stories to construct a narrative frame that embeds the translated text. In fact, even a programme such as the Visual Bible's Gospel According to St. Matthew, which purports to present a formally faithful, word for word translation has constructed a new narrative frame by giving the Gospel's implied author, Matthew, an on screen narrating persona and changing the narrative voice from third to first person. As demonstrated in chapter two, this framing functions to authenticate narrative truth problematised by a shift of medium. Matthew's characterisation as a first person narrator serves to compensate for a lack in the audio-visual translation of textual authority conventionally invested in the written text. Frames take various forms in the translations examined here. Broadly at speaking, the level of their narrativestructure,there arethree dominanttypes: 1. Frames around the narrative which are not part of the original text. For example: a) Invention of a narrative in which the biblical story is embedded:the Story Keepers,HannaBarberaseries,VeggieTales, Testament. b) Commentariesandother exegeticalmaterial:the American Bible Society neumediabibleand other CD-ROM or world wide web projects. 2. Part of the translatedtext is usedas a frame for the rest. For example: a) TheGospelAccording to Matthew (Visual International) where there is a shift of focalisation between Matthew's narration of Jesus' life and teachingandthe dramatisationof those events. ' (Derrida, 1987,p 81) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 101  Framing the Word b) A story from one part of the Bible is framed by another, for example the story of Noah in Testament which frames the creation story from Genesis. 3. Metaphorical frames, for example: Stories that are rewritten and embellished with non-biblical material in embedded the narrative as a whole, such as the Turner Pictures Old Testament television mini-series. These translations use narrative frames of time and space symbolically to give the biblical narrative contemporary significance. The concept of frame has been used to describe various kinds of textual relationship: the frames of referencereaders use to create a sense of narrative coherence (Rimmon-Kenan, 1983); the relation of the work itself to society where the framefunctions as a physical border that separatesor isolates the work from its surroundings(Caws, 1985); and as a rhetorical construction that stabilises meaning (Kennedy, 1991)and heightensthe intensity of what is containedwithin the frame's borders(Caws, 1985). Mieke Bal and SusanSnaiderLanseruse speechact theory to describeframing as a narrative device that structures the relationships of authors, narratorsand actors to the "primary" (frame) narrative and the "embedded" (inset) 2 narrative. Their conceptualisationof frames as a series of narratives, where each level successivelyenclosesthe next one creating an infinite regressionof frames, allows a formal analysis of the frames' narrative strategies. Bal assigns a more important function to the embeddedtext which "explains" or "determines" the primary fabula. The embeddedtext servesas a "sign" or a set of suggestionson how 3 to read the primary text. Mary Ann Caws, who deals with framing at a more metaphorical and often highly pictorially conceptual level, is more concernedwith the focalising function of frames in literary fiction. The two approachesare not mutually exclusive, though they do constitute different critical strategies. Bal analyses framing processes by reading the embeddedtext. Caws analyses the embedded narrative by readingthe frame. The two approachesbear on the relative importance of framing and embeddednarratives. JacquesDerrida takes up the questionof the problematicspacebetweenthe framing and the framed, "between the 2 (Bal, 1985;Unser, 1981) 3 (Bal, 1985,pp 142-147) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 102  Framing the Word outside and the inside,external border and internal border the figure and the ... ... background form and content... " while Bal takes up the notion again of framing as ... discourse or cultural text in her work on museum exhibitions. (Bal, 1996) These arguments raise questions about the significance of frames for the work they frame and the ground of meaning established by framing processes that pertain to the judgement of value in translation and its referential power. This chapter explores the concept of "frame": translation's frames, translation as frame. It focuses on how stories invented to frame translated biblical narratives construct an ideal interpretive perspective for viewers. The discussion to endeavours understand the narrative and rhetorical mechanisms of framing: how the frame story directs the viewer's gaze, circumscribes interpretation, and underpins the authority of the translated text; how the embedded text explains and interprets the frame; and how framed and framing narratives interact to produce coherence in the text as a whole. The discourses of framing reveal a great deal about a translator's attitude to the contemporary significance of biblical narrative, the cultural status of the Bible, and the interpretive procedures at work within the process of translation. The frame narrative, therefore, functions as the principal vehicle for the translation's point of view. In so far as point of view structures relations between author and it audience, also determines the socio-historical function of the translated text, in which case the frame functions as a metatext that positions the biblical text within broader social and cultural contexts. The frame story's rhetorical function, therefore, draws attention to the processes of framing as a translative act in itself. As with the Visual Bible, this translative act is a sign, an index of the impossibility in formal terms of translation from one medium to another. The rhetoric of the frame delimits the relations of framing and translation as the ground of interpretation and problematises one of the central critical methodologies of translation studies; the comparison of source and target texts. As a translative act that is not part of the translation itself, it is important to examine framing not solely for the ways in which it circumscribes the translated text, but also for the light it sheds on the very concept of translation. An analysis of the discourses of framing may explain to some extent its use as a solution to the difficulties of translating from one medium to another. (Derrida, 1987) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 103  Framing the Word This will necessitategoing beyond a formal analysis of the frame's function to explorewhat the framing processesinscribe. A preliminary examination of the salient characteristics of narrative frames and their rhetorical function will provide a useful foundation for a critical analysis of the relation between translation and framing. It will help to refer to a particular in for descriptive I approach. will use example order to establish some principles a the Story Keepers, which employs the vehicle of a fictional adventure story to present the translated biblical narrative, as a model. Note, however, that the practice of embedding the translated text within another narrative is quite common not only for Bible stories, but other classic texts as well. 5 The following analysis draws principally on studies in narratology which describe the poetics and rhetoric of a text its frames as constitutive of their point of view. (Lanser, 1981) I will discuss and frames in chapter six, and the rather extended form of framing metaphorical represented by the American Bible Society newmediabible series in Section Three. TheStory Keepersis a thirteen part seriesof animatedGospel stories created for an audienceof 4-9 year old childrenreleasedin 1996 by the American publishers Zondervan. The seriesis set in 64 AD in Rome. The emperor Nero has launcheda to campaign wipe out the Christians for claiming a king higher than Caesar; thousandsare sold into slavery or thrown to the lions. Ben, a local baker, and the beautifulHelena,his Greekwife, take under their wing a group of orphanedchildren. The childrendiscoveran amazingsecretnetwork of daringmen and women who risk their lives to tell the stories of the greateststory teller, 6 Jesus. The gospel stories (taken from Mark and Luke) are woven into the back story of heroes and villains. Eachepisodefollows the sameformat: the set-up -a group of Christians are in trouble; the rescueplan - Ben and his family go into action (undercoverof course) - an encounterwith the villains, final rescueand miraculous escapeof Ben, his family and the other Christians; the villains come to a sticky end. In the course of these the adventures, Christians tell each other stories about Jesus' life and teaching to For example,the BBC adaptationof Chaucer'sCanterbury Tales (1998) restructuresthe tales to makethe pilgrims journey into the framing narrative. As with Testamentand the Story Keepers the distinction betweenframeand embeddednarrativesis markedby a changein animation style and narrativegenre. 6 Takenfrom the title sequenceof TheStory Keepers. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page104  Framing the Word encourageeach other and provide explanations for their own circumstances. The purpose of the is series to acquaint viewers with the contemporary significance of the Bible. It targets people who are unfamiliar with the Bible. 7 The Bible stories drive the plot of each episode, while the frame story provides both an interpretation of and an application for the biblical narratives. The frame story provides narrative enclosure and closure. It simultaneously directs the viewer's attention to the embeddedbiblical narrative and supplies a meta- commentary emphasising some elements of the Gospels and ignoring others. The Story Keepers follows a classic Aristotelian model of rhetorical persuasion which consists of three inter-related elements: 1) a relationship between speaker and audiencethat relies on the personal character of the speaker; 2) a relation between audienceand text that relies on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; and 3) a relation between speaker and text that relies on the words of the speech itself to 8 The Story provide the proof, or apparent proof, of the speaker's argument. Keepers' frame narrative uses these three elements to fulfil its rhetorical intentions. The principal narrators' characterisation as reliable constitutes the first element of persuasion. The interaction of story characters constructs the frame's point of view. The frame's point of view functions as a means to persuade viewers to share the translator's moral disposition towards the Gospels. This constitutes the second element of persuasion. The frame's narrative genres provide the proof of the biblical stories embedded in it. The genres impart narrative plausibility to the embedded story depending on whether a certain frame is read as adventure story, history, or theology. One function of the series' frame story is to provide an understanding of the primacy of the Gospel narratives' oral tradition and the importance of the early Christian church as a story preserving community in which, for the community of believers, the stories become articles of faith that bind its members together and provide a moral and spiritual guide. This constitutes the historical and theological frame for the Gospel narratives translated for the series. The nature and function of story telling within an oral tradition, particularly the authenticity of tellers and with BrianBrown Conversation 8 (Warner, 1990) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of War ick, 2000 page 105  Framing the Word telling, acts as an important mechanism for establishing the moral truth of the story. The hierarchy of character/narrators draws attention to the story within the frame and underwrites its authenticity. There are several levels of narration that, as Susan Lanser argues, are structurally significant because they signify differences among narrative voices and their relative authority in any given text Briefly, following .9 Lanser's model, the narrative levels in this series are arranged as follows: (see fig. i below) AIJTHCRNARRATOR F S R T Nar r atcr s: ( Ben/Ephr ai m/Hel ena, et.al ) A 0 Character / Nar r ator s: (Tacti cus/Nero) M R Character Mar r atees (Tacti cus/the chi Icr en) E Y Character s B S VOCE- OVERNARRATCR I T Charaster /Narrators: (Jesus) B 0 Character s L R E Y fig. i Narrators and narratees are divided into two basic types: reliable and unreliable. The personal character and appearance of the principal players in the frame corresponds to their function as reliable or unreliable. Apart from their position in the hierarchy of characters, different narrators and narratees perform different roles as focalisers. The play between reliable and unreliable characters is interesting insofar as it is used to confirm the authority of the Gospel stories. It has also been argued that the power of persuasion in religious rhetoric is founded on authoritative proclamation rather than rational argument (Jasper, 1993; Wolterstorrf, 1995) so that the `personal character' of the narrator becomes an essential affirmation of narrative truth. 9 (Lanser, 1981, p 136) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 106  Framing the Word Characters who were eye witnesses to Jesus' life and teaching occupy the first level of narration. These characters become the principal narrative voice of the series. They play a central mediating role between the series' audience and the translated Gospel stories. Ben the baker, who as a boy provided the 5 loaves and 2 fishes to feed a crowd of 5,000 that turned up to hear Jesus speak, is the principal narrator. 1° He tells stories from the Gospel of Mark, believed by the scholarly community to be the main source for the writers of Matthew and Luke. Ben's wife, Helena, is Greek and tells Lukan stories. 11 Although she is not an eye witness, Helena's authority as a story teller is established by virtue of her close relationship to Ben as his wife. Other story keepers such as Ephraim, who is a "very important story keeper", figure prominently in individual episodes because they knew Jesus. These characters are termed "anaphoric characters", who "interpret, remind, and predict indication of the past and future action." 12 Whereas they repeatedly refer to Jesus as "the greatest story teller of all", in fact they play a mediating role between Jesus and the children in the story as well as the implied narratees in the series. Ben and the other story tellers draw their narratees into the story world through promises of a story and offer explanations or interpretations of these narratives. The frame narrative's historiographic representationprivileges the authority of eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life and teaching. The story keepers' referential claim to the status of their stories as historical fact, or at least founded on the historical figure of Jesus, is an important device for establishing its truth. The authority of eyewitnessaccountsbecomesa crucial authenticatingmanoeuvre. This is accentuatedin a number of ways. The speakers' characterisationas sincere, friendly andwise andthe corroborationof their stories by other eyewitnesses(some charactersin the crowds surroundingJesusturn up in Ben's audience)support the speaker's reliability. Their social status as adults also validates their reliability. Helena'saccountof Joseph's and Mary's flight into Egypt provides an exampleof this strategywherethe entire episodeis usedto corroboratethe historical veracity of 'o This little pieceof backgroundinformation that emergesin a conversationbetweenBen and one of his adoptedchildren revealsan evangelical sub-text in the series: obviously Ben's early encounterwith Jesuschangedthe courseof his life. The Gospelof Luke is attributed to a gentile born in Antioch and was written in Greek for GreekspeakingdiasporicChristians. 12 (Caws, 1985) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 107  Fra hing the Word Jesus' origin and the nativity story. Ben and his family engage an eccentric cart driver, Milo, (cast as a Texan cowboy) to drive them to an out-of-town story meeting. (fig. ii) (fig. ii) Milo in "Starlight Escape" Milo takes a short cut down a dry riverbed to evade Nero's pursuing soldiers. During the wild ride, the cart loses a wheel. While Milo fixes the wheel, Helena tells the children a story about Jesus' birth and the family's flight into Egypt. The unfolding plot establishes Milo's reliability as a corroborating eyewitness. Although Zak, the eldest child, questions Milo's sanity (he appears to be as deaf as a post and talks to his horse) viewers are left in no doubt about his reliability. Milo proves he knows the area "better than a dog knows his fleas" as lie successfully dodges the ubiquitous pursuing soldiers. In one tense moment during the journey, Milo emerges from an inn accompanied by some Roman soldiers. The soldiers turn out to be friendly allies with whom Milo has cultivated a relationship that ensures the family's safe passage through the area. Zak's development as an unreliable narratee and story character provides an important foil to Helena's and Milo's reliability. As Milo drives off into the sunset having delivered the family safely to their destination, Joy,Sisley. Translatingli"omOne Mediumto -mother BCCS, University . Warwick. 2000 . of page 108  Framing the Word he musesthat he had once helped such a family escapein circumstancessimilar to the one in Helena's story. Zak does a double take as he overhears Milo trying to remember the names of the family. Repetition of stories is another feature of oral tradition. In this series the repetitive characteristic is clearly marked by openers such as "One of my favourite stories...", or, "Well, as you know... " Characters such as Tacticus, Nero's reluctant Chief of Police, form part of a second generation of story tellers who ensure the continuity of this oral tradition. Tacticus' in role confirming the authenticity of such stories is twofold: not only is he intrigued by the Christians' fierce devotion to Jesus but also, through a series of adventures and encounters with Ben's family, he falls in love with a young Jewish-Christian woman in Ben's circle, converts to Christianity and has to escape from Rome. His reliability as a second generation story keeper is developed progressively through the series. His characterisation as a tough soldier with a soft heart and the sub-plot of fierce antagonism with his arch rival Nihilus, the ruthless centurion of Nero's Praetorian Guard who is a brute who loves to torture Christians, confirms his authority. Following classic adventure story endings, in the final episode of the series Tacticus rids the Christians of one of their most formidable enemieswhen he overcomes Nihilus in one-to-one combat. Finally, there is a third type of narrator whose unreliability contrasts with the reliability of the other narrators. Where there are minor characterswho tell storiesthat lack the force of stories about Jesus, or who simply confuse the double meaningof "yam" and present Nero with a length of "string" at his birthday celebrations,Nero is the prince of unreliable story tellers. The inauthenticity of his stories compareunfavourably with Ben's stories. Whereas the context of their telling motivates the stories told by the Christians, Nero's stories lack moral force, areself and aggrandising, fall on deaf or reluctant ears. In one episode,titled "Raging Waters" Nero's soldiers intercept Zak and the children trying to smugglea written version of a story out to a remote district where the resident story keeper has been arrested. Zak is captured along with the scroll and draggedbefore Nero who commands him to read the scroll. When Zak refuses,Tacticus reads out the story aboutJesuscalminga storm on the seaof Galilee. Nero and his audienceare visibly Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page109  Framing the Word impressed by this account of God's power. But Nero, who thinks of himself as God, is threatened by the story and demands it be destroyed at once and Zak be thrown to the lions as an example to other Christians. Tacticus is intrigued by a character who can inspire such loyalty in his followers and helps the Christians escapewith the scroll. Tacticus' and Nero's contrasting reactions provides the key markers of this story's power. The whole episode sets up an antinomy between reliable and unreliable modes of story telling. In the scene that encloses the scroll reading, Nero composes a song about himself before an audience of sycophantic senators. The sound is excruciating. The senators applaud politely (under threat of being thrown to the lions). Snivellus, one of the senators, has an inspired idea and plugs his ears with wax candles. Oblivious to Nero's discovery of his ruse, he takes a visual cue from the other senators and applauds loudly and enthusiastically. This scene embedsthe reading of the scroll and its reception and accentuates Nero's own lack of authority as a story teller. The event also provides a discourse on power and narration. It implies that the real authority of a story rests as much in its ability to move its hearers as on the social power of the speaker. (See clip 5) Lanserarguesthat the authorial privilege of the narrating voice, its claim to knowledgeabout the details of story events and actions, derives in part from the status of the tale which may range between factual report or complete (parodic) invention. The decor1um13 of the text, its narrative conventions and generic plausibility, guidethe behaviourof narrators,for example, If the narrator claims to be telling a true story, s/he is expected to account for the information and lay a plausible framework for the claim. Report commits the narrator in a way that invention does not, just as historical claim and obviousparody imply different relationships in the literary act. 14 The decorumof the Story Keepers' frame clearly privileges eye witness accounts throughthe behaviourof the principal narrators and its contrast with other kinds of narratingbehaviour,such as that of Tacticus and Nero. These relationships createa (Lanser, 1981,p 165) 14 ibid., p 164 Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page 110  Framing the Word particular dynamic in the genre shifts between frame and inset narratives. I will return to this aspect at a later point in this chapter. The hierarchy of narratees also comprises two contrasting levels of reliable and unreliable narrateeswith specific functions. The children fulfil an important role "shifter characters".15 As Ben's and Helena's primary narratees they frequently as provoke a story telling. They ask questions typical of children of their age who want explanations that make their world comprehensible. Shifter characters are those with whom the viewer empathises and around whom the action moves. They are central to structuring the viewer's identification with the series' authorial point of view, while the story's context provides an interpretation and the children demonstrate its application through their subsequent actions. The narratees' characterisation has several interesting features. Their reliability is portrayed through their innocence signalled in part by their exaggerated facial features, particularly big bambi eyes. This characteristic cartooning device intensifies spectators' empathy with the character's feelings and emotions. Zak's unreliability as a narratee also provides an important foil that further reinforces the story tellers' authority. His tendency to leap into action without thinking through the consequencesleads the family into a number of scrapes, but his behaviour also draws attention to and problematises the narratee's role in an oral tradition. The episode "Ready, Aim, Fire" focuses specifically on the problematic reliability of Bible readers,through the character of Zak. In this episode, Zak is so concerned about the impression he makes on his uncle that he quite simply does not comprehend the relevance or point of a story and fails to learn or apply the lesson supplied. The narrative makes another interesting contrast between the children who hear and act upon the stories they are told and Nero's audience who applaud his perorations on cue and follow his lead in how to respond, i. e. by acknowledging him as God or being thrown to the lions. Tacticus combines the dual role of narrator and narratee. He is a central figure in the series' evangelicaltheme. To summarise,the combinationof the frame narrative's referential status, the teller's motivation, and the personal characterof narrators and narrateescreates a " (Caws, 1985) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 111  Framing the Word mechanism for reinforcing both the authenticity of the embedded Bible translations and the series' conception of narrative authority. In the Story Keepers, story telling is dispersed among many speakers, making authorship of the biblical narratives a collective one. While Jesus is referred to as "the greatest story teller of all", the stories are not granted a fixed meaning attributed to an individual historical author. Rather, they acquire coherence and significance only through the socio-historical context of their telling. The frame's narrative point of view also accounts for the frame's rhetorical function of stabilising the meaning of the Gospel stories. Analysis of the frame's point of view provides a particularly useful approach to identify the construction of an interpretive position and its social ground. For this purpose, I understand point of view as a structural relation between the narrator's moral disposition towards the tale; the representation of that view through the formal composition of a film; the gaze of the characters and the direction of their look; and the spectator's identification with and her attitude toward the characters' point of view. Nick Browne arguesin his analysis of Stage Coach that the spectator recognises the moral or socialview of the narration through an identification with relationships between characters.16 He describes point of view as a figurative as opposed to a literal position achievedthrough a sequenceof shots rather than an individual shot or camera position. Browne argues that ownership and direction of the gaze is not necessarily identified with the physical location of a spectator in front of the screen. There is no authorial vantage point from which to view a film, rather, the spectator is implicated in the narrative itself as events unfold. Point of view, therefore, has both spatial and temporal dimensions. Viewers of The Story Keepers may immediately remark two rhetorical featuresof the series' point of view which invite a preferred readingof the biblical narrative. First, a differencein the framing and the framed narratives' visual style. The latter representsa neutral point of view drawn as if the sceneswere shot straight on from shoulder height. The animation mimics news reporting or observational documentary film conventions of realism that pretend an objective 16 (Browne, 1982) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 112  view in a neutral photographic style. No tricky angles are used to appeal to point of the spectator's emotions through extreme close ups, canted framing, or exaggerated relationships such as the size of character's facial features, hands or proportional feet. (tig. iii) (fig. iii) "Raging Waters" This unvarnished treatment signifies a narrative mode of reportage rather than invention and encourages a particular kind of engagement with the stories' contents. In contrast to the presentation of Jesus in the biblical narratives, the frame story is highly stylised. It uses unrealistically distorted close ups and exaggerated facial features to draw viewers into the story and put them "into a certain frame of mind". The contrast between the two styles of animation shifts the locus and ownership of the gaze. Whereas viewers apparently control the daze in the Gospel narratives, in the frame, control shifts to relations between the characters. For example, Nihilus is not merely developed as a nasty character, he is consistently drawn to fill the frame in a menacing way, and routinely shown as gigantic in relation to the other characters. Like other characters he towers over Nero who is small, skinny and rather effete. Similarly, Ben's relation to spectators is differently characterised by Joy Sisley. TranslatingIran: One lledium to. 1nother BCCS. University . Warwick. 2000 of page 113  Framing the Word the angle of representation in the drawing. The animation relies on exaggerated stereotypical representations such as the hooked or bulbous noses reminiscent of in characters Asterix Eyes are another notable feature that calls attention to . stereotypical differences between "goodies" and "baddies". Evil characters are drawn with large shadows around their eyes while good characters have rounded, friendly eyes. This typical animation convention marks Nero and his henchmen as baddies. The way Tacticus' eyes are drawn marks the progression of his characterisation from "bad guy" to "good guy". Thus point of view is sometimes tied quite literally to the characters' vision ; how they perceive and understand the world around them. (See clip 6) "Catacomb Rescue" provides a typical example of the ways in which characterisation and point of view are developed. Ephraim, a prominent story keeper on Nero's list of most wanted men, makes a daring visit to Rome. During a secret story-telling meeting at which many Christians have turned up, one of the audience slips away to inform Nero. In the scene that develops, the use of extreme camera angles and exaggeratedclose-ups portrays the extremity of Nero's wickedness and his evil intentions. The same scene contains a development of the sub-plot or rivalry between Nihilus and Tacticus which is carried as much by the drawing as by the dialogue. (See clip 7) In conclusion,if the rhetoric of the story is designedto put the viewer in a certain frame of mind, then the play between good and evil acted out by these the characters, stereotypedrepresentationsand highly stylised drawings, are clearly calculatedto provoke a preliminary emotionaland moral responseto the narrative as a whole. As Browne notes, in principle, as spectators we do not identify with the camera but with the characters. Our point of view is "tied more closely to our attitude of approval or disapproval",17to the beliefs and attitudes conveyedby the characters. The third elementof rhetorical persuasion,the proof, or apparent proof of the words themselves,is achievedthrough the complex relation between framed and framestory andthe mechanismof the frame genrein establishingthe plausibility of the Gospel narratives. For the purposes of the following discussion, I understand 17 (Browne, 1982,p 8) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warrick, 2000 page 114  Framing), the If 'Ord genre as a set of narrative. representational. and aesthetic conventions which create the coherence of the story and shape viewers' expectations. Narrative conventions provide the grounds for how the story will develop as well as how the audience makes sense of the unfolding narrative and predicts its outcome. Generic plausibility, in this case, has to do with the internal coherence of the narrative and audience expectations rather than any direct relationship to the story's external reality. As illustrated in fig. iv below, the frame narrative in the Slorv keepers is quite complex in ý,enre terms ---------------- -7 " Battle between good and evi I- good wi ns ADVENTURE Moral tales of good behavi our " -------------------------- " Cr al tr aä ti an of Gospels HISTORY " Jesus as central figureof ' Christianity Meaning with the THEOLOGY story community I'1 GOSPEL STORY -00 ---- ----- -------- I ------------- --------- (jig. Iv") Viewers are confronted at once with a decision about how to read the frame's genre and how it provides apparent proof of the Gospel stories' truth. Different generic readings of the frame story will impact on interpretations of the framed story. IX The I Man Gerhart. NN ho treats genre as constitutive of the meaning of the text. notes that an audience's identification of a text as belonging to a particular genre will influence their understanding of the text and their interpretive strategy: An reading Henry IV (or. for that matter. the biblical book of Genesis)as history (a genre favored b\ the majority ). readers are likely to imagine a retrogressive sequenceof obsen ed "facts * based on unquestioned assumptions about the genre as well as the elements in the stop. But if readersattend to the structure of the elements in the story. thcý read the text as poetry (Gerhart, 1992, p 20) Stephen Mitchell's translation of Genesis draws attention to ." claiiiw Iron One .Ilediuºu to. Jnother Joy Sisley. 1º"un. BCCS. University of Wanick. 2000 page 115  Framing the Word episode"Catacomb Rescue" provides several good examples. The classic adventure story in which good always triumphs over evil provokes a corresponding tendency to simplify themes of morality into oppositions between good and evil in the framed story. In "Catacomb Rescue", Ben's family and an eminent visiting story keeper, Ephraim, take refuge in the catacombs when their house is raided by soldiers of the Praetorian Guard. The children knock out some of the props for the roof of their escape route in an attempt cut off the pursuing soldiers. Justin and Anna are caught on the wrong side of the rock fall when the passageway caves in. Suddenly, they hear groansfrom Tacticus, the City Police chief who, having fallen into a chasm, has been left to die by his arch rival Nihilus, centurion of the Praetorian Guard. Anna insists on rescuing him declaring that the Good Samaritan in the story she hears at the beginning of the episode would not have left his enemy to die. Tacticus is impressed by the children's bravery. He befriends the Christians and provides the necessary travel documents to secure Ephraim's escape from the city. In this case, the "baddy" with a soft heart intervenes in time to save the "goodies". If the parable is read allegorically, Tacticus is the traveller on the road to Jericho who is beaten up by robbers and left to die, Nihilus is the Levite and Pharisee, combined as one, who would be expected to help the unfortunate traveller not least becausethe two have so in much common. Unfortunately, Nihilus shows no such solidarity. Anna is the Samaritan. As a reward for her act of compassion, Tacticus saves her life and those of her fellow travellers, or at least grants a reprieve from imminent death at the hands Nihilus and the Praetorian Guard. 19 of The theological or moral frame of this episode deals with a broader principle of forgiveness in the series' representation of Christian morality. The theme presents more than a question of loving one's enemy in a context where the lines between friend or foe are clearly drawn by including two other gospel stories. Towards the end of the episode, the band of Christians hiding in the catacombs want to take advantageof their superior numbers and kill Nihilus and Tacticus while they have the chance. Ephraim recounts the parable of the unforgiving servant in how Genesishasbeenreconstructed throughEnglishtranslationsof the book as a single coherent historicalnarrativethat masksthe presenceand function of different genreswithin the text. (Mitchell,1996) 19 The opening question that provides the motivation for the parableis askedof Jesus by a "Teacherof the Law" who asks"What must I do to receiveeternallife?" (GNB Study Bible 1994) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS,University of Warwick, 2000 page 116  Framing the Word Matthew 18 in an effort to calm the crowd. In this parable, the king orders one of his servants to be beaten and thrown into jail until he repays a large debt. The servant pleads with the king and the king, moved by the servant's pleas, cancels the debt. The servant immediately goes out and finds one of his own debtors, who owes a paltry sum by comparison, takes everything he has and throws him in jail. When the king hears about the servant's behaviour he is furious and punishes him severely. This story contrasts the king's behaviour and that of the perfidious servant. The parable's theological frame provides fresh grounds for interpreting the episode's moral by undermining the simple oppositions in the adventure story and suggesting that the significance of the two parables is not straightforward. Their meaning has to be worked at. Finally, the historical framing in this episode, and the series as a whole, is used in a quite complex fashion to promote a universal relevance for the parables. The series is set in Nero's Rome. It represents a period of history just prior to when the Gospels are presumed to have been written down. In many senses, however, this series overturns generic expectations of historical narrative because it resists a linear articulation of time and a specific representation of the period in which it is set. Instead, it relies on viewers to recognise playful references to other historical narratives and representations in films and comic books, such as Asterix, Hollywood spectaculars such as BeerHur, and the Hollywood Western. In so doing, it repeatedly parodies the concept of a fixed historical context that gives originality to the Gospel stories. 20 For example, although the frame is set in and meaning story AD 64 the band of daring men and women who risk their lives are alternatively represented as Zealots, freedom fighters, rebels, or members of an underground resistanceorganisation. These representations echo different periods of resistance in the history of Christianity. Each subversion of the frame narrative's generic plausibility stands out from the surrounding story. One of the most startling instances of this narrative reflexivity occurs in "Catacomb Rescue". As Ephraim escapesthrough a concealedback passageto the catacombs, narrowly evading Nero's soldiers, Ben turns to the camera and winks, "They don't call us underground 20 Another characteristicof the seriesis its adaptationof the parodic strategiesof naming in Asterix. The Story Keepers' charactersbear wonderful names like Snivellus, Tacticus, Nihilus, Giganticus. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 117  Framing the Word Christians for nothing" (emphasis added). Ben's wink at the camera is a rare departure from the series' convention of keeping the direction of the characters' looks within the diegetic frame; it is generically parodic. With his wink, Ben shares with viewers a direct conspiratorial collusion in the fugitive's evasion. The combination of the wink and Ben's naming of the escapees as "underground Christians" alludes to representations of religious and political resistance in twentieth century Europe. For viewers who are familiar with Western cold war the persecution of Christians "behind the iron curtain", or who know rhetoric about of efforts by evangelicalProtestant organisations to smuggle of Bibles into the USSR during the 1970's, the reference and collusion are quite explicit. The series' resistance to a time-bound conception of history underwrites the time-lessness of the Gospels through a play of intertextual references which draw the audience into making connections between the biblical narrative and contemporary political or ethical issues. In many respects, this represents a modernising translation strategy that contrasts with the series' more straightforward visual representations of Jesus and his disciples. In summary, the frame story's central narrative theme of the role of oral tradition in establishingand preserving early church communities is an important device for authenticating the Bible stories. It underwrites the authority and faithfulness of translation through a claim to the stories' contemporary significance its to the Greek source text used.21 The Story Keepers' frame asmuch equivalence provides a powerful and captivating meta-commentaryon the translated biblical 22 The choice and combination of biblical stories in each episode, their narratives. contextualisation,and the authority of the story tellers are all crucial to a fulfilment of the series' rhetorical function. The Story Keepers' framing deals explicitly with the Gospel narrativesas discourseson Christian morality formed over time through 21 This was a deliberate strategy borne of the recognition that formal equivalence is an unrealistic translation strategy in this instance. However, scripts for the biblical narratives were translated from the Greek. Once these were written and approved by scholarly advisors these translation/scripts became a fixed, non-negotiable part of the whole production process. (Conversations with series creator and translator, Brian Browne, and writer, Andrew Melrose. ) I have observeda five year old child glued to the television for the duration of four 30- minute episodesin a row. Other acquaintances haverecordedsimilar responsesby young children. I havenot come acrossany systematicaccountsof viewer's responsesto the series to supplement observedviewing behaviour. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 118  Framing the Word the representational and interpretive practices of believing communities. The series' historiography is essential to the fulfilment of this aim. The narrative crosses historical time frames to demonstrate that the Gospel stories acquire social and moral significance through their interpretation and application in different historical contexts. This is achieved through a sophisticated manipulation of language (both visual and oral) so that the series flips between past and present while using animation to sustain the verisimilitude of the narrative as a whole. The Story Keepers' frame inscribes a theory of reception and of the history and function of translation that draws its intellectual force from Walter Benjamin's views on translation. In this case, the principal question is whether it is possible to detect, within the series' narrative structures a sense of the temporality proper to the after- life of the original and a relationship between translation and its original that grants the original text the power to affect the translation. The seriesusesthe mechanismsof framing and narrative genreto managethe relationshipbetween text and audience,in which the frame story createsan interface betweenthe Gospel stories and their reception. The frame's narrative genresform the discursiveground on which viewers negotiateboth their comprehensionof the Gospel's moral order and its contemporary significance. The frame narrative's its rhetoricalmodesand different genericlevels perform complementaryfunctions in this series. If the adventure story provides a way to understand the moral or theologicalimportanceof the biblical narrative, it functions as such so long as the verisimilitude of the oppositions betweengood and bad, authentic and inauthentic, heroic and cowardly are maintainedand everything turns out right in the end. The consistency and reliability of narrators and narratees in the frame narrative are important factors for maintaining the plausibility of these moral oppositions. Similarly,the historical setting and perspective of the frame is important becauseit createsa perception of historical continuity in which the audienceis able to engage imaginativelyas a recognisablepart of their own cultural environment, not becauseit narratesandrepresentsthe experienceof early Christians in Nero's Rome with any accuracy. The frame's historiography, therefore, apparently intends to create a temporal space that encouragesaudiencesto identify with a Christian tradition embodiedin the repetition of Gospel stories more than to legitimate the historical Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 119  Framing the Word originality of the biblical narratives. Mindful of its target the audience, series does not take for granted the universality or authority of the Gospel narratives. Rather, it uses the play of generic plausibility, on the one hand and parody, on the other, to demonstrate how and why the stories can be taken seriously today. Despite my focus on the formal narrative characteristics of the Story Keepers' frame story, the impossibility of treating it as an autonomous text should be evident. As noted in my introduction to the series, the relation between framing and framed narratives is an important factor in understanding how the series functions as translation and how the translation is authenticated. The framing performs acts of both closure and enclosure. However, the frame is not hermetic and is closure never complete. Framed and framing narratives interact to prevent closure. William Kennedy describes the relation between frame and its object or focus as a "dialectical interaction" in which "focus and frame interact to produce intelligible meaning" He writes, Separated from the focus of the text, the frame has no meaning of its own and serves no purpose. Without the frame ... on the other hand, the focus of the text amounts to a purely formal structure of meaning that lacks semantic depth and intellectual complexity ... Frame and focus restrict and define one another by agreement and contrast, convergence and divergence, similarity and difference. One gaugesthe meaning by balancing part against whole. 23 Kennedy's point invites an alternative critical strategy, that of Mieke Bal, for example,who treats the embeddedtext as a sign or set of suggestionson how to read the primary text. This strategy requires that formal distinctions between frame and focus as autonomoustexts be abandoned. As Kennedy notes, quoting Derrida, "There is no natural transcendentframe; there is only the activity of framing."24 However, the activity of framing in the Story Keepers is marked in several ways. The most important of theseis the presenceof genreshifts within the narrative as a whole. These shifts are created by changesin animation style, the poetics of animation,as the narrative switchesfrom the adventurestory to stories about Jesus' 23 (Kennedy, 1991, p 79) 24 ibid., p 85 Kennedy's translation is perhaps more literal than that of the better known translation by Geoff Bennington and Ian McLeod (see note 1) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 120  Framing the Word life, or parables taken from the Gospels. A changeof animation style signals a genre shift in the narrative and a shift from primary to embedded text. Caws notes that a change of genrewithin the narrative is always noticeable as it constitutes a "breaking the frame of expectation". 25 This shift differs from the subversion of up of expectations achieved through the generic parody of historiography observed earlier. It relies on a mechanism that Caws terms the "insetting of text and picture within text as narrated and pictured ... [where] ... the inset disturbs the surface, presenting a contrasting plane by advance or obtrusion or by recession. ,26 She notes three sorts of contrast between the inset and the frame: "between foreground and background, between advance and recession in time, and between narrative and drama." (p 270) Shearguesthe text thus framed achieves two things: as an intensified moment with the larger narrative it functions metonymically as an essence of the work as a 27 and as a shift in the frame of expectation it functions as an agent of change whole; in the larger narrative. Both of these elements are at work within the Story Keepers. The examples taken from "Catacomb Rescue" and "Raging Waters" demonstrate how the Gospel stories function as agents of change. In "Raging Waters", the story in the scroll precipitates a change of attitude in Tacticus who helps Ben and the children escapefrom Nero's palace. In this case, the action of the frame narrative is arrested while the characters listen to Tacticus. The arrest is marked particularly by the pensive reactions of Tacticus' audience. In "Catacomb Rescue", the example of the Good Samaritan induces Anna's determination to rescue Tacticus, an action that changesthe fortunes of the beleagueredChristians. The genreshift from framing to framed narratives occurs as a double shift of poetics, first between different styles of animation and secondly from adventure story to dramatisationof the Gospel texts. It exemplifieswhat Caws identifies as a contrast between narrative and drama. The is contrast also marked by a changeof narrativevoice where the narrator in the frame gives way to the narrator of the inset story; the narrator (Ben, Ephraim, or whoever) quite literally changesto another invisible, anonymousvoice-over. In the context of relationships between frame and 2 (Caws, 1985,p 7) 26 ibid., pp 16-17 27 "Theseparts standing for the whole force our deeperunderstandingof the unity and the ... ultimate meaningof what we areled to contemplateand reflectupon." (Caws, 1985, p 8) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page 121  Framing the Word inset it is significant that this occurs as a marked feature of the translated stories since this is the closest the series comes to an omniscient author/narrator. This factor is particularly significant if the inset stories function metonymically to "force our deeper understanding of the text as a whole", since it signals the moral authority of the Gospel narratives relative to experience that viewers bring to their interpretation via an identification with the story characters. Thus genre shifts in the series are a necessary formal device not only to signal a change in the narrative, but also to foreground the Gospel story. While point of view in the frame narrative directs the viewer's gaze to the inset story, the foregrounding of the inset story directs the viewer's gaze to the background, or social ground of the biblical narratives conveyed through the generic frames of the primary story. This dialectic between figure and ground, between focus and frame, operates both at the level of the series' formal organisation and at the level of its reception. The inset Gospel narratives suggest a greater moral complexity than the simple antinomies of the adventure story's plot and invites a more sophisticated response. "Catacomb Rescue" not only addressesthe issue of behaviour towards other people, but the combination and placement of the Gospel stories within the main plot give examples of circumstances where choices must be made between retaliation and forgiveness and where kindness is not necessarily an obvious course of action. The dialectic between frame and inset in this episode modifies a discourse on the meaning of neighbourliness with a question about justice and situational ethics. "Raging Waters", in which Tacticus' reads the scroll, is a discourse on the nature and exercise of power. The frame narratives provide analogiesthrough which the viewer can test their understanding of the Bible's significance. The frame, therefore, never fully circumscribes the Gospel narrative. Enclosure in this instance is not foreclosure because the framed story challengesand disrupts our reading of the frame, deferring closure. To conclude,I havetried to show how the Story Keepersusesthe mechanism of a narrativeframe firstly to establishthe authenticity and authority of the Gospel storiesand,secondly,to encourageviewers to seethe personal significanceof these stories. Its centralfunction as a guarantorof narrativetruth is, as Kennedy suggests, to "stabilise meaning"in the text. One of the central featuresof this mechanismis the use of different generic levels within the frame story and of generic shifts Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page122  Framing the Word between frame and framing stories. From the perspective of the series' reception, its narrative genresfunction as an experiential field through which audiencesplay out, or make sense of, their individual identities as human subjects within a spatial, temporal, and social context. The frames' genres are, therefore, significant as an interface between the translation and its reception, and between the biblical text and society. Framing functions as a translative act in itself where the nature of the frame and the choice of genre positions viewers relative to their understanding of and response to the translated Bible stories. However, as already noted, the dialectic between frame and focus in the series fails to secure narrative closure in each episode. My analysis of the Story Keepers has revealed a kind of circularity between framing and framed narratives which is the source of a deferral of closure. The narrators derive their authority from the authenticity of the stories they recount, which in turn, derive their authority from the narrator's ability to convince audiences of his or her reliability. Similarly, the frame heightens what is contained within its borders, which in turn functions metonymically as an essence of the work as a whole. The reception of the work thus framed raises two questions: first, what are the limits of the frame and what (in terms of translation) is its function? This question implies that one cannot determine the social ground of translation (its reception) without first delimiting the borders of its framing; the inside and outside and very textuality of the frame. Second, if the translation's frame bears upon, delimits, or augments the translation in the ways suggested by my analysis, what precisely is the thing that it frames, the object called translation? These questions invite a philosophical consideration of the nature of the frame in addition to a description of its rhetorical mechanisms. The frame story in The Story Keepers has the properties of the parergon which, accordingto Derrida: comes against, beside,and in addition to the ergon, the work done [fait], the fact [le fait], the work, but it doesnot fall to one side, it touches and cooperates within the operation, from a certain outside. Neither simply outside nor simply inside.28 28 (Derrida, 1987, p 54) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 123  Framing the Word The parergon has a special relationship with the work that it frames. It is defined as such not only becauseit is a supplement to the work but also because it is more difficult to detach it from the work. It enters into the meaning of the work, but does the same ground. 29 The parergon is difficult to detach becausethe internal not share structural relationship of a lack rivets the work to its frame. The parergon "inscribes something which comes as an extra but whose transcendent exteriority ... intervenes in the inside only to the extent that the inside is lacking."30 This lack ... constitutes the unity of the work itself: "Without this lack, the ergon would have no need of a parergon. The ergon's lack is the lack of a parergon ... which nevertheless remains exterior to it. "31 This description raises questions about the quality of the "work" and the nature of the "lack': Derrida's discussion of framing deconstructs Kant's critique of aesthetic judgement; it explicitly addresses questions about the knowledge and judgement of value. Derrida argues that the principal difficulty is to determine where the frame takes place and what are its inner and outer limits, is which not so easy to do. Yet to define what is properly essential to the judgement of value presupposes an ability to distinguish what is intrinsic and is what extrinsic to a work, in other words to determine what is beauty in a work of art, or what is intrinsic to a pure aesthetic judgement of a work of art. Derrida's discussionis remarkably relevant for the problem of determining what is properly essential to the judgement of value in translation or what is translation proper; specifically, what is translation proper with respect to translationsfrom to one medium another. It is apparent the examplesof framing discussedin this chapterand in chaptertwo pose a similar question about the limits and function of framing. If the Story Keepers' frame is a parergon, how does it function as supplement? What is the work that it frames? What is lacking in the work that requiresa frame? I noted one of the principal rhetorical functions of the frame narrative was to securethe authority of the original text. This was also 29 "The parergon stands out [se detache] both from the ergon and from the But it milieu does not stand out in the same way as the work ... The parergonal frame stands out against two ... grounds [fonds], but with respectto each of those two grounds, it merges [sefond] into the other has as its determination ... The parergon traditional not that it stands out but that it disappears, ... buries itself, effacesitself, melts away at the moment it deploys its greatest energy." (Derrida, 1987, p 61) ibid., p 56 31 ibid., pp 59-60 Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 124  Framing the Word in The Gospel According to Matthew. If the lack thus described amounts to a evident how does translation generate this problem? The problem of authority, why and lack of formal or structural similarity between two sign systems presents one of the principal difficulties of translating from one medium to another. By the same token, translation from one medium to another never fully achieves representational Thus translation is defined by its difference (dferarnce), while at the equivalence. time it aspires to similarity, to sharing with its original the same interpretive same ground that secures the translation's authority. It is clear from an analysis of the in the Story Keepers that its creators have representational and narrative strategies to questions of authority and authenticity, for example, paid considerable attention the fact that Ben tells stories from the Gospel of Mark while Helena tells stories from the Gospel of Luke, or the fact that Jesus and his disciples are given Semitic features.32 The principal translational difficulty faced by the Story Keepers' creators was how to maintain equivalence to the Gospel texts and at the same time create a programme that appeals to the expectations of young viewers whose tastes are formed by the values of television animation. The decision to translate the biblical narratives as "literally" or "neutrally" as possible in formal and representational terms, and create a frame that conforms to audience expectations reflects the creators' sensitivity to these difficulties. However, the question of authority does not in itself define the quality of "work" or the natureof "lack" in a translation. In the casesobservedhere, it merely determinesthe inner and outer limits of the frame. It is necessaryto dig a little deeper. Derrida's definition of "work" and his determination of lack in that context provides an explanation. Work, ergon, is energy, energeia, the free energy of the originary process, its pure productivity, captured, framed, mastered by the borderingdeterminationof the frame(parergon). But the lack in the interior of the ergon thus is circumscribed not the opposite of energy,an absence,or an emptiness, it is the "impossibility of arrestingdyerance of making it come back, equal or ... similar to itself'. 33 Umberto Eco, who describes sign-productionas work, or labour, 32 Brian Brown, the creatorof the series,revealedin conversationthat he had made every effort not to overlay the frame story with Christian imagery and iconography from later centuries. The unconventional of representation Jesusas Semitic is also significant in this instance. 33 (Derrida, 1987, pp 80-81) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 125  Framing the Word and codes as frames that give significance to the sign, makes a similar distinction. The coincidence of Derrida's philosophical perspective and Eco's semiotic perspective on the nature and meaning of a work, or to put it another way our knowledge and judgement of value in a work, provides a significant clarification of translation and of the function of framing in this context. The coincidence recalls the central semiotic problematic of Jakobson's definition of translation. The "intersemiotic" level of translation inscribes its energeia It signifies the elusive, . labile, creative nature of iconic sign relations in the work of translation that defy 34 capture. The "interlingual" level of translation functions as a parergon to arrest differences (dfferance) in the free play of iconic sign relations. The lack in the work thus defines the impossibility of translation, of obtaining a similarity or equivalence between a text and its translation except by general agreement or convention. The frame asparergon functions to prop up the absence of meaning (equivalence). It is now obvious why the Story Keepers embeds the translated biblical texts in a frame narrative and why its narrative and rhetorical features focus so explicitly on the narrator's reliability and authority. The frame inscribes within its borders, and within its very textuality, the fundamental difficulties of translation from one medium to another. The Story Keepers' frame constitutes the ground on which material judgements about the faithfulness of the translated biblical stories (in terms of their semiotic equivalence) and formal judgements about the stories universal significance are made. Finally, Derrida's point about the nature of the frame's autonomy, or its dependence on the work it frames for its own status as frame, raises another important question about the object of translation studies and its critical methodologies. The lack of the frame's autonomy, the impossibility of detaching it from the work it frames suggests that the frame is itself part of the translation and so cannot be separated from the creative work of translating or from the work of reception. The study of a translation's frame is therefore an exercise in understanding translation as translation through an analysis of judgements of value inscribed in the frame. Source/target text comparison, if it at all possible, yields to more important questions about the ground of interpretation in translation. 34 SeeWollen and Petrilli in chapterone Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 126  CHAPTER FIVE Closing the gap: Narrative Time and Historical Consciousness Time becomes human to the extent that it is articulated through a narrative mode, and narrative attains its full meaning when it becomes a condition of temporal existence. ' How to bridge the temporal and cultural gap between a two thousand year old text and its contemporary readersis a common problem for Bible translators who have debated it in terms of a dualistic opposition between literal and idiomatic, or archaisingand modernisingstrategies. This is opposition stated as a question of whether translators should "leave the author in peace, as much as possible, and move the readertoward him; or leave the readerin peaceas much as possible, and ... move the author towards him. "2 Commentators on the archaising/modernising debate have tended to group themselves into two camps: they seek either to acknowledge the source text's alterity and so emphasiseits cultural and temporal distancefrom the modern reader, or they attempt to diminish the source text's differenceby translating it in to contemporary cultural idioms so forestalling any disturbanceof a faith in the Bible's universality. The debate has a long history which, althoughperiodically dressed up in fresh terminology, essentially retains the same polarities of literal or idiomatic translation. Assumptions that archaising create strategies "a deliberate aura of strangeness,or peripheral opaqueness"where modernising strategies make the translation "at home in the speechof the translator his 3 and readers" reveala static view of language. Two other pairs of words clarify this diminishment of the dynamism of language. The first pair associatesarchaismswith "literal" or formal (word for (Ricoeur, 1983,p 52) Z Friederich Schleiermacher, "On Different Methods of Translation" trans. A. Lefevere, in Wilson, ed., German Romantic Criticism, pp 1-30. 3 (Steiner, 1975, p 280) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneAledium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 127  Closing the Gap word) translation and modern with idiomatic (sense for sense) translation. The secondpair associates "literal" with "literary" and "idiomatic" with a functional understanding of language and translation that aims to convey the sense of the text in preference to its literary features.4 Edward L. Greenstein exposes the source contradictionsand cultural relativism of this cluster of oppositions when he says, More literal translations can cover a wider spectrum of literary features; but idiomatic renderings can depict the historical denotations of the text with greater clarity. While the idiomatic style can present a culture to us in familiar terms, a literal rendering can disclose the more idiosyncratic aspects of that culture. One may liken the idiomatic mode to the clear voice of a speaker reciting someone else's message in his own language. The literal translation the but ' resemblesthe voice of author, muffled. His treatmentof "literal" and "literary" as synonymous and his discussion about the theoreticalunderpinningof different approachesconflatesthe meansandends of translation theory and practice. He suggests,for example, that "a more literal reproductionof imagery canoften shedlight on the realia of an alien society" giving the translation an aura of anthropological authenticity.' As opposed to this, he associatesa philological approach (which focuses on the contextualuse of language) with idiomatic translation which comes closer to reconstructingthe ancient history andparticular cultural milieu of the sourcetext in the language of the target culture. But, as Stephen Prickett argues in his discussion about the history of translating ambiguity in biblical texts, there is another sense in which archaising strategiesachievegreatertransparencyin their attention to the opacity of passages in the Bible, whereasmodernisingapproaches,which aim at transparency in their rendering of difficult passages, are in fact covertly opaque in their methods of textual 7 interpretation. Prickett's discussion revealsa paradoxat the heart of critical This conflation of literal with literary and idiomatic with pragmatic dates back to the Romantic poets' definition of biblical and religious language as poetic and a subsequent developmentof literary critical approachesto the Bible in the 18th century. (Prickett, 1986, ch. 2). Nida's promotion of idiomatic translationmarks a distinct break with Bible translation philosophy dating back to Jerome which was concernedprimarily with the formal structures of biblical language. S (Greenstein, 1983, p 20) 6 ibid., p 14 (Prickett, 1986) The modern critical methods to which Prickett refers are based on the principles of Bible translation proposedby EugeneNida and followed by large Bible translation Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page 128  Closing the Gap the dualism of archaising and modernising strategies. The paradox, for Prickett, arises from the fact that archaising strategies adopt a far more literalist critical approach as a means of achieving an effect of opacity, while modernising strategies attend more closely to the opacity and ambiguities of the source text to produce an effect of transparency. The paradox is born of the asymmetry of its polarities, as he notes, The narratives of the past remain for us strangely enigmatic. If to `modernise' is to embrace cultural relativity; to `archaise' is not to choose stability, but merely to opt for a particular (apparently no less culturally variable) reading of history! Prickett's discussion about how Bible translators have treated ambiguous passages in light of "the unconscious assumptions and the cultural context of the period when the interpretation is made" (p 21) points to radically different and historically relative interpretive attitudes towards biblical texts and the need for a more nuanced understanding of what lies behind these different attitudes to the original texts' temporal and cultural distance. Greenstein's and Prickett's discussions are useful because they draw attention to an important point: the level at which Bible translators attend to the original text's temporal distance. Archaising strategies tend to make alterity explicit by including a notion of the temporal distance within the language of the translation itself, for example,by using words or grammatical structures that literally reproduce Hebrew or Greek forms. Where literal translation is impossible, an archaic literary form in the target languagemay signify the differences. Modernising approaches, on the other hand, attend to the temporal gap within their own interpretive organisations such as the Bible Societies and the Wycliffe Bible Translators. Nida's definition that "Translating consists in producing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent to the message of the source language, first in meaning and secondly in style" (Nida, 1975, p 33) is based on the principle that meaning is conveyed through the discourse levels of language use. That is, the meaning of a word can only be stated in terms of its context of use where the connotative levels of a word gives it different "emotional" colouring. The primary task of a translator who wants to achieve the "closest natural equivalence", therefore, is a careful exegesis of the formal and semantic structures of the source text to reconstruct its original meaning and its effect on the original audience. For Nida, a good translation is one that reflects an understanding of the cultural diversities of the language of the source text and its equivalents in the target language. g (Prickett, 1986, p 17) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 129  Closing the Gap methodologies by taking pains to transform the cultural and historical specificities of the ancient texts into modern idioms. Any one issue of The Bible Translator gives an idea of the extent and detail of formal analysis in modernising Bible translation methodologies. However, the translation's reader will very likely be unaware of the exegetical work behind such production unless footnotes draw attention to the process. Parallel attempts in audio-visual translation to use literalist (which recreate the time and place of the biblical narrative) and visually idiomatic representations repeat the paradoxes of the archaising/modernising duality. These approaches show that, as in languagetranslation, temporal differences are negotiated primarily at the level of narrative structure, rather than word or syntax. At this level, the literal or allegoricaltreatment of biblical texts functions as temporally and spatially reflexive narrative conventions that provide an historical perspective through which the ancient stories acquire contemporary coherence and significance. The following discussion traces how the generic narrativity of individual translations constructs an historical consciousness that opens up imaginative spaces where viewers can identify with the story events and characters. This analysis considers the adequacy of the archaising/modernising conceptual antinomy to account for translation strategies used to bridge the temporal gap between Hebrew and Greek texts and their contemporary interpretations. It relies on an approach to genre criticism in film studies that theorises the structural relations between audience, text, and society. In this case, genre constitutes allegorical and temporal maps that allow audiencesto imagine themselves in time and space. The approach thematises the relations between narrative time and place and the spectator's subjective experience of history and geography. Ultimately, questions about history, narration, and translation raised in this analysis are not unique to the case studies considered here, they have a broader scope. The construction of an historical consciousness both in the advertising rhetoric of video catalogues, programme trailers and packaging, and the formal and narratological structures of the videos themselves is central to the negotiation of the biblical narrative's antiquity and cultural opacity. The narrative construction of Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 130  Closing the Gap historical consciousness consists in ordering the concept of time for readers or viewers through the structural relations between past, present and future and the actions of a story. For the viewer, the present is always the present (or presence) of viewing. Thus the present of past things is represented narratively as memory, the of future things as expectation. 9 The construction of time within a and present story (through ellipses, repetitions, flash back or flash forward), therefore, has a the or reader viewer. 10 The formal and functional aspects of the significant effect on generic representation of time are also crucial to the "reality effect" of the story. In the caseof biblical videos, this contributes to viewers' recognition of their subjective relation to the ancient texts constructed through translation. As Vivian Sobchack notes of the narrative representation of history in the Hollywood epic, The importance of the genre is not that it narrates and dramatises historical events accurately according to the detailed stories of academic historians but rather that it opens a temporal field that creates the general possibility of historical subject of a particular kind. " recognising oneself as a The phenomenological aspectsof narrative time, therefore, concernhow readersor viewerssymbolically makesenseof their socialexperience,a processthat addresses the centralphilosophical question "how to comprehendourselvesin time."12 The genericconstructionof time in and narration the videos positions viewers relative to their experienceof viewing and the time frame of the ancient biblical narratives. Different forms of narrative construction allow different kinds of subjective projectionwithin this time frame. The translation, therefore, mediatesbetween the temporalstructuresof the originaltext andthose of its contemporary interpretation. To study the construction of an historical consciousnessrequires attending to the and narratological rhetoricaldevicesthat areusedto a a) establish particular referentialrelation to the Bible in as an object of and History andcontemporary interpretations of its content; 9 SeePaul Ricocur in (Ricoeur, 1983) chapter three for an elaboration of this view. 10 (Bal, 1985; Chatman, 1978; Rimmon-Kenan, 1983) " (Sobchack,1995,p 286) 12 ibid., p 283 Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 131  Closing the Gap b) create a temporal and spatial field that produces the general possibility for to viewers position themselves subjectively within the historical continuity of these stories; and c) establish the transcendenceof biblical narrative and mask the distancing effects of its alterity. The promotional discourses that frame video translations and establish them as objects of and in History invariably set the scene. The promotional language, therefore, seems to play a central role in constructing a particular conception of historical reality calculated to provide a space for ideal viewers to recognise the film's generic construction of time as a bridge between the original and its interpretation. 13 In so doing, the advertising establishes a sense of contemporary continuity from the past tense of the source text to the present of its reception. This process, exemplified by a frequently used translational metaphor to "bring the stories to life", parallels archaising translation strategies insofar as it represents a literalistic attempt to reconstruct the original story's historical and geographical contexts. Some typical examples from the Vision Video catalogue of Christian and biblical videos and from the covers of video cassettes obtained through this '4 catalogueadequately make the point. The advertisingon the front pageof the cataloguebills The Revolutionary, Parts I and 11as follows: These fast-paced films on Jesus, made in high definition technology, show His life and teaching15in a way never seen before. The main events from the Gospelsources are presented with careful attention to details and the original historical and cultural context. Originally shown in state-of-the- art virtual reality theatres, these riveting and acclaimed presentations are now offered in letterbox format. " The conceptof an original is vital to the perception of the biblical narrative's historicity irrespectiveof the assumedsourcetexts used in translation. The original may be understoodas an imagethat producersand audiencesalike alreadyhaveof the biblical narrative. This image, or pre- text, accountsto a largeextentfor the genericverisimilitude of the videos. 14 Vision Video, PO Box 540 Worcester, PA 19490-0540, USA, URL - ww . atholicvideo.com. Undated. Acquired in June 1998. The wording suggestsa covert didactic aim that contrasts with the aim to representthe original historical context. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneAledium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 132  Closing the Gap There are several significant ideas implied by this statement. First, a concept of narrative time expressed as a dimension of screen time, "these fast paced films". Screen(or text) time, the pace at which the story unfolds, is contrasted with story time, "the original historical" time of the Gospel narratives. The contrast makes explicit the difference between the it world as was then and the viewer's experience of it now "in a way never seen before". The advertising thus points to the self-referentiality of cultural production in the film. Second, the film's screen time is described in spatial rather than chronological terms. This is reinforced by two metaphors for the films' realism: "the high definition technology" and the "virtual reality" of its original presentation. Thus the catalogue's advertising rhetoric conflates time and space and primes the viewer for an experience of the past historical in the present. Dramatic reconstruction or animation that makes stories "come alive" a expresses routine desire to bring the past into the present. Thus "The Easter Story" from the animated series of Greatest Adventure Stories from the Bible, created by the Hanna-Barbera team, is described as "the thrilling Easter story [which will] comealive for children of all ages"and as a "beautifully animatedre- creation... seenthroughthe eyes of the Apostle Mark. " 16 Significantly, the stories are supposed to come to life as part of the personal experience of viewers themselves. Advertising for the Reader's Digest serieson "Jesus and his Times" exhorts viewers to "Travel the dusty roads with Joseph and Mary as they make their way' or "Be there as John the Baptist baptises " Jesus. 17 (emphasis added). Similarly the jacket cover for the Visual Bible's production of the Gospel According to Matthewannounces,"As [Matthew's] story unfolds, the centuriesmelt away and we are intimately involved in the life of " Jesus. In each case, the advertising languagenot only metaphorically privileges spatial over temporal narrative dimensions,it also articulatesa notion of presenceas the embodimentof written accounts. The rhetoric infers the story characters'embodimenton the screenwill transport viewers to the scenewhere they will participate intimately in the life of 16 Vision Video Catalogue,p8 17 ibid., p 12 Joy Sisley, Translating frommOne Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 133  Closing the Gap Jesus.'8 The discourses of presence conflate both text and story space and text and story time which effectively elides past and present for the viewer. Another example makes this effect more explicit: the Turner Pictures "collectible" series of mini-epics based on Old Testament stories are described as "breathtaking" and "epic". The video casefor "Samson and Delilah" reads, Samsonand Delilah is a stunning film based on the most provocative of all Biblical tales. Samson (Eric Thai) is a simple shepherd with the strength of a titan and the destiny to fight the Philistines and General Tarique (Dennis Hopper). Delilah (Elizabeth Hurley) is a Philistine beauty, torn between her love for the shepherd and loyalty to her people. As told in the Old Testament, Samson's betrayal by Delilah left him in slavery. But Samson's epic revenge vanquished his Philistine foes and made him one of the greatest heroes of the Bible. Samsonand Delilah is the powerful tale of a deception that brought down an empire ... and sealed their names in eternity. In this example, the hyperbole of promotional discourses and the of excessiveness narrative representationsof history presumethe transcendenceof history andthe transparencyof the past. This producesa similar effect to the other advertising. But in this case,the conflation of time and space occurs through a collapse of the distance, a metaphoricalspace, between the story's original setting andits re-presentationas an epic tale of betrayal and valour. The processesthat make the conflation of text and story time possible are complex. My analysisof the promotional discourses in the Vision Video catalogue arisesfrom a particular narratologicalconception of text and story time.. Shlomith Rimmon-Kenanarguestext time, the processof narration, as opposed to story time (the plot) possessesboth linear and spatial dimensions- Thus, The narrative text as text has no other temporality than the one it metonymically derivesfrom the process of reading. What discussionsof text- `8 This particularnotion of presenceexpressednot only as the embodiment the text (the of Word madeflesh, John 1:14) but also of the viewer's embodiment in the text, is essentially a theologicalone nhich is dealt'vith in a variety of -v%ays in the videos themselves. Seeespeciallythe Hanna-Baibcra series. Joy Sisicy, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of WVancick,2000 page 134  Closing the Gap time actually refer to is the linear (spatial) disposition of linguistic segments in the continuum of the text. 19 Edward Branigan similarly defines the spatial nature of films in terms of the graphic conventions of individual shots (focal depth, lighting, framing) and the conventions of editing. Narrative film rests on our ability to create a three-dimensional world out of a two-dimensional wash of light and sound. A bare facticity of graphics on the screen - size, color, angle, line, shape, etc. - must be transformed into an array of solid objects; and a texture of noise must be transformed into speech, music, and the sounds made by solid objects. Light and sound in narrative film are thus experienced in two ways: virtually unshaped on a screen as well as apparently moving within, reflecting and issuing from, a world that contains solid objects 20 making sounds. The writers of the Vision Video catalogue treat that "two-dimensional wash of light and sound" as the "real thing" and thereby invite audiences to collude in the verification, through virtual experience, of the historical actuality of biblical narrative. The promotional statements about "bringing to life" function as metaphors for historical realism that key viewers to a predisposition to treat the narratives as history and to accept the films' historical representations unproblematically. Already, therefore, the advertising rhetoric's realist representation of time and space subverts the presumed intentions of "literal" translation to move the reader or viewer closer to the original, by assuming a transparent and unproblematic relationship to the original text. Instead, the advertising establishes a privileged spectatorial position for ideal viewers in the story space itself ("be there", "travel the dusty roads", etc.) that infers an omniscient point of view within the narrative. The most common, but by no means the only, form of representation (whether live action or animation) is a reconstruction of the imagined historical, geographicand cultural contexts of biblical narrative. The flowing robes and head dresses function as powerful symbols of both the authenticity of televisual 19 (Rimmon-Kenan, 1983, p 44) 20 (Btanigan, 1996, 33) p Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of NVarwick, 2000 page 135  Closing the Gap narrativesand the historical veracity of the original stories. One may interpret this apparent intention to transport the viewer to the life and times of biblical characters as a translation strategy that emphasises the historicity of the source text. As a particular form of historicising, it reflects a certain mode of temporal consciousness and produces particular historical effects for the ideal viewer. Thus, the narrative representation of the original's temporality becomes highly significant. The conventional use of historical representation to "bring stories to life" is essentially a genre question in so far as time and narrative relate to their emplotment and plots are described by their generic characteristics. In this case, I borrow a hermeneutic conception of emplotment from Paul Ricoeur who assigns it a mediating function between the world of action that prefigures its narration and the itself its 21 world of the audience that configures the narrative through reception. Ricoeur's characterisation of the mediating role of the plot evokes the important question of referencediscussed in chapter three. In his discussion about narrativity and referenceRicoeur notes, making a narrative [le faire narrati/] resignifies the world in its temporal ... dimension, to the extent that narrating, telling, reciting is to remake action following the poem's invitation... What is resignified by narrative is what was level human 22 alreadypresignifiedat the of acting. Accordingto Ricoeur,the temporal nature of narrative referentiality is semantically encoded: "Being-in-the-world according to narrativity is a-being-in-the-world already marked by the linguistic [lcnngagiere]practice leading back to this preunderstanding. "23 Narrated time also, essentially, refers to its phenomenological status. At this level, all narrative,whether it takes the form of myth, history, or fiction, deals with the central philosophical problem of "how to comprehend 21 Ricoeurdescribesemplotmentas a poetic (both historical and fictional) mode of combining "in variableproportionsto temporal dimensions,one chronological and the other not. The former constitutesthe episodic dimension of narrative. It the story insofar as it is madeup of characterises events. The second is the configurationaldimension properly speaking,thanks to which the plot transformsthe events into a story. This configurational act consists of "grasping together" the detailedactionsor «hat I have called the story's incidents. It draws from this manifold of events the unity of onetemporal«hole". (Ricocur. 1983,p 66) 22 (Ricocur, 1983, p 81) 23 ibid., p 81 Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of War ick, 2000 page 136  Closing the Gap ourselves in time."24 The following descriptions, therefore, focus on the function of time and narrative as an imaginative space that mediates the relation between viewer and original text. My first examples come from the series The Greatest Adventures produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. (1986)25 Like The Story Keepers, this series uses the device of a frame story starring two archaeologists and their friend Mowki, who are accidentally transported to another world where they discover the life and times of popular biblical characters. Unlike The Story Keepers, however, the Hanna-Barbera series makes no attempt formally to separate the frame from the biblical narrative. The three characters simply walk into the lives of biblical characters, who evince no great surprise at the sudden arrival of a pair of fair in skinned aliens modern safari suits, accompanied by a dark skinned curly headed lad with an accent that, with a bit of imagination, may be traced to the Indian sub- continent. The biblical characters carry on with their tasks, building an ark, killing a giant, delivering the Israelites from the Philistines. Placed rather blatantly as characters within the primary narrative, the intruders embody the subjective of experience viewers as "us as them, then". The convention of characters turning up (sometimes in disguise) in a foreign land where they appear completely at home in the languageand culture of the place is common in English fiction, particularly children's adventure stories and twentieth century spy fiction. The convention assumes the protagonists are able to see through cultural differences without an intermediary or translator while their imposture and improbable disguise remain undetected. The convention reflects both an imperialising gesture and a universalising tendency that refuses to acknowledge difference. Eachepisodein the series opens with the title sequencethat portrays an archaeologicalsite somewherein an Egypto-Biblo location. As the camera pans 24 (Sobcihack,1995). Sobchack'sdiscussion about the phenomenologyof historical -narrative contributesto the coreof my argumentin this chapteraboutthe function of historical representation in termsof `literal' translation. 25 The GreatestAdventureStories from the Bible. (1986) R Production Co., distributed-by -B TurnerBroadcastingSystem 1994. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 137  Closing the Gap overthe stereotypicalsceneof an archaeologicalexcavation,a sonorous malevoice- over sets up the story: (See clip 8) While surveying the site of some ancient ruins, two young archaeologists, Derek and Margot, and their nomad friend Mowki, find themselves trapped in a sinking whirling pool of sand. Cut to a close up of the three characters disappearing into the sand The Voice continues: And when the dust settles ... High angle of the three characters, looking up to the camera position, in a large chamber they stare in awe ... ... cut to slow pan across Mesopotamian/Egyptian sculpture and other artefacts at a vast chamber filled with great riches and artefacts from another ... civilisation. Zoom in on a door at the end of the chamber And at the far end of the chamber a door with a strange inscription: cut to close up of hieroglyphics on the door, Margot runs her hand over them all who enter these portals pass through time. Door slides open to reveal a blinding light out of which the series' title dissolves This short sequencelasting no more than 30 secondsestablishesthe viewer's relationto the temporal and cultural differences of the biblical texts. The sequence transports viewers through the device of swirling sands and a door with a magical inscription into a very distant past of biblical history. The shift, therefore is both temporal and spatial. The cultural and temporal differencesof the original text, as well as the timelessness of the stories claimedin promotional trailers at the head of the tape, in areclearly marked the opening scene. While the style of the tents and the archaeologist'spith helmet in the opening shot dates the frame story and connotes adventure and exploration of a particular kind, the site workers stereotyped as native Arabians by their traditional Arab dress and head gear Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of WVarwick,2000 page 138  Closing the Gap signifies the timelessness of ancient history. This representation is important because,while the clothing of modern Westerners is dated by cultural convention and fashion, the Arabian costume is not. At the same time, the opening scene filters the original text's alterity through the discourses of Western empire and exploration in the earlier part of the twentieth century. The biblical stories may have originated with an ancient civilisation, but as objects of archaeological exploration and ancient history they have been repossessed by contemporary Anglo/American culture by virtue of the recovery in the twentieth century of ancient biblical manuscripts. The shot of the archaeologist examining a manuscript with his magnifying glass is symbolic of the ancient text's inscrutability whose script must literally be decoded before it can be read. In the final shot of the title sequence, Margot erases the history of Christian tradition and translation through which the Bible has passed to the modern readerby cracking the code of the hieroglyphics. The door to the past magically opens for her. The sequence suppresses any idea that access to the meaning of the book requires interpretation in favour of a notion of direct with engagement the past. Thus, while the world of the text is presented as distant and exotic, it is not impenetrable. Margot, Derek and Mowki who are the story's key focalisers reinforce this notion in each episode. As noted earlier, the biblical characters apparently do not notice the cultural differences of these intruders in their story. Mowki, complete with his fake Indian accent, (but whose origin as a nomad is uncertain), points up the discourses of alterity through his frequently mystified response to story events and actions. Everything has to be explained to him. Mowki resolutely inhabits a modern world of comfortable beds and good breakfasts, even if this is merely wishful thinking during his adventures in biblical lands. Derek and Margot (particularly Margot), on the other hand, recognise many of the stories. The two function as a metaphor for discovery and are, if you like, merely unearthing the historical evidence of an established truth. For them, the meaning of the ancient stories is transparent. (See clip 9) Another set of narrative events functions as important signifiers of an implicit theory of reception. This is realisedthrough viewers' identification with Derek, Margot, and Mowki as contemporariesof their world, albeit a somewhat Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of WVarwick,2000 page 139  Closing the Gap archaicone of the earlier part of the twentieth century, and the threesome's agentive role within the biblical narrative. Margot, Derek and Mowki appear in the biblical scenenot simply as passive onlookers or narratees of other characters' stories, they frequently play an active role in changing (or sometimes nearly changing) the course of the story. In "Noah", the three appear on the scenejust in time to save Noah's wife from being crushed by a large rock, tipped down the hillside by a hostile neighbour. Later in the story, as the waters rise, Mowki plugs some leaks in the ark with his finger until one of Noah's sons is able to seal the hole. In "Samson and Delilah", Derek conceives a Bond-like plan to warn Samson of Delilah's imminent betrayal. He constructs a hang glider from the silk hangings in the temple and makes a daring escape sailing over the Philistines who have surrounded the temple. Unfortunately, he arrives at Delilah's house too late to save Samson. Delilah has already cut off Samson's hair and called the Philistines to capture him. In his weakened state, Samsonis no longer able to resist his captors. The three characters' role in the story is symbolic of the role of the reader. They engageactively in the plot and, while the characters of the biblical story acknowledge their presence, they seemoblivious of the little alterations made to accommodate this intervention. This functions as an implicit recognition that the text acquires its meaning through the engagementof a reader in the narrative, thereby reinforcing the contemporary significance of these stories through a rather complex set of narrative operations. (See clip 10) The integrity of the originaltext (as opposedto the larger frame of the video narrative) is contained in another set of story events. Towards the end of each episode, Derek, Margot, and Mowki simply leave and the biblical characters complete their own story. In "Noah" they sail away on a life raft made earlier by Mowki (in casethe ark sank) while Noah and his family admire the rainbow set in the sky by God as a promise that He will never again destroy the world. In "SamsonandDelilah" the three reappearat the temple to find out about Samson's fate after his captureby the Philistines. The episode ends when Samson's family reclaimshis body for burial, but the three friends are absent from the scene of Samson'sfinal triumph. Thus, the video adaptation of biblical narrative always Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 140  Closing the Gap contains closure. Margot, Derek, and Mowki however never reappear in their story world of the archaeological site from which they vanished at the beginning of the story. With no closure in the frame narrative, viewers, like the young archaeologists,are trapped in the biblical narrative's story time, perpetually caught in limbo between the frame narrative and the biblical narrative and, like their surrogates, excluded from its end. The story thus reasserts its power over the reader. In summary, the metaphor of time travel signifies the biblical narrative's historicity in spatial rather than temporal terms. The agency of the three focalising characterswithin the frame as well as the biblical narrative effectively collapses any ideaof temporal distance. Derek and Margot's familiarity with the stories masks the originaltext's opacity (which is an effect of that distance),while narrators in the biblical framemerely serveto fill in the gapsof their knowledge. On first viewing, the seriesof Old Testamentdramas,madefor television as a Turner Pictures international co-production with Lube Productions (USA), Lux Vide (Germany) and Rai Uno (Italy) is a highly naturalistic historical reconstruction of the times and places of biblical narratives. The trailers included in the video tapes of Moses promote the dramas as a series of epics. A voice portentiously advertises other episodes in the series over clips from the films: In the time of Pharaohs and slaves, of Sodomand Gomorra, one man led his people on journey that would demandundeniable faith, untold courage, and the ultimate sacrifice. Abraham, played by Richard Harris, star of Unforgiven (cut to clip of Richard Harris as Abraham, "This is the Promised Land. ") An extraordinary presentation of biblical epic for all times and all audiences. Abraham is an exciting and realistic portrait of a timeless story. Abraham is a story for all ages, the ultimate journey, the ultimate adventure. Abraham will prove as timeless as the story itself. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page141  Closing the Gap Similarly,Jacoband Escniis introducedas"The Bible's most famous love story a ... passionate love story with timelessappeal." Promoted with splendid hyperbole, these epic films are presented as an apotheosis of history as narrative; History as Narrative; the Narrative from which all narratives take their inspiration. The excessivenaturalism of the films' cinematic style and the realism of their narrative structure matches the extravagance of the promotional literature. The conventions that establish the Bible as Narrative and as History merit closer examination for the way they establish a continuity between past and present. Although written and directed by different people, the films in this series exhibit a stylistic and thematic unity that is due to their adaptation of Epic and Western cinematic themes and iconography, more than similarities imposed by costume design and Moroccan film locations. The generic choice is hardly surprising given the conventionally established affinity of Epic and Western genres to the series' central thematic core of national and moral identity. 26 The films rework America's preoccupation with its own national and moral boundaries within the frame of an epic story about the establishment of a nation of Israel across several centuries. This is a far remove from the literal reconstruction of biblical history ostensibly offered by the films' cinematographic realism. The series reflects an identifiably American rather than biblical historical consciousness that relies on presenting certain forms of human struggle as universal through a selective and allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament narratives. To show how the generic themes and iconography of Epic and Western cinema create the series' particular historical perspective, I shall refer to two films: Moses (1996, dir. Roger Young, starring Ben Kingsley as Moses, Frank Langella, Christopher Lee and Anna Galena) and Samson and Delilah (1996, dir.: Nicolas Roeg, starring Eric Thal as Samson, and Elizabeth Hurley as Delilah). 26 (Buscombe, 1988; Elley, 1984; loosed and linafelt, 1996) on the references to Deuterocanonic laws about housebuilding in Unforghwn, (Pye, 1955) on narrative themes in The Searchers wwhich are based on accounts in the book of Numbers of the forty years the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness after their escapefrom Egypt. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 142  Closing the Gap The landscape is a central trope in the series as a whole. The wide open spaces, the stark juxtaposition of fertile, cultivated land and desert, the receding perspective of the filmic frame and deep focus cinematography offer far more than a mimetic representation of the geography of ancient biblical lands. They symbolise the conception of an Israelite national identity that has both historic and modern resonance. Consequently, the wilderness, represented as inhospitable and hostile territory in contrast to the land "flowing with milk and honey", is a central element of the narrative, the principal frame in which each of the stories unfolds. The antinomy of wilderness and promised land, through which the themes of national identity are worked out, ties the narratives explicitly into the discourses of the Western. In Moses, stereotypically Western shots of the Hebrew caravan winding through a barren landscape frame the dramatic confrontation between God's promise, (represented by panoramic shots of a fertile landscape shown always from the mountain top or in swooping aerial photography - see fig. i below) and the rebellious Hebrews. In this film, the wilderness represents exile, while the fertile land represents settlement and a moral and social order. (See clip 11) (fig. i) The Promised Land at last. Joy Sisley. Translating /i"nur One /edirrnr to. mnother" .1 BCCS. University of Warwick, 2000 page 143  Closing the Gap In Moses, the promised land as frontier represents freedom as a national and cultural in autonomy evoked classic Western style. As Douglas Pye notes in his essay on biblical allusions in The Searchers, If the West was seen as a potential Eden, the garden of the world, it was also seen as the wilderness, the great American desert. The life of the frontier was both ennobling, because it was close to nature, and primitive, at the farthest from civilization. 27 remove Samson and Delilah reworks the same theme through the antinomy of the garden and wilderness. But in this episode, the Israelites' moral ownership of the promised land and its defence is at stake. The Philistines, who ride out of the desert like marauding Indians in the early captivity Westerns swooping down on their defencelessvictims, pose an external threat to the order and integrity of Israelite political identity. Samson and Delilah is about the moral right to ownership of the promised land conferred through the Israelite's status as chosen people. The film establishes the theme through an association of the Philistines with the desert/immorality/pantheistic barbarism and the Israelites with fertile land/political modernity/and monotheistic order and civilisation. (See clip 12) The genericrepresentationof landscapeservesa particular cultural function as Edward Buscombe comments on the ideologicalsignificanceof landscapein the Hollywood Western, In any society the representation of landscapeinvolves the entire values of the culture, from its technology of representations to its psychology and politics. The American landscapeaspresentedin the Western is no exception. 28 The series' specific iconographic and narrative allusions to the Western's representation of American landscape point to its allegorical nature which displaces the parameters of Israelite identity onto a particular conception of American national identity bound up with conservative Protestant politics and morality. The history of American national and cultural identity is explored within the same exclusive limits of the classic Hollywood Westerns, exclusive that is of women, 27(Pye,1955,p 192). 28 (Buscombe, 1988, 167) p Joy Sisley, Translating front One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 144  Closing the Gap indigenous Indian populations, Irish immigrants and the descendants of African slaves. The themes of law and community reinforce this central organising concept of the frontier between wilderness and promised land and its discourses of identity that createsignificancefor an Americanaudience. In the secondpart of Moses (90 minutes) the Israelites wander in the desert having crossed the Red Sea in which Pharaoh's army is destroyed. This part develops a narrative about law and community described as a central generic theme Hollywood Westerns. 29 The Israelites wander for forty years until they have of learned to be free, or to symbolically throw off their habitual dependence on an Egyptian order, imposed by their former slave masters, and internalise the stricter law given by God. This section spells out the liberal democratic ideology code of film's theme freedom. For example, in a scene where Jethro underpinning the of (Moses' father-in-law) pays a visit, the script adds some advice from Jethro to the original scenein Exodus. Jethro advises Moses to appoint other Israelite leaders to help him adjudicate people's disputes, and continues, Have you traded an Egyptian slave owner for a task master in the heavens? Laws are not sufficient in themselves. The people must learn how to follow the Law without Moses or any leader. They must learn to want to follow the Law without fear of any whip on their backs or their souls. To follow the Law becausethey are free not to When they have learned that they will truly be free, until then they are still slaves. The speech mirrors the tensions of the frontier thesis in Hollywood Westernswherecivil society (representedby an urban, industrialised,institutionally orderedsociety of the AmericanEast coast) is opposed to the strugglefor a utopian social order basedon conceptsof community and solidarity (madetangible by the threat to homesteadandtown of lawlessnessrepresentedby the wild west). Moses Z9"The classicWesternis less about escapingthe constricting aspectsof law and culture (i. e. The East), as is often supposed,than it is about establishing an even stricter code of law and conduct.The fact that the setting is the wide open, lawless westernterritories only servesto accent the necessityfor strict enforcement. " (noosedandLinafelt, 1996) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 145  Closing the Gap reworks this confrontation in a number of important ways. In the second part of the film, the confrontation of order and anarchy is acted out as conflict between those who want to return to the relative comforts of Egypt and those who want to press on to the Promised Land. The confrontation is twice resolved by violent and fatal argument between the factions. Scenes of increasing domestic organisation portray the Israelites' gradual internalisation of a sense of social and moral order so that, eventually, their encampment resembles a small, neat town dominated by a church on the hill. Visual spaces, such as the one created by the tabernacle, an enclosure constructed out of poles and curtains, or the spaces between the Hebrews' tents characterise this sense of moral order. Images of the tents pitched on flat ground, in neat lines, with wide "streets" between them contrast earlier scenesof disorder where tents are pitched on rugged, stony ground. (See clip 13) The first reel of Moses sets up an expectation of social order based on the home and the family in a series of scenes that take their references directly from classic Western plot lines: a stranger appears in a lonely homestead; a romantic liaison develops between the stranger and one of the women in the homestead; the stranger defends the homestead from some external threat; he leaves again - alone. (fig ii. ) Moses maintains the generic integrity of the stranger in Western narratives. Whereas in the biblical account Moses takes his wife, Zipporah, and two sons with him when he returns to Egypt, in the film he leaves Zipporah behind and has no children. While the films draw on the Western for representationsof landscapeand metaphorical tropes of frontier, the central character's depiction in each of these films is closerto an epic hero than the Westerner. There is a remarkableconsistency in the central characters'representationin both Moses and Samson and Delilah. Perversely,Moses' and Samson'sreluctanceto fulfil their heroic role establishes them astragicepic heroes. Moses and Samsonare heroesin the sensedescribedby Derek Elley in TheEpic Film, 30 30 (Elley, 1984) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 146  Closing the Gap (fig. ii) Moses and Zipporah exchange looks The literary epic generally turns on the exploits of a single central character, surrounded by a broad substratum of secondary characters who react upon him morally. This focus. this pyramidal structure gives epic much of its power - the characters are supra- (sometimes super-) human, waging an allegorical struggle " on their own plane. Moses' character distils the quest for a national identity based on the occupation of a defined geographicalspace (the promised land) and a moral integrity based on the freedom to obey the Law. His journey from Pharaoh's court, where he is the ridiculed and stammering adopted child of Pharaoh's daughter, his gradual politicisation as a Hebrew, and his eventual assumption of moral leadership function as an allegory for the Hebrews' emancipation as the nation of Israel. Derek Elley argues, in his introduction to the Epic film, that "the historical epic film has been dominated by the messageof personal and political freedom, more often than not expressed as the form of Christianity (or Zionism) triumphant - often, one feels, by special prerogative rather than any vote of confidence or (Elley, 1984,1) 16) Joy Sisley. Translating from One :1/edium to -mother . BCCS. University of Warwick. 2000 page 147  Closing the Gap popularity. "32 In that case, Moses' characterisation as epic hero gives a particular inflection to the discourses of national and religious identity that support the unity and timelessness reflected in the film's realist representation of history. The series' historical imagination makes the temporal and cultural specificity of the source text redundant. The importance of the Turner series' universalising narrative conventions lies in its imaginative representation of Old Testament history to fabricate an American subjective identity. The epic heroes in this series are modelled on an American romantic tradition of historical fiction that blurs fiction and history and attempts to make American history coincide with biblical history. 33 This enables an exploration of American political and moral identities that are bound up with the mythical invention, through the literature and film of the past two and a half centuries, of America as the Promised Land. 34 An allegorical reading of the Turner Pictures epics endorses the argument that as translation the series rewrites biblical narrative to suit the political, ideological, or cultural needs of its viewers. It demonstrates of the historiography that also one principal arguments of modern history tells us more about the writer's understanding of the past than the past itself, that the world a writer reflects is the one she knows. 35 The significance of the Turner series is marginal to the literary and cultural worlds in which the biblical stories originally circulated. The series' significance lies in its appropriation of the Bible stories and their translation into the contemporary contexts of American television as part of the ongoing mythologising of America as the Promised Land. Apparently, therefore,the configuration of time in its emplotment does not sustain the literalism of historical representationin the films' mis-eft-scene. The series' realism effectively obscurescultural and temporal differences through its genericrepresentationof historical narrative as transcendentinspite of its presumed 32 (Elley, 1984,p 6) 33 E. M. Budick, Fiction and Historical Consciousness the American Romance Tradition, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993) for a discussion of this tradition. Also (Babington, 1993 and Wyke, 1997) 34 E. M. Budick, Fiction and Historical Consciousness the American Romance Tradition, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993 See also J.P. McWilliams, Jr., The American Epic: Transforming a Genre, 1770-1860. (Ed., Standford University Albert Gelpi, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989) on the American Epic. 35 See T. L. Thompson, The Bible in History: How Writers Create Past, (London: Pimlico, a 2000) for a discussion about modem historiography and biblical history and (Wyke, 1997) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 148  Closing the Gap aim to establish events and people as historical actuality and move viewers closer to that world. It is significant that the film makers have appropriated as translation models the generic forms in American cinema most closely associated with historical actuality, for the history thus represented lends moral credenceto a particular vision of the founding of America. This approach repeats Prickett's paradox of a literalist translation strategy that, for all its attention to the historicity of the source text, results in seeing through the text revealing nothing behind, for the films reveal nothing of ancient biblical culture and peoples in the surface details of costume, landscapeand architecture. Remainingfor the momentwith the duality of archaicor modern translation strategies, some productions arguably adopt a modernising approach in the sense outlined by Prickett. These translations are more temporally reflexive in their representation of the Bible's historicity because they focus on the historical continuity of the text whose reception has manifestly changedover time. The Story Keepers, discussed in the previous chapter, is one example. The frame story makes clear the text acquires coherence and significance only in the retelling of biblical narrative and its contextual application by the hearer. Unlike the Hanna-Barbera series, which also constructs an historical perspective for the biblical material, the charactersin the Story Keepers' frame narrative are not magically transported to the text time of the original stories, the stories themselves maintain a sense of continuity through their repetition. The frame makes the story world familiar through its caricature of Roman and Christian history, modelled on viewers' own cultural repertoires of television and comic book cartoons, Moreover, where Ben's conspiratorial wink includes viewers in the make-believe of the frame narrative and its inter-textuality, the Hanna-Barbera series, on the other hand, presents a story world made alien by its orientalist representations of Mowki, of antiquity, and its setting in an archaeological excavation. The American Bible Society newmediabible series discussed in chapter seven presents another case of modernisation. This series adapts and applies Nida's model of functional equivalence. Taken together with the ancillary essays about the history of the Bible in art, music, and translation, the adaptation of music video genres for the audio-visual element of Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 149  Closing the Gap translation encouragesa hermeneutic interpretation of the stories and signals the translator's task as both hermeneutic and exegetical. Both the Story Keepers and the newmediabible draw attention to the indeterminacy of the original text, not so much in their presentation of biblical narratives, but in their framing of these translations as part of the history of interpretation within the life of the Christian church. The Story Keepers indicates the biblical world's cultural alterity in genre shifts between the frame and the Bible story and in the (critically controversial) representation of Jesus as Semitic. The American Bible Society riewmediabible treats the Bible as an object in history through both its idiomatic translation strategy and accompanying essays about the cultural and historical contexts of the original's representation. The various strategies used to bridge temporal and cultural gaps between the original text and its contemporary interpretations draw attention to the Bible's antiquity in different ways. On an ideological level, it is relevant to distinguish between those that treat the Bible (literally) as history and those that depend on literary readings of one form or another. The former case claims an ultimate reference to empirical reality, however it restructures reality narratively as history or myth. Arguably, this translation approach treats the Bible as an object of history whose meaning is fixed but nonetheless significant for contemporary audiences becauseof its universal or transcendent nature. The approach uses corresponding representational forms to signify the historical reality of events portrayed but nevertheless contracts the temporal and spatial distance of the ancient biblical narratives. However, the question, as postmodern historiography argues, is not what is the objective reality of events signified in historical narratives, but hoiv they are represented. (Jenkins, 1997; Ricocur, 1983; Sobchack, 1996; Thompson, 1999; White, 1987)36 Roland Barthes arguesthe "what" and "how" of historical discourse occupy two different levels of signification. The former relates indexically to the " Sobchack makes this distinction as a central part of her argument about the historicity of Hollywood Epics. She notes: "In that it engageshuman beings of a certain culture at a certain time with the temporally reflexive and transcendent notion that is History, the Hollywood historical epic is as "real" and significant as any other mode of - historical interpretation that human beings symbolically constitute to makes sense of human -. and social - existence that temporally extends beyond the life and times of any single person... However, both kinds of historicizing are cultural productions of a certain mode of temporal consciousness, and both produce their history effects for model readers and spectators through formal and narratological devices that are conventional. " (Sobchack, 1995, pp 282-284) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page 150  Closing the Gap empirical data of history while the latter he describes as the form of the signifier aimed at "filling out" the meaning of History, the essenceof historio-graphy - the up and explanatory discourses of history. 37 The signifying function of the writing second level of historical discourse is to create a "reality effect" which covers up the "imaginary elaboration" of events in order to lay claim to an objective authority. In semiological terms, the illusory claim of historical discourse to a direct relation between historical events and their narration takes place through a conflation of the referent of historical discourse with its signified and the separation of the signified from its signifier.38 The reality effect of historical discourses in these videos comes from the production of a neutral time which relies on and is coterminous with a conventionally neutral representation of space achieved through the single point perspective and deep focus of realist cinematography. 39 In other words, the formal conventions of historical representation are calculated to mask its nature as the cultural production of a certain mode of temporal consciousness. Thus narrative structure as a signifying practice is made transparent allowing the reader or viewer to "see through" the text. There is one more point to make about the referential nature of video translations and their mediation between the temporal representation of biblical narrative and its contemporary interpretation. Paul Ricoeur presents the hypothesis in Time and Narrative "that between the activity of narrating a story and the temporal character of human experiencethere exists a correlation that is not merely accidental but that presents a transcultural form of necessity"40 His argument is relevant for an examination of the nature of narrative representation as a 37 (Barthes,1967) 38 "Historical discourse takes for granted, so to speak, a double operation which is very crafty. At one point the referent is detachedfrom the discourse, becomes external to it, its founding and ... governing principle... But at a second point, it is the signified itself which is forced out and becomes confused with the referent; the referent enters into a direct relation with the signifier, and the discourse, solely charged with expressing the real, believes itself authorized to dispense with the fundamental term in imaginary structures, which is the signified... In other words, in "objective" history, the "rear' is never more than an unformulated signified, sheltering behind the apparently all- powerful referent" (Barthes, 1967, pp 121-122) 39 "In otherwords, the historical conventionof temporality asserts fundamental a and powerful idea: that the neutral medium of experience,which extendsto infinity and opens to an individual mind a vast powerof generalization,literally is constructedby, is a product of, consensus,that is, the formal agreementamongviewpoints that produces"space"and "time." (E math, 1992) 40 (Ricoeur, 1983, 52) p Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 151  Closing the Gap bridge to the temporal and cultural distance of biblical narrative. To demonstrate the relationship between time and narration, Ricoeur makes a logical distinction between three levels of narration that he calls mimesis1,2&3. Mimesis, constitutes the is narrative pre-text which already "grounded in a pre-understanding of the world of action, its meaningful structure, its symbolic resources, its temporal " character, a world already made meaningful through the "cultural processes that articulate experience" including the symbolic shaping of human time as a succession of 41 events. He describes mimesis2 as the activity of story telling, or the organisation of events and actions in the narrative pre-text into an intelligible whole through the process of emplotment in which the pre-figured time of the world outside the is narrative restructured through the configurational act of emplotment. Mimesis3 marks the intersection of the world of the text and the world of the hearer or reader in which narrative time is refigured by the processes of reception. What a readerreceivesis not just the senseof the work, but, through its sense, its reference, that is, the experience it brings to language and, in the last analysis, the world and the temporality it unfolds in the face of this experience. 2 An analogy of Ricoeur's three levels of narration with translation identifies the sourcetext as the narrativepre-text (which for the sakeof the is presentargument, a concept,at least, of a Hebrew or Greek original) and the translation as the activity of story telling. The same process of configuring and refiguring narrative time occurs in historical reconstructionsof biblical narrative where the sourcetext is the pre-text that has already acquired narrative coherencefollowing the compositional norms and conventionsof its time. Translation configures biblical time following the narrative conventionsof the chosen genrewhich, in turn, is refigured through viewers' subjectiveexperience of biblical time from the perspective of their present act of viewing, The importanceof an understandingof the temporal reflexivity of translation lies in its ability to account for the effect for the reader or viewer of different 41 (Ricoeur, 1983,pp 54-57) 42 ibid., p 78 Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 152  Closing the Gap translational approaches. It emphasises the cultural and historical relativism of translation as an interpretive process. The paradox of the in strategies observed the translations analysed here lies in the tendency of presumably archaising approaches, represented by the Turner films, to obscure cultural difference and collapse temporal distance, while so-called modernising strategies such as that of the Story Keepers, apparently retains a greater degree of temporal reflexivity. Arguably, the Testament series analysed in the next chapter, succeeds in creating an "aura of strangeness"in spite of its idiomatic use of animation. Faced with this, the terms of the archaising/modernising debate seem rather outworn and oddly irrelevant. The closer one looks at the effects of these strategies through their historical imagination, the more the dichotomies seem to dissolve. Perhaps, as Stephen Prickett suggests, the differences are more aptly associated with how closely the translator has read the source text. Indeed, to render the sense of the original in the way that Testament's creators have done calls for a very close reading in literary terms, whereas the creators of the Turner series appear simply to have used the plots of Old Testament stories to rework contemporary American themes that are already a reworking of biblical themes.43 The more significant question is what sense does a particular translation strategy create of the temporal and cultural alterity of an original text and how, within the temporal fields opened up by this strategy, do readers/viewers symbolically make sense of their social experience as historical subjects of a certain time and place. An analysis of a translation's historical imagination requires fresh consideration of translation strategies from the point of view of their referential function. This involves an examination of the processes whereby translation gives contemporary coherence and significance to biblical narrative while, at the same time, it facilitates a critique of the cultural function of individual translations. I will explore this suggestion in the following chapter through a consideration of how the symbolic and cultural value of individual translations are framed by the specificity of their production contexts. 43 (Budick, 1989) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 153  CHAPTER SIX Undermining Readerly Realities The Bible is above all a translated book. It exists not merely as a text translated into over a thousand languages, nor as a palimpsest of ancient oral and literary traditions, or even as a diversity of literary styles borrowed from Mesopotamian, Egyptian or Greek civilisations. ' It is impossible to think of the Bible as a text in the unitary sense inferred by source and target text oppositions; it exists solely as an intertext. The biblical text, as its modern readers know it, is an accretion of writings from different sources skilfully woven together, overlaid by a rich interpretive history. The Bible has for centuries inspired a Christian art tradition in painting, literature and music. Its popularisation through mystery plays, Sunday School, cinema, cartoon illustration and animation is equally significant. The modern Bible is also much more than a palimpsest or intertext. It is a text in the sense Mieke Bal defines Rembrandt as a text. (Bal, 1991) The modern Christian Bible represents the imaginative and creative work of a number of authors defined by Christian canon as a single unity that has inserted itself into the cultural discourses and visual and literary practices of Christian civilisation. In this respect, the Bible is arguably definitive of modern notions of text and textuality. 2 By the same token, once typologies are stripped away from definitions of translation, the Bible represents the very essenceof translating, both in the specific sense, given by its Latin root of the verb traductio, translating texts from one languageto another, and in its more general sense, given by the Latin root translatio, referring to various forms of cultural or political transfer. Perhaps the claims made by Nida that Bible translation covers all possible forms of translation are not so extravagant, particularly considering the Bible's influence on Western Romantic canons of ' (Crossan, 1991; Romer, 1988) 2 StephenPrickett goesso far as to call the Bible "monument to intertextuality" a and further that "Christianity was born of critical debateabout the meaning of texts" (Jasperand Prickett, 1999,p 13) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 154  Undermining Reader Realities literature. (Jasper, 1993; Jasper and Prickett, 1999; Prickett, 1986) Nowhere is this broader understanding of translation and textuality more evident than in the animated version of Old Testament stories created by S4C in co-production with BBC 2, Christmas Films in Moscow, and Cartwn Cymru in Wales. (1995-1996) Although producers conceived the series as an animated version of Old Testament stories and make no pretensions to translate, examined as translation Testament poses some interesting questions about the way translation theorists 3 think about source/target text relations. The central problematic in this pairing of texts is the question of the grounds on which comparisons, judgements of value, are made. Theo Hermans' anecdote about the debate over equivalence sparked off by criticisms of Thomas Mann's translator, Helen Lowe-Porter, encapsulates the scope of theoretical and methodological difficulties of comparison. (Hermans, 1999) Canons of accuracy developed according to a conception of the structural or formal equivalence between languages require an absolute value (irreducible meaning) to judge levels of difference or similarity. Mathematics postulates the power of 0 as absolute. In philosophy it is the power of negation. In the eighteenth century, accurate navigation was thought to depend on an absolute value to measure the variables of distance and speed. Harrison's clock provided the mechanism for calculating a spatial absolute essential to navigation - longitude. In the humanities and philosophy, an absolute that provides the means for judgements of value such as truth, beauty, or meaning has proved elusive. In modern translation theory, "equivalence" is a metaphor for an arbitrary and absolute standard. Equivalence has been described variously as an invariant core, a structural relation, a hypothetical comparative term or "Adequate Translation". 4 Hermans doubts the validity of a hypothetical comparative value and descriptive neutrality due to the asymmetry of languages and the inescapably ideological nature of translation processes. But abandoninguniversal concepts in translation, which privilege the intrinsic value of a source text, in favour of how a translation "appears to be, how it presents itself to us"5 does not necessarily solve the problem of value, it merely shifts it to something 3 See(Jasper,1993)for a selectionof essaysabout translating biblical texts into literature and painting. s (Hermans, 1999) ibid., p6 Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 155  Undermining Reader Realities else. The new standard for judgements of value is the notion of a translation "context" initiated by, in one case among others, the concept of "norms". In this instance,judgements of value are based on the rules of the "literary system" (Even- Zohar, 1997), the norms of the target culture (Toury, 1995), or the translator's habitus (Sheffy, 1997; Tymoczko, 1999). This perspective shifts the weight of comparison to the target text, and target text contexts. Unlike time, however, context is not an abstract absolute. It consists of networks of shifting social and cultural relations and a complex matrix of texts, producers, consumers and institutions that supports the work of translation. Analysis of a translation's value depends on the perspective (a spatial not a temporal construct) of its interpreter. Context, and its many synonyms, only seems a stable standard when considered symbolic in Peircean terms. The stabilising influence of context depends on a habit or general agreementnot on its intrinsic nature. Contextual analysis, on its own, is in fact an extreme relativist stance that jettisons the baby with the bath water by getting rid of any concept of value at all, or introducing it covertly through the back door. As my analysis of Niranjana's translation demonstrated, however, understanding translation as the power of reference (or its semiotic value in Avni's terms) creates the possibility to analyse a translation's context while keeping the original in view. It retains the notion of a source text as referent while attempting to identify new value created in the process of interpretation and translation. I will apply this sensein my analysis of source/target text relations in Testament. Testamentdemandsthat source/targettext relations be defined by the very natureof the series' textuality and the social and cultural contexts that give it form andsignificance.It underscoresthe palimpsesticnatureof biblical writingboth in its originalversionsand in translation. Testament'streatmentof the story of Elijah is a casein point. The producers present "Elijah" as "the story of one man pitted againsta kingdom that has betrayed God. Elijah is a man of towering courage,a lonely, awesomecharacterwho arrangesa spectacularcontest betweenGod and the false prophets of Baal." The miracles and prophecies of Elijah the prophet are in recorded the book of Kings, woven into a genealogyof the Kings of Israel and a chronicleof their misdeeds. Testament,like many other popular treatments of the Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 156  Undermining Reader Realities story of Elijah, abstracts the significant events in which Elijah plays a part and restructures them to give the story a modem sense of narrative coherence in which Elijah becomes the hero. Abstracted from the generic particularities of the biblical frame, "Elijah" takes on the character and universality of myth. The story is, to quote the promotional description of the series, "Miraculous and astounding, tragic and amusing, epic and heart-warming." There is nothing particularly remarkable about this treatment. In fact, if asked, any one typically introduced to the story through Sunday School or children's' Bible stories would probably consider the Testament version a fairly accurate rendering of the story so far as its plot is concerned. This version is significant for the way it reframes the biblical text and what this reveals about the Bible's cultural value in the context of British television production. The animation in "Elijah" blends popular culture and high art in a superb opening scene where God sends Elijah to warn king Ahab about the dire consequencesof his betrayal of the God of Israel. As Elijah interrupts festivities at Ahab's court, the music swells and Elijah bursts into song, delivering his messageof doom in Bryn Terfel's rich baritone voice. The music is Mendlesson's Elyah. The is effect as dramatic as Elijah's entry to Ahab's court. Elijah's performance rivals that of any contemporary opera star. The animation drawing of Elijah, however, bears all the hallmarks of superman cartoons. He has broad shoulders and a perfect set of pectoral muscles. He wears the ubiquitous superman cloak, in this case a leopard spotted one, that emphasises his physique. Like superman's cape, Elijah's cloak confers magical powers on him, such as the ability to part the waters of the River Jordan. The juxtaposition of high and popular art in the series' representation of Elijah accentuates his awesomeness. By contrast, Ahab's queen, Jezebel who masterminded the destruction of Israel's prophets, presents the perfect antinomy to Elijah. The animated version restructures the narrative sequence of the story of Elijah to make Jezebel a wicked witch of modern fairy tales and personalise King Ahab's disobedience as an enmity and bitter struggle between Elijah and Jezebel. The story caricatures Jezebel as the power hungry temptress of Western narrative tradition. In Testament, Jezebel possesses all the allure of Hedy Lamarr's Delilah in Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 157  Undermining Reader Realities Cecil B. De Mille's Samson and Delilah (1949) -a graceful figure, flowing black hair, full pouting red lips, big flashing eyes - and all the wickedness of the snow queen in the BBC adaptation of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. (See fig. i. ) (fig. i) jezebel in "Elijah" Mendlesson's oratorio lends a tone of high seriousness to the animation, which may otherwise have produced an infantilisation of the Old Testament text. This approach is characteristic of the series as a whole. By drawing on what the production describes as 'great works of religious art" for its principal aesthetic references, the production dignifies the series with a conception of the Old Testament as a classic literary text. (See clip 14) Most of the episodes have compressed a rather longer narrative into a half- hour animation and restructured the biblical original to dive it modern narrative coherence. There are some particularly interesting forms of restructuring. For example, the story of the Flood frames the Creation story recounted by Noah. This double story telling device weaves in a theological theme, while the stories' visual Joy Sisley. Translating fron: One Jledirun to Another BCCS. University of Wanvick. 2000 page t i8  Undermining Reader Realities treatment retains a senseof their mythical and fantastic nature. The story of Moses begins with his flight from Egypt after he murders an Egyptian. Moses' miraculous escapein a reed basket as an infant and his childhood with his adoptive mother, Pharaoh's daughter, are recounted in flash-back by Moses. While, obviously, any popular version would be incomplete without the story of Moses in the bullrushes, Testament's treatment effectively makes Moses' origins almost incidental and gives God a much stronger senseof character, thereby reinforcing one of the central themes of Old Testament writing, the foundation of an Israelite nation and its developing relationship with a unique and jealous God. Each episode has a unique approach to telling its story. "Ruth" is a classic fairy tale in which the princess, who is good, and kind, and obedient, gets her prince charming and lives happily ever after. "Jonah", unremittingly cantankerous to the last scenewhen he grudgingly accepts God's point is of view, an archetypal Scrooge. "Daniel", a story of exile framed and narrated by a modern refugee woman and her child, adopts the vivid and exuberant colours of Chagal's painting but the same darkness of his reworking of the biblical themes of holocaust and exile. The Testamentproduction team's translation strategy positions the series within a literary-critical tradition that identifies the languageof the Bible with the sourceof literary and poetic expression. In this respect,one may comparethe series with other televisionproductions suchas The Gospels,(1993) a Drama House-BBC production which re-enactsthe life of Christ in a minimalist film space,defined only by lighting, and a singlechair for a prop. The paired-down set, the minimalism of gestureand lighting, and the actors' delivery focus on the literary qualities of the King Jamesversionwhich the production used as a script. The connectionsbetween the Bible and literature are even more explicit in Words from Jerusalem (1994), another Drama House-BBC co-production, read by Sir John Gielgud. The production intercuts an account of the Easter Story taken from the Gospels with poems by contemporary poets. Testamentmay also be contrasted with another popular animatedseriesfor children, The Story Keepers. However, the two series display distinct differencesin their interpretive approach. Both series make equal claims to a close reading of the text and an interpretive integrity. Whereas Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of War ick, 2000 page 159  UnderminingReaderRealities Testament's inter-textuality marks its reading of the biblical texts as primarily literary (although essentially Christian in its interpretive stance), the historical- in The Story Keepers reveals a greater interest in the function of the critical stance in the life of the Christian church.6 These two readerly approaches produce stories SI different interpretive effects. The ma rs 'storical-critical method in The Story Keepers' emphasises the original social and cultural contexts of the stories. The literary-critical methods of Testament's writers translates the history of interpretation in Western art, literature, and music into the animation. There are Testament. Shakespeareis many subtle touches to support this characterisation of one obvious model for some episodes' dramatic structure as well as their poetic prose style and characterisation of some minor characters. For example, the between the prison guard and the prisoner locked away more than half his exchange life in Joseph's story provides Shakespearean comic relief and irony. Abraham's is in script written a strongly rhythmic style that displays a taste for poetic imagery, as the following extractshows. Sarah We are blown like rattling leaves from desert to desert. Abraham Must risk all that we love to find greater a sanctity in God'slove. Sarah, he promised us a son. Sarah You know I could never bear a child andyou andyour Godtaunt me with it. Abraham He has promised. Sarah Hespeaksto you of your descendants. My slave, Hagar is young and she is kind. Perhaps she will make you a father Abraham No Sarah. I am yours. You are the one I love. Translatingfor the senseof the biblical text to conform to the constraints of television scheduleshas provided a practical alternativeto translatingword for word. 6 Both approachesassumea close readingof the text in contradistinction, say, to the Visual Bible translationor the Turner Pictures Old Testamentstories. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of WVarwick,2000 page 160  UnderminingReaderRealities Despite the innovative use of puppet and cell animation and extensive rewriting, this is strategy apparently successful . Although, in itself, this is a relative judgement motivated by the quality of animation, the clever intertextuality of the writing, and the treatment of each story within canons of English literary composition and popular writing. The very idea of translating for the sense implies a consensus on the meaning of biblical narrative, a consensus not necessarily assumed by Testament's writers. In fact, a comparison of the narrative structure and content of each episode with the Christian Bible reveals radical omissions, a reworking of biblical content, and a tendency towards Romantic forms of characterisation. Yet the producers claim the same textual integrity reserved for their animation of Shakespeare'splays and operatic works, two series that preceded Testament. One of the principles of integrity in this instance is the "painstaking research" that went into pre-production. Both the visual images and the interpretation of biblical narrative show evidence of extensive research. At the outset, therefore, the notion of integrity implies a close reading of the original texts, in this case, the modern palimpsest credited with the title "Old Testament". Given this evident respect for the biblical texts and their interpretive history in literature, art and music, one cannot take lightly any claim to integrity by simply comparing the series to its presumed source text, the King James Version. An evaluation of the series' integrity in terms of how true the writers and animators are to the biblical text, if indeed that is what they mean by their claim, needs to start with an attempt to understand their concept of biblical text. The production's apparent strategy of translating for the sense provides clues to concept of text used. Scripting, animation, visual imagery, and music contribute in equal measureto the series' interpretation of the narratives and their history. representational While an equivalentof "word for word" translation, such asthat usedin the VisualBible, may indicatea desireto convey the internal integrity of eachstory in the series,referenceto other works that have been inspired by these narrativesclearly demonstratesa broaderhistorical understandingof the senseof the text. In the first instance,the writers and animators have treated the Bible as an opentext. A closeanalysisof "Abraham" demonstrateshow this senseof openness Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneAfedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 161  UnderminingReaderRealities is achieved. The Testamentversion recounts the story of Abraham's migration from Haran to the hills in Caanan where he settles and raises his longed-for son Isaac. (Genesis chapters 12-22) The series' publicity bills the story as an epic journey to the Promised Land. This familiar biblical image of a quest is sketched only briefly with a few wide shots (many of them from a bird's eye view) of the family and their flocks travelling through a bleak and windy landscape. In the biblical account this journey takes up a mere two verses. (Genesis 12:5-6) With the exception of a journey to Egypt to escapea severe drought, that is not included in Testament, (end of Genesis 12) Abraham's nomadic wandering is set in a relatively small area around Hebron to the east of the salt sea. Abraham is already settled in the "Promised Land" for most of the story. According to the biblical account, he seems to have got along pretty well with his neighbours, making treaties with neighbouring kings to to establish a presence and enrich his family. The central drama of the story as told by Testament, is not the journey, but the foundation of an Israelite nation and its distinctive relationship with a single God. The focus of this drama is Abraham's lack of an heir and his faith in God to provide one. The story's moment of high tension is God's demand that Abraham sacrifice his only son, and its catharsis Isaac's last minute reprieve. In Testament, unlike the Turner Pictures version of "Abraham", the quest for a Promised Land is ignored, it figures neither as a metaphor nor a trope. The central core of the narrative revolves around God's promise to secureAbraham's future through a male heir and Sarah's attempt to intervene in that prophesy by offering her slave Hagar as a surrogate mother. The sub-plot of Lot's escape from Sodom adds local colour, it is a short interlude in the main narrative included perhaps to reinforce the theme that God keeps his promises to righteous people who remain faithful. The Testament version of this story ends when Lot's wife turns into a pillar of salt. This closure emphasises the mythical quality of the series giving the interlude the sense of a legend attached to a certain rock formation that looks like a woman looking back into the valley where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had stood. If the preferredstrategy in the seriesis to translate for the senseof the text, the omissions in Testament'sversion of "Abraham" are significant for what they Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 162  Undermining Reader Realities illuminate in the original text. Deviations from the original story reveal much about the translator's critical attitudes, her value judgements and, as a consequence,the text has translated. 7 Treating the translator's form of text criticism she work as a supports a recognition of translation as the in power of reference a more fundamental way because it places an emphasis on the original's value and its reception in the target culture. In the context of a growing interest in translation as cultural criticism (particularly in feminist and postcolonial studies) this approach displaces questions about a writer's or film-maker's translation strategy, or the categories into which the work fits, and evaluations of equivalence through source/target text comparisons. Comparative methodologies that aim to evaluate the adequacy or acceptability of a translation and the normative vocabularies associated with them, even at their most empirical and descriptive, focus on a translation's function in the target culture. Paradoxically, these critical and descriptive methodologies make the source or original text disappear from view, they share the same ground as a functional conception of translation and its repertoires of passive instrumentality. In the caseof Bible translation, a great deal hangson whether the text is interpretedas historical actuality or founding myth. John Romer notes in his book on the Bible andhistory, written to accompanya television seriesmadefor Channel 4 (1988), that the question of historical truth or accuracyis difficult to establishon the evidenceof archaeologyand written records of the ancient civilisations of the Bible.8 He argues,for example,that the plausibility of the Abraham story lies in its function as a founding myth of the nation of Israel and its uniquely monotheistic identity. While no corroboration exists in other ancient records that Abraham, or other Hebrew Patriarchs such as Jacob, Joseph, or Moses, actually existed as historical figures,there is plenty of archaeological evidenceto support the credibility of the biblical narrativesandtheir literary function. As Romer notes, to believe that The idea of deviation as textual criticism is taken from Leo Steinbergin (Mitchell, 1980). It is alsothe methodadoptedby Niranjana's translationdescribedin chapterthree and the principal translationmethodadoptedby the American Bible Societyin their newmediabibletranslations. 8 (Romer, 1988). Seealso (Bloom and Rosenberg,1991). Thompson (1999) puts the same casein a morescholarlystyle. He focuseson the historical foundations for post-exilic literature in the Bible, or the restorationof chosenpeopleto their land of origin. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 163  Undermining Reader Realities of concordances the biblical stories in other Egyptian and Mesopotamian myths and records: serve to cast doubt upon the authenticity of the Book of Genesis is to misinterpret its true purposes. When the Old Testament decorates itself in the details of local colour they are always put at the service of an overriding ... theme: the slow-developing relationship of Israel and Jehovah and this is an unfolding revelation; the definition of a god Appropriately [the stories of the ... Book of Genesis] use some of civilisation's oldest stories. 9 Testament's treatment of the story of Abraham apparently supports this reading in its omission of narrative details that would give the viewer a sense of the story's historicity. The episode pares away any sub-plot not immediately relevant to its main theme. Abraham's journey to Egypt, the wars between tribes in the surrounding area, Abraham's rescue of Lot following his kidnap by the kings of Elam, Goiim, Babylonia, and Ellassar, and Abraham's acquisition of wealth through his treaties with neighbouring kings have all been dropped. The land which Abraham occupies with his family is a barren lunar landscape empty of other inhabitants. Testament focuses Abraham as a man of faith and obedience and his relationship with his God. References that place him in a specific time and location, and tempt viewers to expect a historical authenticity are eliminated. They are replaced by the recurring motif of an hour glass, half buried in the desert sands, to remind viewers that time in the episode is an approximate rather than absolute idea represented by clocks. In many respects, this visual play with a motif of tense parallels that of Niranjana's interesting in her Sunyasampadane. 1° use of tense translation of the The visual effect serves to reinforce the fantastic nature of the narrative and produce a senseof awe. Somesignificant rewriting reinforcesthe effect of omissions. For example, Testamentadds an exchangebetween Sarah and Abraham's supernatural visitors when when they chide Sarahfor laughing at their promise she will have a son, (Genesis19:9-15) Sarahdeniesshescoffed at the promise. (Romer, 1988, p 53) 1° (Niranjana,1992) Seechapterthree for a discussion Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of NVar ick, 2000 page 164  UnderminingReaderRealities Sarah Visitor What laughter? . Sarah, I hear beyondsilence to the meaning of silence Listen, time is mine to speedor slacken -I You shall have the son I promised. You shall call him Isaac. I shall bless you through him. Sarah Abraham. You could always believe. Now my belief is sure. Similarly, after the angel restrains Abraham from murdering Isaac a voice announces: +God Hold, Abraham. The boy is not demanded Only the faith that would give him up. Take him and walk into the sunlight of your God. Voice From Adam to Abraham the Lord God has been patient, waiting. Now God waits for you Isaac and your brother Ishmael. This treatment of Abraham's story with its particular omissions and rewriting suggeststhe writers may have J " relied on as one of their principal sources. With one exception, the binding of Isaac which scholarly opinion attributes to E. Comparison of Testament's treatment of the story with Harold Bloom's commentarysuggestsan attempt to be "true" to the Yahwist writer as depictedby Bloom. Bloom arguesthat J's version of Isaac's sacrifices has been completely obliterated by later redactors. His commentary on this story is an attempt to recoverwhat would have been J's narration from what exists as the canonicalOld Testamenttext. In the animatedversion, the binding immediately follows a happy " Scholars attribute the first five books of the Christian Old Testament to a number of writers and editors J, E, P, and R who worked on the texts with different ideological intent. The approximate chronology starts with the J texts in 950-900 BCE (J stands for Jahwe ist, because the author always uses YHVH "the Lord" for God). E or Elohist is a revision of J made in approximately 850-800 BCE. E uses the name Elohim for God. P, the Priestly writer, approximately 550-500 BCE worked on older sources and added some of his own. R is an editor who performed a final revision of the texts c. 400 BCE. (Bloom, 1991) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 165  Undermining Reader Realities little scenewith Isaac and his parents. Here is a transcript of the scene: (See clip 15) --ýGod Abraham. Abraham. Abraham I am here Lord God Your son Isaac You longed for and loved. Take him and sacrifice him to me. A burnt offering. Abraham No! Not Isaac! No! God A burnt offering. Abraham Lay down my son in flames? God Abraham. Surrender him. Abraham You trample, you tear me Lord. Take anything. God Abraham. Surrender. Abraham Endless darkness It closes over me. MSSarah. Dark clouds cover the sun obliterating the brightness of the earlier scene. Sarah Abraham. Isaac. This is more than absence. The future creeps on my skin. Some fear is kicking in me like a child. Lord God. Love them into safety. WS Abraham and Isaac climb the mountain. The same dark atmosphere pervades. Abraham Isaac. Listen. Heaven forgive me. Isaac Am I the lamb that God has chosen? Am Ia trouble to him? Abraham It is the Lord's command. Isaac Do it quickly. I am afraid. Abraham binds Isaac He weepsover the boy, prolonging the suspenseof the moment Then he raises his knife to kill him. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 pagc 166  Undermining Reader Realities God Hold, Abraham. The Boy is not demanded Only the faith that would give him up. Bloom characterisesJ as a supreme ironist whose elliptical style resembles that of Shakespeare.12 She (for Bloom also argues that J is a woman) represents God as extremely capricious and possessive in his relationships towards with his chosen favourites. "J's attitude toward Yahweh resembles nothing so much as a mother's somewhat wary but still proudly amused stance toward a favourite son who has grown up to be benignly powerful but also eccentrically irascible.')113Bloom argues that God's motivation for requiring Isaac's sacrifice comes from this particular characterisation, rather than a desire to "test" Abraham's faith (an addition in a later redaction of the story). In Testament, as in Bloom's recovered J version, God's demandis unexpected. It comes out of the blue so to speak. The sudden break in the story is portrayed visually. An extra-diegetic voice calling to Abraham motivates a cut from the family to scene a high angle close-up of Abraham who turns to look up at the sky. Abraham's response to God's demand is an entirely natural paternal one. He argueswith God; he drags his heels up the mountain; he puts off the awful moment of sacrifice. In short, he confronts God with the same determination that he pleads for the lives of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. Bloom argues the mindless obedience of Abraham that has survived into the modern Old Testament story is uncharacteristic of J's writing, that Abraham's reluctance would be more typical of the relationship of J's patriarchs (Abraham, Jacob, Moses) to their God. '4 This comparison suggeststhe writer of the Testament version (Elizabeth Laird) may 'I (Bloom and Rosenberg,1991, p 26) "In J, the characteristicellipsis is relatedto endless wordplay, to an incessantharmony of puns, false or popular etymologies, homonyms, virtually Shakespearean in their witty profusion If one could imagine a Jewish Chaucerwriting with the ... uncannyironies of Kafka and IsaakBabel and NathanaelWest, but also with the high naturalistic wisdom of Tolstoy and Wordsworth, then one would approachthe high humor of J, ultimate ancestorof The Canterbury Tales as well as of Tolstoy's fictions and Kafka's parables." 13 (Bloom and Rosenberg,1991,p 26) 14 "As I readJ, her episodeof the Binding of Isaacwould begin very differently from the story that has come down to us. Abram battled vigorously for the lives of the sinful inhabitants of Sodom;would he do lessfor his innocentson Isaac? J had little interest in and even less taste for sacrifice,as wiehaveseenin the tale of Cain and Abel..." (Bloom and Rosenberg,1991, p 206) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom One,1fediumto Another BCCS, University of War ick, 2000 page 167  Undermining Reader Realities have identified with Bloom's close reading of the text even to the extent that there is no substitute sacrificial animal waiting in the thicket; the scene ends with Isaac skipping into the fresh sunlight. But Bloom's commentary is apparently not the only source of comparison. Visually, the scene of the sacrifice resembles Rembrandt's Abraham's Sacrifice (1634) now hanging in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg,except, in the television version, we see the angel only as a swift blur as he knocks the knife from Abraham's hand. In the first Rembrandt there is no ram lurking in the background either. 15 The two renditions of the story focus all their narrative tension on the shocking moment when Abraham nearly kills his one, much loved son. The landscape's depiction also suggestsRembrandt as a model, especially on the route up the mountain, where, in a style characteristic of Rembrandt, only a small break in the lowering clouds illuminates the dark scene. Other details in Testament's representation of the sacrifice suggest further interpretive sources that undercut the notion of an ironic depiction of the Yahwist God put forward by Bloom. While the sacrifice is aborted altogether, the story points through Sarah's prayerful little interlude towards an allegorical Christian interpretation of the scene as the ultimate sacrifice and the way to salvation. As Sarahspeaks the clouds gather, obliterating the sun. The scene creates an analogy with accounts of Christ's crucifixion in the synoptic Gospels when the whole country is covered with darkness while Mary, the mother of Jesus, stands at a distance watching. The juxtaposition of this scene with the final scene of Isaac skipping into the sunlight obviates the need for a direct reference to the sacrifice. But Isaac's representation not only as a willing sacrifice but also ä young and innocent boy, symbolising the unblemished and blameless sacrificial lamb of Christianity, suggestively indicates a predominately Christian reading of the story. 16 `s There are two paintings on this subject attributed to Rembrandt. The second one, presumablya copy, now hangingin the Alte Pinakothek in Munich includes the substitute ram. It is quite possible, given the Testamentversion is made by Christmas Films in Moscow that the Rembrandthangingin St. Petersburgwould haveprovided the model for the visual treatmentof this story. See(Feldman,1998). Feldmanarguesthat the motif of child sacrificeand its representation as an Oedipal narrativederives ratherfrom Greek mythology and that the habitual reading of this story "through the lens of a Freudian psychology and its Greek foundation" has resulted in the imposition of a psychologicaldynamicthat is alien to the Hebrewbiblical narrative. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom One1ledium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 168  Undermining Reader Realities Apparently, the production's notion of integrity rests primarily on the literary character of the biblical text. This perception is not confined to any intrinsic qualities of biblical writing. The production's references to other religious works of art embracesa conception of the universality of biblical literature as a matter of its enduring ability to entertain, move, or inspire its readers rather than a matter of faith. Unlike other examples discussed in this thesis, Testament seems to take for granted the modern Bible as a palimpsest, a translated book. The conception of, and reverencefor, the Bible's textuality indicates a secular sensibility that allows for a more eclectic and imaginative response to these biblical narratives than translations with a narrower, didactic aim. The notion of integrity is not confined to the truth of biblical texts and their interpretive history, both religious and secular. The series also infers, through its visual treatment of the stories, a particular sense of biblical truth as marvellous and fantastic. The artwork, particularly, helps to sustain this sense. The visual treatment of the creation story in "Noah" is especially interesting in this respect. Its flowing, abstract imagery helps to heighten a sense of the fantastic. No imageremains stable for very long. No sooner does a form emerge and hold than it mutates into something else. (See clip 16) The surrealist imagery in "Moses" achievesa similar effect in its exaggeratedsense of perspective and use of flat colours. The figure drawing in "Moses" mirrors the geometric minimalism of ancient Egyptian art and architecture and the episode tells its story in the same minimalist fashion. The animation's backgrounds are flat and rendered in vivid colours, the deserts and mountains of the Middle Eastern and Egyptian landscapes depicted in Tolkeinesque fantastical and surreal imagery. (See clip 17) This treatment provokes questions more about the relationship of the Bible's narrative worlds to modernity than the translated text's relationship to its source. If a particular attitude of secularmodernismin the seriesreflects an evasion of the historical realism of epic cinema, how may one evaluate the power of translationas reference?How doesa closereadingof the text, evokedby the series' narrativeand visual treatment of its multiple literary and artistic sources,reveal the semiotic value of the "original"? Is it possible to show how the original may have "affected" the languageof translation, or produced an "echo of the original"? RichardWalsh arguesthe Bible is fantastic literature, a critique of the realities of Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of %Van%ick,2000 page 169  i'nderminirig Reader Realitie. biblical times intended to "subvert readerly reality. "" The narrative worlds of stories like Moses, Daniel, and Jonah offer alternative images of power to subvert the powers that be. The stories "fantastically subvert ancient imperial worlds" through their accounts of the miraculous and marvellous. The series treats the fantastic as ordinary elements of the narrative: a bush burns in the desert without being consumed by flames, Daniel survives the hungry lions; a tree grows up in a day to shade Jonah and withers away overnight. (Fig. ii) - (fig. ii) Jonah Walsh distinguishes two possible modern responses to the fantastic and mythic in the Bible, rationalism or supernaturalism. ' He argues rationalism "reduces the biblical narrative to the uncanny."'`' Rationalism, in a modern scientific world seeks plausible scientific answers to the plagues inflicted on Pharaoh by God. Recent (Walsh. 199-. p1 16) ibid.. The antinomy is endlessly reworked in the science fiction detective television series the _' Files in which Molder always finds a supernatural explanation and Scully a rational explanation for the inexplicable and the baffling. The ending of each episode. however. is always ambiguous; logic and reason never succeedin accounting for the supernatural. ibid.. p 139 Joy Sisley. Trans/sting Jrnºn One tedium to Another . BCCS. University of Warwick. 2000 page 170  Undermining Reader Realities 4 microbiological research has apparently found a reasonable and rational explanation not only for each of the plagues depicted in Genesis, but also for their specific order in the biblical narrative. This type of rationalisation "reduces the Bible to antiquarian or ethical interest: '20 The alternative supernaturalist response romanticises the miraculous as divine intervention at the same time making humans servants of an unpredictable and capricious God. Arguably, Testament challengesa rationalist view of the Bible as much as it challenges a response of pious supernaturalism. Noah's account of the creation story sets the existential parametersof the series. Adam andEve risk death to opt for the freedomof choice insteadof blind obedienceto God by eatingthe fruit from the forbidden tree. In the spirit of Enlightenmentthey choosethe "burden of understanding'. ". But as-they leavethe garden,God promises they will always carry the memory of a flawless world to console them. The series' aesthetic response to the Bible, its magical realism, serves to transfigure reality. The series treats biblical writing as transcendentby readingthe Bible as literature, in the modem senseof Literature. It also subvertsmodern in reality a critical approach that dates to antecedentssuch as the medievalmystical plays. The conceptof the modem Bible and its textuality used in this chapter was gearedto testing the validity of source/text oppositions as a central concept of translationtheory andpractice. Despite my focus on certain textual featuresof the series,particularly its inter-textuality, it is important to acknowledgethe modern Bible as the product of centuriesof textual and compositional practices groundedin the socialcontextsof its use. Considerationof translators' claimsto integrity purely on the basis of the series' textual integrity ignores a fundamental aspect of that integrity conveyed through the evidence of extensive research underpinning the series. The series'creatorsworked within a matrix of institutional relationships and valuesthat form the social ground of interpretation and contribute to the semiotic valueof the Bible throughtranslation- These practices bear on the value of the text irrespective of whether it is J's "Abraham", Shakespeare's"Hamlet", Puccini's "Turandot", or Chaucer's"Canterbury Tales". 20 (Walsh, 1997,p 139) Joy Sislcy, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 171  Undermining Reader Realities It is important to understandthe social and cultural contexts of production and reception and, what is more important, how translation mediates the social relationships and cultural values pertaining to those contexts, to grasp the referential power of Testament as translation. I will take up this issue in more descriptive detail in my analysis of the American Bible Society's New Media Translation Project. The following serves as a preliminary exploration of some pertinent questions on this aspect of translation, rather than a detailed analysis of production contexts in British broadcasting that give,rise to a series like Testament. Translation consists of a range of technical and professional practices and relationships that are fairly general in nature, but are articulated in unique ways in the private worlds of individual institutions or organisations. An organisation's culture is formed through both its hierarchical structures and personal networks and its interface (political, economic, and social) with the public world to which it belongs. The extent to which these interact to produce a stable organisational environment or social and cultural change is a question for organisational or social research. Nevertheless, these considerations are important for understanding the relationship between translation practice and its signification in an analysis of the referential power of translation. It may help to illuminate these issues through a brief examination of the main discourses of "integrity" as a certain kind of textual practice that invites evaluative responses The production team claimedintegrity not only for Testamentbut also other series they created. Integrity, in this context, functions as a value and a compositional discoursethat expressa set of attitudes about the translation as well as relationshipsbetween the production team,the broadcastinstitution, and viewers. In the first place"integrity" signifiesa set of production practices including detailed and painstaking pre-production research,responsible consultation with theological and religious advisers,and the employment of highly experienced,award-winning programmeeditors, writers and animators. The notion of integrity reflects a set of programmeand production values that underpin the production's status within the sponsoringbroadcast organisations. The maintenanceof particular -standards of formed through the BBC's perception of its role as a public broadcasting excellence Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 gag (72  Undermining Reader Realities institution confirms the production's integrity. 21 The organisation maintains standards of professional excellencethroughout which aTct decisions as minute as every day cutting room practice and as general as programme aesthetics. These standardsconstitute a particular interpretation of the regulatory requirements of the BBC's Charter to provide a universal service of high quality. Insofar as professional values of excellence and integrity are acted out as institutionalised production practices in the making of Testament, these practices constitute "translation norms" that serve to maintain social cohesion between the broadcaster and its publics. The values function to maintain the BBC's public profile as an organisation that provides high standards of technical quality and programme content. The extent to which these function as constraints on the production is debatable. As broadcasting institutions, the BBC and S4C are subject to political, economic and social pressures that bear on how they constitute themselves as organisations, the programming decisions they make, and the ways they present themselves to their publics, particularly through their programming. Changes in the broadcasting system, whether they come from the introduction of new channels, changes in the franchise system and financing television, or the introduction of new technology such as digital television, invariably produce questions about broadcasting standards that are debated within and outside the organisation. Production practices associated with standards of excellence may be put to the service of managing change for the organisation as well as to maintaining a status quo. Integrity as a value that is realised through certain kinds of production practice, therefore, is one indication of Testament's referential power. The discoursesof integrity requireevaluationin the context of a broadcasting organisation'srelationship to its publics. Two historical factors are significant for this relationship and may accountto a considerabledegreefor the appearanceof a series like Testament. First, the foundation of Channel 4 with its regulatory requirement to serve a variety of audiencetastes, encourageinnovation in programme making and show a suitable portion of educational programmes. (Hood 1994). Second, the deregulation of broadcasting in 1990 and changesin the franchise system 21 (Burns,1977) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 173  Undermining Reader Realities of bidding for control of television stations in the independent network which in resulted newly franchised companies chasing larger audiences with more popular programming policies. This profoundly affected Britain's broadcast culture, in particular BBC2 which has established a more recognisable identity as the provider of high quality programmes for minority audiences (particularly art programmes). The principles of innovation and quality that underpin the programme values of integrity in Testamentform part of the interpretive ground of the series. Integrity, in this case,meansthe creation of a corporate persona intended to assureviewers of the broadcaster's continuing commitment to innovative programming of high technical and aesthetic quality. The broadcaster's credibility in turn guarantees the series. The discourses of integrity thus function as a reciprocal reinforcement of the standards of evaluation used to judge the series in its own right and in relation to other programming of its kind. One may pull back further to evaluatethe creators' claims to the integrity of Testamentin the context of broader cultural attitudes towards religion and society and the television companies' contribution to shaping those attitudes. One of the ways the discourses of integrity have emerged in the series' textual composition is its perhaps use of fantasy. The fact that BBC 2 and S4C (Welsh Channel 4) are "minority" channelswithin the overall mix of British broadcasting,with a remit to serve interests marginal to mainstream culture in innovative ways, makes them natural sponsors of a series whose translation strategy is calculated to disrupt readerlyrealities and effect a "re-enchantment" of the rational world of modernity. The writers' literary reading of the Old Testament stories reflects a Romantic sensibility that the sacralises ritual space of television. (Goethals, 1997; Murdock, 1997) Testament'sfantastical imagery subverts modern readerly responsesto the Bible, dominatedby two centuriesof historical criticism and the theological frames of religious establishment,in a number of ways the principal one of which is a to challenge assumptionsabout secularism and religious broadcastingthat blurs the boundariesbetweensacredand secularwithin the text of Testament. The claim that the seriesrepresentsa literary readingof the Bible demandsan explanationbeyond the scopeof this short chapter. However, a brief summary qualification is possible. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 174  Undermining Reader Realities Prickett and Jasper comment, in their compilation of literary readings of the Bible, on three distinguishable trends: the Bible as Criticism, the Bible as Literature, and literary readingsof the Bible. (Jasper and Prickett, 1999) The first is an interpretive attitude that reflects the reader's own circumstances. The second interpretive attitude focuses on an understanding of the Bible as literature in its own right. These two trends intersect in literary readings of the Bible which reflect the creative, critical response of writers, artists, and film-makers to biblical narrative where the barriers erectedin the nineteenth century between biblical studies and literary criticism have been broken down. Testament partakes of this history of reading in its own interpretive practices while at the sametime calling attention to it. In conclusion, we may draw three lessons from a consideration of translation its as referential power that have important implications for the focus of translation studies and its critical methods. If as Hermans suggests, translations can tell us something about themselves, then it is important, as translation theorists not merely to examinetranslated texts and their contexts for what they reveal about translation but to look critically at our own interpretive attitudes. The rich intertextuality of the Testament series calls attention to the work of production in translation that the framing devices of other series examined here have sought to obscure, or efface. The writers and animators of Testament have revealed something about the creative nature of translation and about the function of the Bible in modern society in their treatment of the Bible as a text belonging to a literary and artistic history that any reader brings to his or her interpretive experience. Efforts to evaluate this work of creation from the standpoint of a fixed value, the source text or the translator's normative behaviour, reveal more about the translation theorist than the translated text itself. Testament opens up a space for considering the relation between a translation's function and its value that in turn invites an exploration of the social and cultural construction of value. Second, the discourses of integrity embedded in Testament confront translation critics with a question about their own interpretive habits. If a translation's differencesand omissions constitutes a body of criticism that reveals more about the original text, one may reasonably ask what translation criticism Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 175  UnderminingReaderRealities reveals about the translation itself. Prickett's comments about the paradoxes of translation return to haunt the critic. Those who look through the translated text in a comparison that would reveal the relative transparency of its relationship with a source text see the least. For those who study the translated text closely, its apparent opacity becomes even more richly revealing. Finally, a translation enters into a dialogue with the original and other texts as a sign that mediates between the original and its reception. Translation has a life of its own born of other interpretations, the sum of which are an index of the translation's value or its ground of interpretation. Reference criticism, whether undertaken by a translator or a translation critic, blurs the boundaries between interpretation, criticism, and translation, and focuses on the creative life of a text in an invitation to test the limits of translation. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 176  CHAPTER SEVEN The Limits and Possibilities of Translation [Function is] a certain property of being and of behaving in a regional field. ' The foregoing discussion has dealt with the manner in which translations refer. My intention has been to demonstrate how a close reading of the texts used here and a focus on what Jakobson has defined as untranslatable, or what remains beyond the superficial equivalence of source and target texts, challenges the efficacy of theory basedon representational concepts of translation in which the translation is seen as a substitution of its original. This perspective has created the possibility to challenge some of the habitual oppositions embedded in modern definitions of translation and the comparative methodologies and categories that result from those oppositions. What interests me here is not the apparent impossibility of translation but the very fact that we do communicate across languages, media, and cultures. This thesis, therefore, confronts one of the central contradictions of translation theory and practice. Conceptually, translation is limited by the epistemological and ontological terms that police its boundaries. In practice, we have seen that translation inevitably evades those boundaries. Thus the "untranslatable" as defined by Jakobson points paradoxically to the possibilities of translation. However, the contradiction of limits and possibilities is not resolved simply by relaxing the boundaries of translation, as suggested by semiotic definitions, or by hedging definitions with elaborate typologies or theories of translation norms. As I argued in my introduction, an examination of translation's referential power, the social and cultural contexts in which texts acquire their semiotic value (meaning) and which continue to affect any text through its various transformations, promises a fuller understanding of translation both in theory and 2 practice. Each of the case studies studied here demonstrate how producers have tried to resolve the impossibility of translation, as they see it, within the narrative and representational forms they used. In so doing, they have revealed more about the (Morot-Sir,1993,p 125) 2 See Sherry Simon (1996), especially her analysis of the Anglo-American translation and receptionof Frenchfeminist theory, for a particularly cogentexampleof this approach. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 177  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation processesand referential power of translation than normative theories of equivalence which rely on essentialist distinctions between languages,text types, or media. It is no small wonder, therefore, that translation- studies has take a cultural turn- which emphasisesthe productive or creative characteristics of translation. The importance of this turn is its shift from a focus on what translations are to how they function. Reference in translation is exceptionally complex on two counts. First, a translation's referent is already a text, open to interpretation and proliferating inter- textual references, in which the ground of interpretation is difficult to pin down. Indeed, the question of how this ground has been constructed has been central to my analysis. In the case of The Visual Bible we noted how the author of a message of salvation encoded in the Gospel of Matthew is assumed as the ultimate referent. Hence the central importance of the dynamics of focalisation within the video and the shift in point of view when we look at Matthew through Jesus' eyes. In The Story Keepers we noted how the frame story is designed to preserve the heterogeneity of the Bible's interpretive communities. Thus while the series' producers and writers recognise that translation (re-telling, or re-writing) produces new interpretations, there is a clear attempt to preserve what is understood as the moral integrity of the biblical stories by making a distinction between reliable and unreliable narrators and narratees. In chapter five we noted how the translation process re-configured the original texts to make senseof viewers' experience as historical subjects of a particular kind, where the ground of interpretation is the moral and political identity of Americans as a chosen people, modelled on a mythical invention of America as the Promised Land drawn from the exilic writings of the Old Testament. Patrice Pavis' distinction between the possible fictional world of an illusion created by a system of signs, and the real world in which members of the audience exist- is. helpful here? Pavis argues that the. interaction of these two worlds gives meaning to the artistic sign, but that the "Social Context" of production and reception constitutes the sign's referent, whereas what is seenon stage is "the illusion of a referent". He concludes, "It becomes necessary,in order to understand the fiction offered, to compare the possible world of the dramatic universe with the real world of an audience, at any given moment of reception ... 3 (Pavis, 1987, pp 122-137) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 178  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation [where] the sign is necessarily to be interpreted as a unit forming part of a discursive and ideological whole. "4 In this context, we noted in chapter six that the integrity of the Testament translation is not an intrinsic aesthetic relationship, but is contingent upon its discursive construction through the professional practices of BBC 2 as a broadcasting institution. The second factor that adds complexity to the referential model used here is the problem of translating from one medium to another, where each medium shares common rhetorical and narrative strategies,but does so in unique ways. Since we are dealing with questions of translatability within the frame of reference criticism, it has been important to move on from theories about the adequacy of translation (in other words its feasibility in terms of a structural equivalence between texts) to questions about the processes of translation, since it is already clearly something that authors, film makers, painters and composers do, irrespective of the outcome. I have argued, therefore, that the more important question is the interpretive effectsof translation from one medium to another. This was a central issue in chapter two. Since I have already shown how interpretation is intimately connected to the contexts of a work's production and reception, it follows one of the most logical ways to address the question of media specificity is to focus on genre shifts that accompany media shifts. On this I follow Bazin's argument that "The true aesthetic differentiations, in fact, are to be made not among the arts, but within genres themselves: betweeen psychological novel and the novel of manners, for example, rather than between the psychological novel and the film that one would make from it. i5 The effects of genre shift has been a constant thread running throughout my case study analysis. In this chapter I take it up as a specific critique of the ABS' principle of dynamic equivalence. A focus on genre also allows for the thick description adopted as the principal method of my thesis because genre criticism, particularly its application in media studies, accommodates the three levels of context noted in my introduction as relevant to questions of reference. While the foregoing case studies haveconcentratedon textual and contextual factors of reference, the case study in this chapter focuses on the social contexts of reference. As I suggested in my analysis of the principle of "integrity" in chapter 6, the very terms we use to describe translation (Pavis, 1987, p 124) s (Bazin, 1948,pp 32-40) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 179  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation are themselves socially produced. In other words, if we attempt to evaluate a translation on the basis on an assumed -,clue, we very quickly find ourselves tangled in a web of culturally relative positions! An analysis of the social contexts of translation enablesus to interrogate the very grounds on which those assumptions are constructed and give historical specificity to terms that often appear transparent or self-evident. While I began this process of interrogating the social ground on which translations acquire their semiotic force in the previous chapter, this chapter takes a further step by examining how the translated text becomes the site on which the translation organisation negotiates its role and status within the larger sphere within which it operates. Consequently, it is important, firstly, to establish the role of translation in the organisation's construction of its own identity. This description is followed by an analysis of one of its translation projects following the critical principles established in chapters 1 through 6. That is, an emphasis put on the text itself and its effects, a search for its internal- structures and sense of its unavoidable ambiguities, and a rejection of a simple relation of causality between translation and work, and between source and target text. The relation between the translation and its social ground is handled through an analysis of the project's "repertoires" used here in its sociological sense to account for the models of action, discourse, and interpretation that frame and direct social interaction and contention in the translation process. This chapter aims at thicker description than the comparatively thin description of the referential power of translation in the proceeding chapters. The first section of this is chapter necessarily descriptive. It is imperative to have a clear idea from where the translation project began both to appreciate its experimental character and to reach a clearer general understanding of translation as its referential power. Translation has emergedfrom my study so far as something at once derivative and creative, in which the innovative forces of its creativity and the conservative forces of its derivative nature pull in opposite directions. This observationdoes not necessarilyengendera cleareridea of translation, it merely re- introducesthe questionof a translation's referenceas its difference or similarity. If the free play of differencesbetweenone languageand another,whether verbal, visual 6 This is preciselythe argumentmadeby Prickett in Words and the Word Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page 180  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation or kinetic, constitutes translation how may one recognise it other than by its polysemous inter-textuality? On the other hand, if the rules or norms that tie it to the semiotic system of which it is a function constitute translation, how may one establish its relation to an exterior reality, the source text that is purportedly its model? One solution to the apparently unresolvable paradoxes of these oppositions is an investigation of what precisely translation supposedly transfers or transforms and its effect in the target culture. The notion of `effect' places emphasis squarely on translations and their contexts. In this case, I agreewith Gideon Toury who says, "Translations are facts of the target culture. ,6 Toury's argument is an interesting one. He proposes a clearer idea oftransIation and its function (effect) in the target is culture possible by examining the rules and norms adopted by translators. Toury proposes a semiotic qualification of function that he describes as "the value assigned to an item belonging in a system by virtue of the network of relations it enters into. ,7 This bears a superficial resemblance to the arguments put forward at the conclusion of chapter three and developed throughout section two. Since this chapter's purpose is to explore translation as its function, some of the theoretical difficulties of Toury's approach merit examination for they illuminate the basic starting point of this chapter. Toury argues the prospective position of a translation (or its function) in a target culture is a strong factor in the final form a translation takes and the translation models used. For Toury, translation is an instrument of the larger cultural forces that make up the literary system. Like Saussure's langue, this network of relations apparently possesses an autonomy, an independence of the practices of translation and its outcomes. According to Toury, this autonomous network furnishes the rules or norms of translation. He subordinates any question about the social or cultural agencies of translation, i. e. that the "tool" itself could transform the network of signifying relations, to his hypothesis about the conservative nature of translation. His theory offers no perspective to account for change or innovation, or the interaction of innovation and conservatism within the field of translation. The conclusions Toury draws from his analysis of Chaim Nahman Bialik's translation 6 (Toury, 1995,p 2) (ibid, 1995,p 12) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page181  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation into Hebrew of the German fairy tale Das Schlaraffenland exemplify the difficulties of his functional definition. 8 In this case study, he glosses over a number of innovations that are a product ofthe function ofWebrew literary translation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, described as an effort to "catch up with the Western world" (p 130) and to create a sufficiently diverse literary repertoire to "protect Hebrew literature from foreign waves." (p 132) In Toury's account, Bialik's translation seems to have contributed successfully to this function. The story was integrated into the canon of children's literature and its authorship attributed to Bialik. Over time, the text's semiotic value changed, suggesting that it not only filled a perceived gap in the Hebrew literary system, but also became a model of children's writing because of its inclusion in an anthology of Bialik's writing for children. Toury, however, is seemingly more concerned to present these innovations as conservative norms that confirm the peripheral position translation occupies within a literary system. Toury's functional description of norms, therefore, is rooted in his ontological definition of translation as something pre-given. Translation assumesthe quality of an a priori that serves the purpose of confirming the instrumentality of translating. The principal difficulty with Toury's definition lies in its inability to account for the function of translation except by adding the specificities of norm theory without explaining where these norms come from. If, however, we rephrase his definition to emphasise the active element of a translation's functionality, by considering translation an experience of the target culture rather than a fact, we may account for both the "special status" of translation and its experimental or innovative nature. Edouard Morot-Sir's description of function as a set of semantic relationships, or the constellation of action, experience, and experimentation, helps clarify the usefulness of functional definitions without accepting the weaknesses of Toury's position. Morot-Sir proposes that human action deals with an immediate future; it implies a specific final system, an instrumentation or intention. ' Thus far, this is close to Toury's argument. However, the notion of experimentation adds new meaning to the basic action from which the experiment is a departure. It shows 8 Toury,pp 147-165 9 (Morot-Sir, 1993,pp 133-134) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 182  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation action can be treated as an experience and evaluated as such. Thus contra Toury, semiotic value is a function of the experience not of the system. Imagining the experimental character of an action it makes necessary to think what is new about the experience. Given the importance of this conceptualisation of function for my case study in this chapter, it will perhaps help to quote in full the implications of Morot-Sir's discussion about novelty. He writes It is not a change of routine, because I could change my habits without considering it an experiment, although the sense of novelty seems to be a precondition of initiating an experience ... When I say "It will be an experiment, " I add a new dimension to my daily or professional actions in the sense that I isolate an act in the series of my deeds; it gets a special value independently of the usual values governing my actions. It means that at the same time I wish to evaluate an act in a certain case and actually to compare it with my preceding ones in order to make a decision concerning their own efficiency. In other words, this special act I call `experience' is considered as a possible future model ... To make an experience is to remodel the forms of my life in any situation and in such a way that I will be able to evaluate the new form under consideration The development of an action is modified in ... ... regard to the consciousness of modeling. 1° Morot-Sir's distinction is crucial to a functional conception of translation for it dealswith languageand meaningas an open, active, creativeprocesswithout losing sight of action modelled on routine behaviour. It allows for a characterisationof translationthat is both innovative or creative and derivative or conservative. It also adds the element of intention to experimentation. The most significant aspect of Morot-Sir's conceptis the inclusion of a languageuser. Value is more than a set of textual relations bound by a particular system, it is a factor of the relationships betweenreal people, or betweenindividuals and their environment. In the context of translation, Morot-Sir's conception of function characterisesthe translator as a creativedecision-maker,someonewho may consciously try new models. Toury's functional concept of translation, on the other hand, implicitly characterisesthe translator as subservientto the literary system and its constraints. Whereasin the case of Toury's definition, an analysis of textual relations is adequate to an evaluationof the function or value of translation, in the caseof Morot-Sir's concept io (Morot-Sir, 1993,pp 133-134) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 183  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation of function, an analysisof translation's semiotic value requirestracing it through the socialand institutional contextsof its production. This involves looking at the work of translation (its energeia) as much as the work (ergon) itself. I will take up the idea of translation as an experience of the target culture in my case study of the American Bible Society's New Media Translation Project (which I shall refer to as The Project or the newmediabible following The Project's title for its web site http: //www. newmediabible.org/). The Project is a "multi- media" translation of biblical texts and their interpretations into a hypertext environment on CD-ROM or the world wide web. The main focus of my case study is to consider how a functional definition of translation may help to account for the contradictory character of translation as creative and derivative. My study combines analysis of the translated texts and the social and institutional relationships that underpin the project. It attempts to account for some of the textual features of the translations by exploring the social and cultural factors that may have influenced the translation team's decisions. This attempt involves a broadening of the methodological parameters of my study to include a sociological account of the production of meaning and value in my case study. There are several reasons for choosing this particular project as a case study. As a research fellow on the project, I have the benefit of inside information gained through participation in some of the decision processes. However well informed my observations of these processes are as a consequence, I have been able to substantiate them with material publicly available in the project's researchpublications. The programme's decision processes are relatively public becauseone of The Project's purposes is to develop translation models that other people can use. In other words, the function of translation in this programme is not simply to find innovative ways to communicate the biblical message, it was conceived as an experiment to "test the limits and possibilities of translation". Its purpose was to find new ways to translate the Bible for a generation of readers more inclined to access the world of knowledge and ideas via electronic forms of communication than via print. As such, The Project not only started with a functional conception of translation, it also initiated experimentation Joy Sisley,Translating from OneMediumto Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page 184  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation " This means the newmediabible translation is essentially an as an active principle. exercise in testing the theory and practice of translation. As a principle of translation, this is interesting in itself. On the one hand, it represents a praxis that is in field of translation studies (although this kind is mainstream in rare the of praxis modem Bible translation). On the other hand, as an experimental exercise, The Project is not an abstraction, it is thoroughly grounded in a social and cultural context defined by habitual ways of framing the world and its routines and models of behaviour. Testing the limits and possibilities of translation, in this context, involves an active engagement in questions of translatability and definitions of translation raised in this thesis. The advantage of the ABS project for a study, whose principal theoretical purpose is also to question the boundaries of translation, is that The Project explicitly engagesquestions about translation as social practice. Literally, it confronts an elusive concept that has cast a shadow over the previous chapters: the ground of interpretation The concept of repertoire forms the principal frame for my analysis. Repertoiresconstitute models of action, discourse,or interpretation that frame and direct social interaction or contention. (Traugott, 1995) Itamar Even-Zohar introducedthe conceptto translation studies as a term to designate"the aggregateof rules and materialswhich govern both the making and handling, or production and consumption, of any given product. "'Z The idea of the making of a cultural repertoire was introduced into polysystem theory via an essay by Ann Swidler (1986) in which she defines culture as instrumental, as opposed to an older anthropologicaldefinition of culture as the whole way of life of a people, or the body of knowledgethat a person needsto becomea functioning memberof society. " In fact, the programmestartedwith a very specific functional conception:Nida's theory of dynamicequivalencewhich, of course,is groundedin a particulartheory of languageand meaning. 12 (Even-Zohar,1997, p 20). Also in (Even-Zohar,1990). Even-Zohar'suse of the concept offersa more flexible way of thinking about constraintsand innovation in the creation and reception of works within any given literary systemthan is possible with norms theory developedby Gideon Toury to validate his hypothesis about the essentially conservativenature of translation. Even- Zohar's developmentof repertoireas a conceptualterm to describethe dynamics of cultural exchange is heavily compromisedby his overly mechanistic model of production and consumption, his hierarchicalconceptionof communicationor production, and his one-dimensionalview of power. Theseweaknesses in the presentationof his model result in a reification of repertoirethat contradicts the term's theoreticalflexibility. Ultimately, it is not easyto distinguish how repertoiresdiffer from norms in Even-Zohar'swriting. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 185  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation Instead, she describes culture as a "tool kit of skills from which people construct their conceptual strategies", and of cultural significance as providing "cultural components that are used to construct strategies of action. "13 Rakefet Sheffy develops this instrumental metaphor of cultural repertoire to suggest"the knowledge of systems people have and use as competent actors in a given culture consists of ... models, pre-organised options ... that constrain people's actions in each and every case,given the specific cultural field one is acting in and according to one's position in it. " 14 Notwithstanding the rather unfortunate contradiction of persisting with the mechanistic metaphor of "system" as a theoretical frame for her argument, Sheffy makes two important points about repertoires that are a considerable advance on Even-Zohar's reductive abstractions. Sheffy locates a sociological explanation for the formation and persistence of repertoires in Pierre Bourdieu's notion of habitus. She links the conventional characteristics of repertoric options to the idea that people's actions are formulated within and by their social affiliations and the cultural attitudes and habits that distinguish any one group, (although she pointedly distances herself from Bourdieu's notion of habitus bounded by distinctions of social class). Sheffy arguesthe concept of habitus may explain how cultural models "help to maintain social cohesion and interdependencies, as well as social distinctions. "ls Secondly, she points out, through her distinction between models of action ("generative models") and models of interpretation ("classificatory models"), that knowledge about how to do something cannot be deduced from its end product, any more than the way somebody does something can be reduced to the implicit set of instructions underlying a particular kind of action. While Sheffy concludes it is theoretically important to distinguish between action and interpretation models, she acknowledges that in practice the two interact in mutually reciprocal ways. To borrow her example, cookery books legitimise a certain style of cookery, or give labels to exemplary dishes, as such, they are more than a set of instructions to teach people how to cook. Consequently, they do not simply treat food as life-sustaining, they give it symbolic value by raising cookery to the level of a culinary art. In other words, repertoires of action are a set of skills invested with symbolic significance. 13 (Swvidler, 1986,p 273) 14 (Sheffy, 1997,p 36) 15 (Sheffy, 1997,p 37) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page186  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation Moreover, because cultural practices are historically and socially grounded they acquire different symbolic value in different social contexts. Pierre Bourdieu develops this concept of social distinction in an analysis of the function and aesthetics of photography in relation to the French class system. '7 Bourdieu argues that the function of photography among peasant classes demonstrates how people use the camera not merely to record-important events in family life but to maintain existing social relationships within the family. The person who takes the photographs, the aesthetics that are particular to this form of family portraiture, the ways in which the photographs are displayed, and the family members who control their exhibition and interpretation, are all important aspects of the repertoires of photography. Photography, therefore, acquires a symbolic value beyond its purely mimetic function. In short, the aesthetics or poetics of photographs and their interpretation are embedded in the social uses of photography as a technical form. A discussionabout the function of translation within this framework implies translation consists of more than a neutral technique or an act of transferring meaning from one languageto another. Rather, the translator's repertoires or models of action invest eachtranslation with a different set of values than its source. The concept of repertoire does not rule out a notion of the acceptability or adequacy of translation, it repositions it as a translation's symbolic and cultural values The introductiorr of a concept of repertoire into the theoretical frame of polysystem studies has created a tendency to treat it as a unified or unifying one, following its formalist conceptualisation by Even-Zohar. I prefer the model of social action shaped by repertoires of contention presented by Tilly and other sociologists (in Traugott, 1995). This model helps to account for the contentious character of a translation "system", or the manner in which innovative and conservative elements of translation pull in different directions. This perspective also relies on Bourdieu's theory of the field of cultural production, defined as "inseparably, a field of positions, and a field of position takings."18 The field consists of everyone who " (Bourdieu,1996) 18 (Bourdieu, 1993,p 34) Bourdieu criticises Even Zohar's exclusive emphasis the textual on or intcrtcatual relationships of his thcory of the literary polysystcm. He notes "they [the theoreticiansof cultural semiology] forget that the existence,form and direction of changedepends not only on the `stateof the system', i. e. the repertoireof possibilities which it offers, but also on the balance of forces between social agents who have. entirely real interests in the different Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 pagc 187  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation contributes to the result of cultural production: artists, performers, technicians and (including Bourdieu emphasises that a cultural field is audiences critics and so on). "reducible to i. e. a sum of individual agents, linked by simple not a population, relations of interaction. (p 35) According to Bourdieu, the symbolic value of a work is the "product and prize of permanent conflict" (p 34) between the different agents interests that the field and the positions they take within that field. and constitute The field of position takings constitutes the discourses and repertoires of production invest the work with social and symbolic significance. His and reception that inclusion of the discourses of cultural production intends to avoid the narrowness of formalist analysis on the one hand, and on the other, the difficulties of structural by the belief in a homology between the work of art and its economism encouraged of production. Bourdieu's concept of the field of social and economic conditions takings accounts for the dynamics of change within literary or artistic position production, or the forces of innovation and conservatism that are the result of a the boundaries of legitimation in any field. In the particular instance of struggle over the American Bible Society's New Media Translation Project, what is at stake is their descriptions of translation and the translator. The United Bible Societies' formal declaration of the role of the Translation Officer as the ultimate authority in all decisionsabout the quality of translations from to one medium another illustrates 19 this struggle. The declaration states that the "TO (translation officer) should be involved in the total review processat the levels of both production and'evaluation" Effectively, the TO should be the final arbiter of faithful equivalencein the original boards, rough cuts, field testing and final concept, treatments, scripts and story approval of any translation. Translation Officers' authority rests not on a superior knowledge of the various processes of film production, but on the traditional position they hold, and the respect they commandbecauseof that position, within the field of Bible translation and publication represented by the United Bible Societies.2° (I hardly needpoint out the implicit criticism in this description. One possibilities availableto them as stakesand who deploy every sort of strategyto makeone set or the other revail." (p 34) This declarationformulatedat the UBS triennial translation workshop in 1997 is reproduced in the technicalpapersfor TheBible Translator. (Hodgsonand Thomas, January1998) 20 This position is reinforcedby translation officer recruitmentcriteria and training policies in the United Bible Societieswhich, in turn, guarantees the TO's unique position in the organisationas final arbiter of a translation's quality. The TOs occupy the pinnacle of a hierarchyof cultural and Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 188  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation needsto pause only momentarily to recognise the glaring ambiguities of a particular professional and occupational group claiming authority in a field about which they know relatively little if anything. ) Bourdieu's theory of fields emphasises the importance of attending to the significance of social relations and their discourses in the creation of semiotic value in any form of cultural production. This applies as definitions literature. The following analysis is much to translation as social of art or an attempt to evaluate the experimental nature of the ABS New Media Translation Project by describing the "properties of being and behaving" that determine its function. This entails an analysis of the discourses of innovation and conservatism in the textual, cultural, and social contexts of Bible Society translation. The AmericanBible Society (ABS) was founded as a benevolent society in 1816 on the wave of a revival in Protestant religious fervour and Federalist reform. Its purpose was to encourage the wider distribution of Bibles without note or From its inception, the Society's corporate identity reflected the mood in comment. America of Bible-based civic and religious reform. As Robert Hodgson notes, quoting Wosh: "The Federalist reform program drew heavily on the Bible for form in its view, `placing the Good Book in every household in the and substance, and minds of many, might lay the foundation for a common Christian social "'20 consensus. While the founding principles of Bible Society work are deeply conservative of a particular set of social values, the means to achieving those goals reveals a history of innovation whose central narrative force is the interaction of translation and media. Throughout its history, the American Bible Society has supported researchand experimentation. What is normative in the twentieth century was often quite radical and innovative in the nineteenth. The ABS' history of is translationandpublication published on their 2' web site. The history documents experiments in print technology, media communication, film production, and translation theory that were a constant source of innovation in the society. The social networks,as opposedto the formal organisationalstructares of the Bible Society. They form an elite corpsthat is markedby its differencefrom the overall cultural identity of the organisation. In Weberiantermsof the dialectic of orthodoxy irr a social institution, the TOs as a group favour a processof heresyratherthan one of routinization. 20 (Hodgson,1997,p 5; Wosh, 1994;p- 13) 2' http://w"wv.americanbiblesociety.org or http://miNw.researchccnter.org, "History of Media and Technologyat ABS" Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneAledium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 189  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation newmediabible and ABSi (internet publication) programme are the most recent forms of experimentation. 23 There is nothing exceptional about the Society's of -use- innovation as a strategy for corporate survival. As economic historians would point out, technical innovation in corporations frequently serves the purpose of preserving existing corporate markets rather than producing new ones. (See Brian Winston in Downing, Mohammadi, and Sreberny-Mohammadi, (eds.) 1995, pp 54-74) In this case,the American Bible Society functions just like any other large corporation in a capitalist economy. An assessment of the value of innovative experiments such as the neumediabible project needs, therefore, to take account of whether it was seen by the ABS at large to serve its conservative instincts. (See note 23 above) Today the ABS is part of a world-wide group of inter-confessional,not-for- profit Bible translators and publishers - the United Bible Societies (UBS) - with national offices in 135 countries. 24 The UBS- has..an annual subsidy of US $- 64 million and a global distribution in 1999 of over 20 million Bibles and 20 million New Testaments.25 The Bible Society's mission is to reach every man, woman, and child with a portion of Scripture in a languagethey can read, at a price they can afford. Traditionally, Bible Society work involved three principal activities: translation, publication, and distribution. For the first 150 years of its existence, Bible Society corporate culture has been print-based. Institutional translation and publishing norms have evolved around the possibilities and constraints of print media. For example, Bible Society translation principles of clarity and accessibility were arguably informed by assumptions about the transparency of the "text" which took for granted the stability of languageand the neutrality of print media. The extent to which these assumptions have shaped the Society's corporate vision of the "widest u' It is worth noting that the ABS hasalso revealedthe fundamentally conservativeforce of its founding mission through its retrogressiveassociationas a co-production partner with the Visual Bible project. (Seechapter2 and the Visual Bible web site: http://www.visualbible.com) This associationcontradictsthe commitment of Bible Societies to inter-confessionalpartnerships and doctrinal neutrality. It has been interpretedby other membersof the United Bible Societies as a hostile act of Americancultural imperialism. 24 Seethe UBS web site, http://-*vww. biblesociety.org for a history of the UBS and links to nationalBible Societyweb sites. From hereon,to avoid confusion, "Bible Society" will be used as a generic term that reflects the global reach of the organisation and the heterogeneityof its membership. Individual national Bible Societies will be referredto by their company name or acronym,for examplethe AmericanBible Society or ABS. 2 1999 World Report, United Bible Societies,http://miv%v. biblesociety.org Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 190  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation possible effective distribution" of Scripture may account for a routine practice within the Society of evaluating and quantifying "effectiveness" in terms of its distribution statistics. Over the past two decades, however, this vision of "effectiveness" has changedin response to a more general interest in social pluralism and cultural diversity that characterises intellectual trends of the latter part of the twentieth century. The extent to which pluralism is a function of the global reach of electronic communication technologies, or to which the globalising tendencies of their social uses may encourageor diminish cultural diversity, has been a central feature in debates about technology and social change.25 In Bible Society, these debates have encourageda more composite picture of the function of Bible translation and a more plural conception of the Bible's interpretive communities. (Hodgson, 1997; Soukup, 1999); Boomershine in (Stine, 1995)26 Changing scholarly definitions of "text" and "reader" have prompted new attitudes to translation. For instance studies in missiology (the history and sociology of Christian missionary evangelism), as well as anecdotal evidence, have generated new insights into the cultural effects of Bible translation. (Stine, 1990) The translational goals of clarity and accessibility have been reinterpreted in light of these broad intellectual shifts. Emphasis has shifted from a conception of transparency between source and target texts to the "readability" of a translation that aims at facilitating comprehension but does not necessarily assume interpretation will be straightforward or univocal. (Louw, 1991; Newman, 1996) The conception of readability acknowledges people can no longer assume a common interpretive tradition, dominated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by Western academic authority. Bible Society has translated its altered conception of a translation's readability into new programme activity, the provision of educational "Scripture engagementmaterials", which aims to make the biblical text both meaningful and relevant for different audiences. Indeed, for some Societies such as the BFBS, (British and Foreign Bible Society) "Scripture engagement"has become the primary focus of its business. 11 (Morley, 1995) 26 The debatesoften assumegreaterintensity the triennial at meetings of Translation Officers. Sometimesthesedebatesspill out into the public spherethrough publication in the Bible Translator or at meetingssuch as the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academyof Religion. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 191  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation Bible Societyhas also attempted to reposition itself within the field of Bible translation and publishing, in particular, and media use in general. National societies' programmes have expanded to include audio and audio-visual materials, and popular print forms such as comics. Societies have reinterpreted "effective distribution" as an effort to target a broader spectrum of any population with appropriate publications, in favour of a blanket distribution of the printed text. Effective distribution includes a new concept of accessibility understood as the necessity to exploit opportunities, created by new communication technologies, as well as to pay attention to the formal characteristics of different translation or publication media. Media shifts have had an important impact on Bible Society translation theory and practice because the characteristics of any technology are not inherent, they have developed as a result of their particular social uses. Departures from the canonical limits of textual authority upheld by print have inevitably affected the organisation's conception of its credibility. Nevertheless, many people working within Bible Society have argued in defence of these changes that they are following the example of ancient Biblical authors, who took advantage of popular communication forms, when creating biblical materials for audio-cassette, video, or the internet. They frequently quote the Bible to justify their argument. The vision of "effective distribution" is not without contradiction. For instance,the ABS is currently seekingrapidly to transform its outreachprogrammes into ". com" companiesthrough the initiatives of the ABSi (interactive) project. One of the significant differencesbetweenthe book and the web pageis the constraints of spacerelative to the costs of production and distribution. The apparently limitless horizons of internet bandwidth generatesthe temptation to fill this space that, in 27 turn puts enormouspressureon programmeproducers. As people involved in the ABSi initiative struggle to come to terms with this phenomenon, technological considerationsdominate thinking about how the technical, economic, and cultural imperatives of the new medium will shape future programmes. It is hardly 21 The phenomenonis not unique to Bible Society. It is an effect of the social uses of a new technology. Technological, economic, and cultural imperatives are interlinked. Histories of the introduction of nerv technologies into the social matrixes of communication reveal a limited repertoireof responsesto their anticipatedsocial and cultural effects. For example,patternsof media regulationas a function of definitions and imagesof mediapublics have been remarkablyconsistent. (Williams, 1990) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 192  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation surprising, given the social and cultural development of any new media form, that ABS has translated its discourses of "effectiveness" into the e-commerce jargon of "interactivity", which in reality is the ability to "track" web users' social profiles, cultural preferences, and purchasing power with all the sophisticated tools of electronic marketing feedback. The world of e-commerce has 'transformed "Bible readers" into "consumers" and "Scripture programmes" and "translation research" into "content" or "product". While a new corporate vision of "effective distribution" may be articulated in carefully prepared and rehearsed public statements, it is clear from off-the-cuff statements by individuals throughout the hierarchy that the repertoires and culture of e-commerce have pervaded the thinking and judgement of ABSi programme development. In many ways, ABSi marks the latest site of conflict between the conservative vision of the Society's foundation and innovations designed to reposition the ABS as a significant communicator within American culture. Translation, from one language to another and from one medium to another, functions on several levels in this context because it exists at the very heart of the Society's endeavour to transform itself to maintain its assumed position at the cutting edgeof Christian communication. Significantly, the ABS now regards Christian media organisations, rather than other Bible translation organisations, as its principal competitors . It is, therefore, hardly surprising the Society joined forces in the earlier part of 2000 with the commercially aggressive and theologically conservative Visual Bible International inc. (currently valued at US $ 127.5 million on the stock exchange)who have bought exclusive film and television rights to the CEV. One cannot help noticing the contradictions and ambiguities of current American Bible Society corporate decision-making vis ä vis their founding vision. Nevertheless, it is perhaps worth pointing this out. While any national Bible Society publication programme (including that of the ABS) reflects primarily local interests, its translation programme reflects the primarily globalinterestsand associationsof an internationally organisedand funded activity. Discussion about is what the definition and function of translation occurs in an international forum coordinated through United Bible Societies' scholarly Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 193  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation 28 The pull between the globalising tendencies of UBS research and publications. translation policy and practices and the localising pressures of vernacular translation programmes; the tensions between the conservatism of the Bible Society's founding principles and innovation in its publishing programmes; the position of a Bible Society vis ä vis the cultural politics of its national context on the one hand and, on the other, its membership of a global, inter-confessional organisation are important contributory factors in the development of any Bible Society enterprise. The ABS New Media Translation Project is no exception. While the UBS provides a in normative context which The Project has tested the limits of translation, the ABS its as patron has provided the normative context against which The Project has tried out innovations in publishing form. The Project's status within the UBS organisation as a whole, and within the ABS in particular, provides an especially interesting case for tracing a translation through the institutional and social contexts that confer semiotic value. Rather than describe the_textual and contextual factors that delimit the boundaries of translation in the newmediabible, it will be more interesting to treat them as the ground on which various contesting intellectual, institutional, and social positions are negotiated. In other words, to understand the ewmediabible's function as translation, it is necessary to trace how the complex dialectics of conservatism and innovation, and the local and global factors that distinguish Bible Society corporate culture, produce the translation's semiotic value. Such an approach carries the force of criticism defined by Morot-Sir as the "explicitation of the implicit which will attempt to evaluate, that is, to make us ... conscious of, the referential energy concentrated into any sort of texts and works of art. "29 Although Bible Societieshaveproduced visualisations of biblical narrative as cartoonillustrations, illustrated children's books, comics, and selections(pamphlets presentinga fragmentof biblical text together with an illustration of some variety)" for severaldecades,a variety of factors, some internal to the organisation itself, 28 See the UBS web site http://www.biblesociety.org for a catalogue of UBS scholarly publications. 29 Morot-Sir, 1993, pp 140 and 149 (and seenote 1 in my introduction) 30 SeeGregorGoethal'sstudy and criticism of the history of Bible illustration (Soukup, 1999, pp 133-172) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 194  The Limits-and Possibilities of Translation others external to it have generated the motivation for diversification into audio- The late twentieth century displacement of print media- by visual publishing. (in particular, the ubiquity of television and PCs as platforms for electronic media electronic communication) provides the principal legitimation for diversification in an organisation, that has for a century and a half of its existence been wedded ideologically to the printed word. New forms of media use have contributed to changes in the ways information is organised and retrieved, the integration of sound, vision and writing in multi-media environments, and the development of new forms literacy amongst its users. 2 The issue of literacy, so fundamental to the of traditional raison d'etre of a print publisher such as the Bible Society, has not been limited to an apparent transition among some of its constituencies, notably young people, to a preference for electronic forms of communication. Potential users of Bible Society audio-visual publications are divided between the "post-literate" - people who can and do read, but prefer other forms of communication - and the "pre-literate" - people for whom the printed- form is a closed book. 33 These different conceptions of literacy contribute to various notions about the purpose and function of translation. In the latter case, Bible Society has concentrated its resources on developing audio and New Reader materials.34 Conceptions of literacy, in this case, are tied to the primacy of orality in cultures for whom these translations have been developed. This function gears translation to an acquisition or substitution of literacy where the dominanceof writing and print as a set of cognitive skills defines literacy. In this case,a translation's value is produced partly by discoursesof developmentwithin a globalpolitical economy of "Westernisation".3s 32 SeeBurke and Scott in (Soukup, I999),-anctW ins-=dShre in (Hodgsvrr, 1997) 33 Burke (in Soukup, 1999, pp xiii-xiv). For a study of the social effectsof the internet see [Hanishcr,2000 #51 34 The UBS financesa substantialliteracy programmewhich involves publication of new r materials - gradedtranslations specially adjusted to, the developing literacy skills of adults and children. Thesepublicationsform a significant percentageof annualsales. - 35 It should be noted, however,that in Bible Society circles translationas a function of literacy co-existswith an extensiveprogrammeof translation for audio-cassettemotivated by considerations that contradict an equation of literacy with economic and social development. The distinction betweenthe "missionary" model of translationand "modern' Bible translation madeby William A. Smalley (Smalley, 1991)could usefully be extendedthe-modernisation.of Bible Society publishing programmes. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 195  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation By contrast, discourses of technological and media determinism dominate conceptions of literacy in so-called media saturated societies. On the one hand, the ubiquity of television as the popular form of entertainment is cited as a cause of illiteracy, typically Figures reported by "Reading is Fundamental", a group operating the largest literacy program in the U. S., indicate that up to 21 million Americans may be illiterate, and that "fewer than 25% of high school seniors read for pleasure; 90% of grade school children find television more appealing than reading, and 82% of these pupils prefer video games to readin&35 On the other hand,television andthe internet are held accountablefor emergentnew literaciesdominatedby ever decreasingattention spansamongreaders. For example, the ABSi style manual begins its section on "Writing for the Internet" with the following advice: The web is a medium in which people can click off and on in seconds. Don't assumethey will stay with your lengthy prose, no matter how brilliant ... Remember: you are one click away from losing your audience. Avoid overwriting. Use crisp, short sentences. Use punchy, simple language... Edit as if you got a dollar for every word you take out. The diminution of conventionalforms of literacy presents a significant challengeto Bible Society definitions of biblical textuality, coherence,and authority. If the cultural imperativesof the internet reduceBible translation to byte-sized chunks of no more than two screens in length, held hostage to the clicking mouse of an impatient reader,how will the Bible Society maintain its idea of the Bible as a textual unity and manage the linked conceptions of unity and literacy? UBS guidelineson translatingfor comics,audio-cassette,or video tape suggestthis hasbecomea central issueeachtime they publish fragmentsof the Bible in a new format. (Stine, 1995) Another important contributory factor to diversification is the altered perceptionof the Society's marketsin conjunctionwith a sensethat media saturated societieshave also become 36 more visually oriented. In many respects, changing 35 Quotedfrom The New York Times, Sunday,June21,1992, "Romancing the Book Once Again" in a documentcirculatedby the ABS Multi-media TranslationProgram. ... SeeGregorGoethalsin (Soukup, 1999) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 196  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation perceptions of Bible Society markets are a logical outcome of the organisation's vernacular translation programme and the intellectual disciplines, such as socio- linguistics, semiotics, and discourse analysis, that inform its communication models and practices. The need to recognise the importance of individual reading communities and target selected audiences with appropriate materials has become a priority in Bible Society corporate vision. Within the organisation, translation without doctrinal note or comment and the widest possible distribution of Bibles is no longer an adequate description of its mission. Communication must also be "effective" in recognition of the social and cultural contexts of reading and reception. Effectiveness is described in terms of the translation strategy, communication media choices and presentation style, and the inclusion of commentaries intended to bridge cultural, temporal, and geographical gaps between the original and its twentieth century audiences. The combined forces of these internal and external factors cohere in the translation of the Contemporary English Version (ABS 1996)37which is, in all respects, a proto-type for the ABS New Media Translation project and the ABSi initiative. Initially conceivedas a translation for children that employed levels of languageacquisition and use consideredappropriate to the target audience,focus group testing in the early stagesof translation its revealed popularity amongadults. The CEV uses languagethat aims at familiarity for audiencesraised on the poetics and rhetoric of mass media communication in the twentieth century. A close analysis of the discoursestructures of popular media was an important part of the 38 translation process. The translation is intended for public rather than silent, internalisedreadingand reception. Consequently,translators paid attention not only to the rhythms and tonal qualities of the languageused - the way the translation 37 See(Newman,1996)for an introduction to the-principks of translationin the CEV. (Burkc, 1998 for a discussionwith examplesabout specifictranslationalstrategiesin the CEV. This principle is basedon a well-establishedprocedurein the UBS that gives equal credit to the receptioncontextsof translation and recognises: "a gradual shift in focus from the situation of origin, via the structuralfeaturesof the text, to the situation of receptionor realization of the text ... [in which] receptionis a creativeprocess,with implications for the understandingof texts " B. C. Lateganin (Louw, 1986, pp 83-95), (Burke, 1998).on a_summary of the theoreticsand practiceof ... translationin relation to reception. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 197  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation but to the they the translation the 39 page. Layout sounds - also ways presented on in and punctuation place emphasis places that in make reading and comprehension an oral/aural context 40 easier. Language use and the presentational form of the translation indicate a broader appeal and acceptability beyond the Bible Society's traditional Bible-reading publics. The CEV represents the popularising impulse of vernacular translation initiated by Martin Luther and realised through the capacities of print technology and mass produced paper. The influence of UBS translation in practices combination with changing media environments on altered perceptions of is audience an important factor in the development and design of The Project. The cultural assumptions that inhere in successive popularisations of the Bible; the conservative tendencies of attempts to create a new unified civic and moral order through Bible translation and publication; and the willingness to exploit each new introduction of communication technology underpin the ABS New Media Translation Project.4' Translation and publication are inextricably wedded in a vision of broader and heterogeneous accessibility. The New Media Translation Project was formed in 1990 after a year-long process of consultation within Bible Society on the feasibility of translating the Bible into electronic media. Severalquestions were considered. Is it possible to remain faithful to the Bible Society's non-sectarianpolicy of producing Scriptures "without doctrinal note or comment" when moving from one medium to another, ("transmediatization")?42 What models exist already for translating the Bible into other media? How can working models ofmulti-media translation adapt principles 3' (Hodgson,January1992). This is- anothere angle whciu perceptionsof media specificity, i. e. differencesbetweenoral and print communication, have influenced translation strategy in the Bible Societyby creatinga translationthat is intendedfor public reading. This changein translation strategyhighlights the important point that media form is a factor of social practicenot something intrinsic to mediatechnology. 40 The style and format of the CEV is informed both by local (American)cultural contexts and an alreadyestablishedpracticeof "meaningful" translation basedon knowledge about reception in predominatelyoral cultures. (Louw, 1991) 01 This combination is not unique to Bible Society translation and publication. (Crossan, 1998)on New Testamentwriting and codices, (Jardine, 1996) on print and the book; (Pym, 1998) on paperand translationpractices. The ideathat massmediatechnologiesand popular entertainment forms canbe harnessedto mold a civically responsiblepopulation is a recurrenttheme in literature andfilm. 42 The term "transmediatizatlon"was coinedby Dr. ThomasBoomershine,who was one of the original consultantsfor the ABS New Media Translation Project. (Boomershinein UBS Bulletin, 170/171) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page 198  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation of equivalence and how can these assure the integrity or quality of products? Finally, in "transmediatizations" be termed "translation"? The what respects could this a statement of the priorities and criteria for making outcome of consultation was faithful audio-visual translations. The guidelines on translating for comic strips, in 1987, the ground for originally published were adopted and adapted as "faithfulness" in the new media translation project. The full text of these guidelines is reproduced as an appendix. (See appendix I) The following is an attempt to summarise the thinking behind those guidelines. Several Bible Societies had debated questions about faithfulness and equivalence raised as a consequence of diversification in their publishing programmes. The move from print into audio-visual formats, where apparently words cease to anchor the meaning of a biblical text, was seen as especially problematic on two counts: firstly, there was a widely shared assumption that imagesare multi-valent and that their meanings are difficult to control. 43 Discussions about textual indeterminacy are more muted within Bible Society circles where clarity is a fundamental aim of translation. However, the linguistic and rhetorical structures that produce ambiguity in a text and the translation solutions applied are frequently analysed in the pages of the UBS scholarly translation journal, The Bible Translator. 44 The problem of indeterminacy produced by the multi-valence of images is judged a more practical problem than a philosophical one in the terms discussed in my first section. Images present a whole new set of challenges, particularly in instances where they risk introducing unwanted or ambiguous interpretations. Secondly, translation from one medium to another presents a particular problem of authority. Arguments on this topic link practical questions about equivalence between word and image with the canonical authority of the 43 We havealreadyexploredthe fallaciesof this assumptioninsection one of my thesis. There is no needto re-iteratethem here. '" The causesof ambiguity are neither universal nor homogeneous,and approachesto their solution arevaried. Sometimesambiguity is causedby transcription errors in early texts, in which caseclarity becomes an issue of whether or not to correctthese early transcription errors. In other casesambiguitieshavebeenintroducedin moderntranslationsbecauseaccounthas not been taken of the use of a particular grammatical construction by the author. In yet further cases, modern translationshavebeencriticised for diluting the shocking effectsof ambiguous constructionssuch as aphorisms. However, this conception of textual indeterminacy is more likely to be applied to translationsthan to the original text itself. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page 199  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation written word. This approach concerns the Scriptural authority of a translation. In his addressto the UBS Video Consultation in New York in February 1994, Dr. Basil Rebera,UBS Global Translation Services Coordinator, argued that any discussion of faithfulness should recognise that "Christians and people of other faiths alike recognise only a written text as the Christian Scriptural source of revelation and authority. " Additionally, a translation cannot be faithful simultaneously to the written and audio-visual medium because the two media function in different ways to communicate meaning. For example, a pig, or a cow, or a sheep, or whatever, must always represent a fat "animal" because it is impossible to show an "animal". The debate is wrapped up in the Society's discourses on "faithfulness. " Since this has been central to discussions about translation from one medium to another, a summary of what the term signifies in Bible Society circles will be helpful. This discussion is also important to give balance to frequent narrow stereotyping of Bible Society as a fundamentalist Protestant evangelical organisation constructed through a superficial reading of some of its translations or of E. A. Nida's writing on the theory and practice of translation. One must remember that, globally, the Bible Society's constituents include the Catholic and Orthodox Churches45and that many new Bible translations are inter-confessional projects. It is hardly necessary to point out the tensions that arise from theological differences between translators involved in such projects. The debate considers "faithful" translation in. broader terms than a substitution of words or discourse units by equivalents in another language (a linguistic conception),or an unmediatedrepresentationof the original authorial intent (a literary conception). Fidelity in Bible Society translation is a praxis, a delicate task of balancingthe power of an original text, the technical difficulties (both linguistic and cultural) of translation, and the acceptability of the final product. SinceBible Societypublishesits own translations,the issue of acceptability extends to presentation formats (including paper quality, print face, binding, illustrations, and so on) and the constraints of a translation's sponsoring agency (such as the as Contractsof cooperationhave been negotiatedbetween the United Bible Societies and these churchesat the highest pinnacle of their respectivehierarchies,i. e. the Vatican and Patriarchatesof the Greekand RussianOrthodox Churches. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page200  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation AmericanBible Society). A translation's acceptability stems from an endorsement by ecclesiasticalpower for its use, a recognition of the translation's legitimacy within the target community, assurance of the reliability of source texts, support for the choice of linguistic medium and, finally, its comparison with pre-existing translations. The Bible's status as a sacred text polarises positions on many factors 46 that contribute to the acceptability of a translation. As Stephen Batalden concludes in his study of modern Russian biblical translation, Modem biblical translations inevitably arise out of particular political and cultural contexts. Translators are themselves products of one or another political culture. The ability to publish and disseminate the result of translation activity is also governed by local publishing conventions. Even the textual bases selected in translation and the linguistic medium employed rarely are influence local 47 entirely outside the of political and cultural constraints. For Bible Society translators, the issues of translation and power are an everyday reality. 48 The particularities of modern Bible translation involves managing the pull between the conservative forces of Christian faith and its sacred texts and intellectual developments in modern linguistics, anthropology, biblical criticism, and communication theory that underpin Bible translation. The present-day image of modern Bible translation is a normative theological process in which interpretive authority is determined by the choice of source text, the translation's strategy and function on the one hand and on the other hand, a dialogical confrontation between the universality of Christian belief and the particularity of its vernacular articulation, between the Bible as literature and its canonisation as divinely inspired sacred text, and between the world-view contained within the source text and the world views contained within its rewriting. 49 '6 This is not unique to attitudesarnongBible translators The sane kinds of polaris Lionscan be observedin criticisms of "functional equivalence"in the field of translation studies. (Gentiler, 1993;Prickelt, 1986; Venuti, 1995) Herethe apparentlypopulist philosophy that motivates Nida's theory of equivalenceis comparedunfavourablywith the literary pretensionsof formal translation. The cultural relativism of thesepositions is brought home by a comparisonof Gentzlerand Venuti who respectivelyaccuseNida of populism and elitism on the same technical grounds. In effcM thesecontrastingpositions do not move beyond the old literal/free dichotomy in translation theory. For a critical discussionabout the difficulties of cultural relativism see(Fish, 1994; Fish, 1999) 7 (Batalden,1990,p 68) 47 See(Stine, 1990)for a variety of casestudiesrelating to this topic. 49 SeeLaurin Sannehin (Stine, 1990) and Joy Sisley, Transforming the Canon: biblical narrative and popular culture, 1999, ABS Research Centre Web Site: httpl/w, w. researchcenter.org/ Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page201  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation "Faithfulness" in Bible Society translation terminology is a theological perspective and refers to a process of biblical hermeneutics that aims at establishing the contemporary relevance of the Christian Bible. "Equivalence", which is not a synonym for "faithfulness", is a term for the technical aspects of translation that underwrite the principles of faithful translation. The term is understood and used in the senseproposed by EugeneA. Nida. In practice, it consists in a set of established institutional procedures that set the parameters for exegesisof both the source text and target culture textual forms and conventions. Source text exegesis is an interdisciplinary exercisebased on close textual analysis and interpretation that aims to uncover the socio-semiotic contexts of the original text as a communication event. This involves paying attention to the paratextual, and non-verbal elements of any it in text, as well as the cultural contexts that gave coherence the first place.S° A wide range of scholarly disciplines informs the concept of equivalence in Bible Society translation programmes. It is the technical means by which Bible Society managesthe disparate and conflicting doctrinal positions of its constituents and aims to produce "acceptable" translations for its linguistically, culturally and dogmatically heterogeneous audiences. Far from a "Protestant subtext" that illuminates the "manipulation of a text to serve the interests of a religious belief'5' the principle of equivalence effectively amounts to a discursive repertoire for negotiating the Society's institutional neutrality as a non-sectarian translation organisation and maintaining a delicate balance of power between Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant churches who are its primary constituents. In this context, one cannot reduce Bible Society discourses that aim to maintain a status quo between these competing interests to a caricature of religious ideology. To do so misunderstands S0 SeeTheBible Translator, UBS scholarlyjounial orr Bibtk translation; and UBS Handbook Serieson Bible translation. The distinctions madebetweenfaithfulnessand equivalenceare reflected in the separationin TheBible Translator of practicaland technicalpapers. The journal demonstrates the ways theory and practice inform each other in the Bible Society translation programme. A similar patternis followed in the format of the UBS TranslationHandbooks. Seethe UBS web site http://ivww.biblesociety.org for a catalogueof UBS scholarlypublicationson translation. s' (Gentzler, 1993, pp 59-60) Gentzler's criticism of Nida betrays a similar belief in the integrity of the original text (p 59). However,his criticism completely missesthe point becausehe abstractsNida's theory from the interdisciplinary and inter-confessionalcontexts within it was developed.Gentzler'sdiscussionis exemplaryof the dangersof abstractingtexts from the social and cultural contextsof their production and of abstractingsignification from its ground (p 53). It is also a perfectexampleof what Bourdieu meansby position taking in a field of cultural production. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page202  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation the andmisrepresents socialand institutional contexts of Bible Society work and its globalreach. The linking of the two terms, faithful equivalence, in Bible Society descriptions of their translation principles points to the textual and social contexts of their work. On a hermeneutic level, a perception of the Bible as a textual unity the Bible Society's concept of faithfulness. 53 It places a high priority on grounds the contextual significance of biblical texts in terms of both their internal coherence and their original reception - the `theme' and `meaning' of the text, or its discoursal settings which "often provides essential clues to the meaning of the passage, not only in the content of what precedes and what follows, but also through giving a better understanding of the setting and background of the book as a whole and a in passage particular. i54 In this respect, the notion of faithfulness is strongly source oriented and reflects a particular understanding. of textual authority. But the principles of Nida's functional equivalence, adopted by the UBS translation programme, are also unequivocally target oriented. "The translator's goal is to produce a text that will communicate the messageof the source text effectively and accurately to the audience- He/she must therefore have a good understanding of the audienceand their situation, and use the form of language that they will understand and "55 accept. In this case, fidelity rests on a conception of the authority of interpretive communities or the circumstances in which a translation can be meaningful to contemporary audiences. The experience of Bible translation has in resulted a more composite understanding of relations between audiences, text, and society than a structuralist reading of Nida's model communication model would infer. 56 s3 Onemay quibble with any numberof conceptionsof the Bible as a textual unity, (seeAlter, 1981,Josipo-vici,1990)but this does not alter the fact thesereaders'interpretationsare based"'ona particularperception,whetherliterary or theological, of the unity of the Bible as a text. The critical methodology of this thesis, however, aims to trace the effects on interpretation of particular representationsof the Bible, not to engagein rather overworkeddebatesabout the truth of falsity of textual unity. Such value judgementsare antithetical to an exploration of the referentialpower of translationbecausethey divert attentionfrom an analysisof how peoplereadand interpretthe Bible. 54 Fry (in Soukup, 1999, p 9) Note Fry's qualification of the concept of coherenceas both a whole pericopeor completediscourseunit (p 11) and the intertextual contexts of the passagein the Bible as a whole. ss Fry (in Soukup, 1999) '6 SeeSoukup(in Hodgson, 1997; Soukup, 1999)and Boomershine(in Stine, 1995) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page203  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation In summary, Daniel Arichea's discussion..about the relation between theology and translation (in Stine, 1990) typifies the intellectual complexities of the Bible Society's concept of faithful equivalence, while Stephen Bataldan's essay in the same book on modem Russian Bible translation provides an account of the political realities of translation. Both essays deal with the complex nature of textual authority that Bible Society definitions of faithful equivalence seek to negotiate. Arichea makes a distinction between the Bible as literature written by human beings, which he is argues assumption of biblical and textual scholarship, and the Bible as inspired literature, he is 57 divinely sacred which argues an assumption of theology. Arichea's distinction is an interesting one because it uncouples the composition of the Bible as literature from its function as a sacred text within Christian communities. This reflects a highly political move because it claims interpretive authority for academic scholarship, which does not necessarily align itself with a In his discussion the task the translator, he particular theological viewpoint. about of asks "what is the relationship between the descriptive and the theological tasks, that is between analyzing the Bible as literature and regarding the Bible as normative for Christian faith and life?"58 Batalden, in his essay, traces the intervention of Church and State in Russian Bible translation. Bataiden demonstrates that authority is not intrinsic to the text but arises from a combination of political, textual, cultural and institutional factors. His conclusion that a highly structured Russian and Soviet politicised environment has drawn modem Russian biblical translation inevitably into politically controversial questions of authority - in which the authority of translations and publishing, of texts, of the language itself, and the authority to distribute scripture all form part of this political context - underscores Avni's argument that the signifying value of an object (in this case a translation) cannot be reduced to an intrinsic significant quality. Rather, the social relations of production and distribution are what give translation its force. This point is central to my analysis of the relation between theory and practice in the ABS project. 5' He notes: "Inspiration should be relatedto the various functions of Scripture understoodas sacred literature An aspect of the functional approachto inspiration is the recognition that ... somehowinspiration is relatedto the way the biblical material was used in the community of faith. The inspiration of Scripture arisesout of the appropriationof these materials by the Christian ... community. (Stine, 1990,p 60) 58 (Stine, 1990, p 62) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page204  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation The initial consultation phase for the New Media Translation Project concluded with a great many questions unanswered.58 For example: what were the ABS goals in new media use and who were its audiences? If one of the main criteria for `faithful' translation was the textual unity and coherence of the Bible, what were the textual implications of selection and fragmentation imposed by the economic constraints of a vastly more expensive audio-visual translation programme? Could one call audio-visual representations of biblical narrative translation? Is it possible to create "faithful" translations in sound and image, or do these levels merely constitute interpretations? How should an organisation that stakes its reputation on the integrity of its translations - underwritten by a policy of high level research in translation theory and biblical exegesis, recruitment of an elite corps of highly educated translation personnel, rigorous translator training, high standards in checking and approving translation, and finally, a commitment to inter-confessional, non-doctrinal translation principles - maintain rigorous standards in audio-visual translations? (The consultation process involved a review of existing audio-visual products on the market, many of which were judged to be of poor quality in terms of Bible Society principles of faithful equivalence). These questions reflected a tension between the conservatism of Bible Society mission and the challenges of responding to the impact of an emergent global electronic communication environment. They had a fundamental influence on the development of project goals; the recruitment of advisors and creative people into the project; the organisational structures evolved to manage the diverse interests and professional competencies of this group; the position of the project within the organisation as a whole; and the translation models and production values adopted to assure the continuation of established Bible Society standards. Ironically, the adoption of a particular set of production values, driven in large part by the professional expectations of its creative and production personnel, resulted in a high profile for the project and especially its video elements within the professional world of film-making, while the project has met with incomprehension and criticism as regards its function as translation within the immediate sphere of Bible Society. " SeeHaggerdornin (Soukup, 1999) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page205  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation The outcome of consultation was the formation of a core translation team who in a spirit of praxis, embarked on an experimental audio-visual translation. The first translation went into production in 1990. It was a translation of Mark 5: 1-20, a story about the miracle healing of a man possessed by a thousand evil spirits. Out of the Tombs was conceived as an interactive study programme at the heart of which is a translation of the biblical text rendered as music video. At the time, Out of the Tombs was made for laser disk, a system that gave little scope for mass distribution. The programme was later transferred to CD-ROM. The story was chosen through focus group testing with the projects' target audience, American teenagers. The project aimed to find innovative ways to present biblical narrative in attractive and exciting forms that could compete with the entertainment preferences of its target audience. Music video as an aesthetic form, and CD-ROM as the delivery platform seemed obvious choices in the climate of change that confronted the ABS research project. The experimental nature of the project meant that many of the challenges of translating from one medium to another provided questions for research, whose solutions were fed back into the group's practices. Gradually, the core translation team gathered together a highly eclectic advisory group of scholars, media professionals, and other consultants who became an active part of the translation 60 It is worth pointing out that most, if nmt all, members of this group do process. not necessarily identify with theological, or intellectual positions held by people in other parts of the organisation. In fact, many of them would feel uncomfortable with some of these views. This oppositional stance is a distinguishing feature of the group. At the outset, the project boldly asserted the first production to be a translationbecauseit had initiated new biblical and scholarly researchin sourcetext exegesis. Such a video is a "translation" becauseit faithfully transfers into the target languageof film and video the meaning of a sourcetext, though it does so using 60 An impression of the diversity of this-gmup-and-the scope of their expertise can be formed from the biographies published in (Hodgson, 1997; Soukup, 1999). The group reflects up to a point the religious and ethnic pluralism of the ABS and American society at large. The group includes among its members Protestant, Catholic and Jewish advisors as well as people with no particular religious affiliation. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page206  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation not just the words of the source text, but also the contemporary soundsand imagesthat are invited by that text 60 The project adopted the principles of faithful functional equivalence that provide the foundation for translation and publishing norms in the Bible Society. These principles were applied to every aspect of project design and its research procedures. The functional equivalent conception of faithfulness also included perceived characteristics of the new medium. "What is appropriate, natural, and correct in the printed text will not always be the most appropriate, natural and correct expression of the in meaning an oral text. "61 Additionally, the requirements of fidelity involved paying attention to the "total presentation" of the text in relation to the meaning of the biblical text, including formal elements, such as closing and opening statements, credits, topic or theme; audience helps such as historical background, geographical or cultural information and the wider context of the selected material; and application elements, material relating to the contextual coherence of passages for modern audiences. 62 In recognition that media shifts would force a re-evaluation of existing practices offaithiuI translation, and perhaps even new definitions of what constituted `equivalence', `text', and `audience', one of the project's primary aims was to "test the limits and possibilities of translation. "63 The translation project was, and still is, experimental, driven by research more than marketing priorities. Besides, the extent to which different departments in the ABS consider the series a marketable product reflects the different positions taken up within the organisation about what constitutes "effective" distribution and, consequently, how to evaluate the series as translation. The conflicting positions occupied on this issue constitutes one of the main arenas of the pull between conservatism and innovation within the ABS. As a result of its experimental nature, the series has remained marginal to the organisation's mainstream publishing activities. The project represents a moment of change in translation and publishing practice, where their re-assessment makes the repertoires and models of translation in the organisation more visible. 60 (Hodgson, 1997, p 7) 61 (Soukup, 1999, p 14) 62 See Fry in (Soukup, 1999) 63 (Hodgson, 1997, p 6) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page207  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation Before describingand analysingthe project's translation processesit may help to have an idea of the general look of the series. Several essays (in Hodgson, 1997; Soukup, 1999) describe the production processes and the principles behind them. The following is a brief summary of the translation and design issues that these essays explore. The newmediabibde presently consists of 4 interactive programmes at the heart of which is a translation of a selected biblical text presented Two further programmes are still in production. 65 To date, six as music video. videos have been completed. They are, in the order of their production: Out of the Tombs (Mark 5: 1-20), A Father and Two Sons (Luke 15:11-32), The Visit (Luke 1:39-56), The Neighbor (Luke 10:25-37), Resurrection (John 20: 1-31) and Nativity (Luke 2: 1-21). The project began life as a CD-ROM publication but moved to the internet part way through. The Neighbor and Resurrectioti can be viewed on the research center's web site: http: //www. newmediabible.org linked to the American Bible Society web site: httpl/www. AmericanBibleSociety. org. The other programmes are available on CD-ROM from the ABS. The New Media Translation Project is called "The Life of Christ" and was conceived originally as a series of thirteen passages selected from the four Gospels. The selection of individual passageswas designed to give the project textual unity. The interactive material which links the individual programmes to the Gospels as a textual unit and to canonical formations of the New Testament is also supposed to reinforce the project's textual unity. However, funding was withdrawn from the project at the end of 1999 6 after only videos were completed and before the interactive elements of Resurrection and NatMy were written so the original conception of the series' unity has not been realised. 65 The option of music video was chosento appealto a teeargeaudienceas well as get around the problemsidentified by researchin the group with dramatisationor animation. Dramatisationas a modelwasconsideredproblematicbecauseof its associationwith Hollywood adaptationsof biblical narratives but also of another possible association with the idealised style of Dore illustrations popularat the turn of the century. SeeGoethals(in Soukup, 1999). Animation was rejectedbecause it was consideredunsuitablefor the tastesof the agerangeenvisioned. The dominancein American culture of Disney animation as an available model is an important factor here. In Europe, film animation has a more eclectichistory. In Britain, the wider rangeof styles and broaderappeal of Europeananimationhavefound their way into the mainstreamof animation with popular films like AardmanAnimation's Wallaceand Grommit series,or the satirical seriesSpitting Image that creates of political figureswith latex puppets. It is unlikely, for example,that an animatedseries caricatures like Testamentwould havebeenconceivedin an Americancultural context. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick,.2000 page208  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation The interactive elements of the newmediabibleconsist of essays on the historical and geographical background of the text, a "dig deeper" section cultural, that imitates the close textual analysis prepared for the translation, and other representations of the text in music -and art. Each programme has an exercise designed to engagethe user interactively and suggest approaches to "reading" and 66 "evaluating" the translation. The interactive elements are connected to each other via hypertext links. The Neighbor contains a short promotional video on the making of the story in its "video room" along with other video materials that give the user an insight into the theory and practice of Bible translation for electronic media. While the CD-ROM versions are self-contained, the internet versions are linked to web sites of potential interest to the user. Each programme is embedded in a other symbolic structure, or "mega metaphor" designedto unify the various elementsof the interactive design,such as study helps, user activities, and backgroundessays. For example,the megametaphor for The Father and Two Sons is a shopping mall. The metaphorsymbolisesa space,or contextin which teenagersoften meet. But its visual design contains traces of other public spaces from other times and places where people gather. (fig. I) The mega metaphor of a nautilus in The Visit symbolisesgrowth and life as well as a principle of construction in humanly created forms.67 The graphicrepresentationof the megametaphor on the first screenof the programme incorporatesthe various points of accessto the rest of the programme. Seethe first screenof TheFather and Two Sons. (fig. ii) 0 Seealso Mona Baker (in Soukup, 1999)for an evaluationof the translation project included in The Vrsit. By using the KJV and the CEV, this exercisebecomesa contrastive one between "literal" and "fine" translation. The principle of this exerciseis overlookedin Baker's evaluation. 67 SeeGoethals(in Hodgson, 1997)for a fuller description. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page209  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation (fig. 0 Megametaphor for "A Father and Two Sons) (fig. ii) A Father and Two Sons home page - Joy Sisley. Translating from One . Mediumto Another BCCS. University of Warwick. 2000 page 210  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation The video translations adopted the popular form of music video as their idiom of expression. With the exception of The Neighbor and Resurrection the visual elements are based on a music track created by a popular singer or group. For example, the music and performance for A Father and Two Sons is by country blues singer Rory Block, Nativity was created by Sweet Honey in the Rock, The Visit was performed by an archepella group called Women of the Calabash In each case "performance" is a central signifying element of the video. While the visuals and music are individual interpretations of the word track they are carefully integrated. The visual elements are an attempt to render in contemporary idiomatic form some of the key themes and elements of the passage. This is exemplary of a "sense for sense" translation strategy. Care has been taken to avoid a "literal" interpretation through "one-to-one correspondence" or "representational" forms (actors dressed up in flowing robes and sandals) on the grounds that "non-restructuring, [attempts to ... present] a rendering of the text which matches the printed text word for word, ... will almost certainly result in distortions of one kind or another for receptors who are not already familiar with the text in printed form. "67 A variety of visual styles have been adopted: Out of the Tombs, A Father and Two Sons, and The Neighbor predominately feature a narrative shaped around a dominant visual metaphor, such as the sea in Out of the Tombs, and a horse as a symbol of wealth and property in A Father and Two Soss. The Visit and Nativity focus on the performers, while Resurrection, filmed as a wake in a funeral parlour, attempts a kind of visual poetry by intercutting the actor's performance with sets of recurring images. Although the videos are populist, post-modern, even kitsch as some Bible Society translation officers have suggested,stylistically their dominant inter-textual references lean to sacredart and music as much as to popular culture and music video. For example the scenesin the "inn" in The Neighbor resonate strongly both with images of the pieta and contemporary news media images 68 of refugees. When the Samaritan leaves, the doors of the warehouse, which served as a set for the inn, open to bright light through which the Samaritan steps evoking both the beginning of the trial scene in 67 (Soukup, 1999,p 14) 6' The blurring of boundariesbetween`sacred'and `secular'images is also evident in current mediaconstructionsof exile and grief, or popular representationsof the Madonna and Child. See articlesin my mediafile. Joy Sisley, Translating f om One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page211  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth (1977) and the generic shot at the end of Hollywood Westerns of the cowboy riding into the sunset. (See clip 18) In this respect, music video is very suitable for the kinds of ideas with which the project was experimenting. The plasticity of music video as a generic form makes it possible to include a heterogeneity of images without disrupting the narrative constraints of coherence. It also focuses the word track as the source of coherence to the kaleidoscope of images and their symbolism. Overall, despite the translation project's populist intentions, imagery in the videos is semiotically rich and historically eclectic. The project places heavy demands on the cultural and visual literacy of its audiences. But behind its stylistic eclecticism there is a deliberate attempt to avoid the polarisations of "popular" and "high" religious art and to blur the lines between "sacred" and "secular" imagery.69 One could argue that the project is intellectually elitist. Such an evaluation would, however, be out of character with the critical methodology of this thesis and contains an implicit value judgement about the cultural knowledge of the project's target readers, which can only be "proved" by ethnographic audience research which is beyond the scope of this thesis. The newmediabibleproduction structuresreflect the programme'stranslation principles and values. Three principal groups are involved: a small core team of creative designers, translators, and producers; an advisory group of scholars and media professionals;a film director who is contracted for each production and a computerprogrammingand designstudio. The "core team" is responsible for music and art direction, translation, production, and graphic design. The videos are all directed by Merle Worth whose distinctive style contributes to the particular identity of the series. The technical design of the web site has been created by Modus Design. The biblical scholarsin the advisory group write the articles that provide the interpretive backgroundfor translation and production. This material becomespart of the "text base" which has two functions: it provides a body of 69 SeeGoethalsarticle on popular culture as ritual spacein (Hodgson, 1997). The intellectual forcebehindthe blurring of sacredand secularimagery in the project may be attributed to Goethals historicalunderstandingof this processin twentieth century popular culture. Goethalsis a member of the project's core team and the web site's graphic designer. Her knowledge of art history and repertoirein graphic design is one of the dominant discoursesin the visual style of the video translations. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page212  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation detailed textual analysis which assists development of an audio-visual treatment and it forms the basis for the programme's interactive material. Since 1998 the New 70 Media Translation Project has awarded two research scholarships each year. The fellowships are given to people whose research interests are considered to complement or extend existing research in the group. They are expected to contribute new and different research perspectives to the project. As with the virtual nature of the project's delivery platform, with the exception of a small administrative centre based in Springfield, Missouri, the project itself is located within the virtual space of the internet. The advisory group meets face to face with the core team twice a year for a total of six days to share research and work on whichever project is current. In the intervening period, members of the advisory group and core team communicate with each other via a special chat room set up on the Research Center's web site, or by telephone or teleconference. During production, the core team have more contact with the director and artists, but even in this case, much of the decision making is done via telephone and the internet. Communication therefore occurs in a virtual space that has an important effect on the way people think about the project. The Research Centre has adopted patterns of teleworking that are part of its organisational identity. The website has become an important site for the development of the group's production repertoire. One of the essential paradoxes of this site is that a lot of visual ideas are reduced to in has become a signature of the chat room. 7' exchangeswritten a shorthand that Despite the geographic dispersal of the project's members and its professional and intellectual eclecticism, the group prides itself on its cohesion and the collegiality of its decision making processes. The project presents a model of interdisciplinarity that in many cases provides a sharp contrast to the institutional environments in which individual members work- Eachproduction follows a similar path. SinceThe Project has adopted the label"translation" for the interactiveprogrammeas a whole, severalnew terms have 70 Of the four researchfellows to-dam,th= arc translatiorrstudiesscholarsfrom Europe. An analysisof the discoursesthat have developedwithin this decision-makingsemiosphere and its impact on the final productionare unforiu tely beyond the-scopeof the presentstudy as is the impact of teleworking on translation. It does however constitute an important site for the developmentof the group's production repertoire. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page213  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation been invented to distinguish the various elements of the translation: "word track", "image track", "music track", "text base". The "text base" consists of all the researchand scholarly materials gathered in the process of source text analysis. The text base is thus foundational to an interpretation of the passage chosen for translation. Text base materials include other representations and interpretations of for in film and dance.72 A translation of the the passage, example sacred art, music, "word track" is from the IIBS Greek New restament. 73 Since the "word made track" is intended for performance, the translators pay close attention to the oral features of the Greek text. Several techniques have been developed to facilitate the process. For example, Kenneth Thomas recommends, "Familiarity with the content, form, sound and image characteristics of the source language text will be gained through listening to recital in the source language and frequent readings of the text aloud."74 Another member of the research group, Brandon Scott, has developed a system that he calls "colometric testing".? Cofometric testing involves mapping the basic grammatical units of Greek prose composition: the xow?. ov (colon: what can be said in a breath) and the ncpLoöoo (period: a complete expression that can be taken in 76 at a glance). As the basic auditory units of a composition emerge, a translator can begin to see how they were organised to aid interpretation. Scott argues that the Greek New Testament was a predominately oral text and that print radically changedreading and reception from a public declamatory experience into a private, interior experience. He claims that silent reading encouraged by print is based on a metaphorical model of a container which reduces the biblical text to a "signified, an abstract concept, a message Translation models conceived within ... this hermeneutics and epistemology of print deal with only one dimension of the n See individual articles in (Hodgson, 1997; Soukup, 1999), the Neighbor web site (http://wtiv. Newmnediabible.org/lgoodsam/default. htm) and archive material on the Research Center web site (httpJ/wiviv.researchcenter. org) 73 (Aland et al., 1966) The GNT, which is usedin all United Bible Society translations, is an attemptto "reconstructthe most authenticpossible text from the oldest and most reliable sources" establishedthroughdetailedtext critical analysis.(Smalley, 1991, p 101) This is different from the manuscriptsusedfor the King JamesVersion of the New Testament,known as the "majority te.xt" becauseuntil late into the nineteenthcenturyit was effectively the only text type availablein Europe. SeeAricheain (Stine, 1990)for a longer discussionabout and bibliography on text-critical issues in Greekversions. 74 (Thomas,1994,p 46) 's SeeScott in (Soukup, 1999,pp 101-118) 76 ibid., p 112 Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page214  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation composition ... they translate only half of the composition, the silent half. "77 By contrast, he describes the dominant metaphor for communication in the ancient Greek world from which the Gospels emerged as an amphitheatre. The literary culture of this world was a rhetorical one based around the public performance of a composition which was intended to be read out loud. The signifiers in the composition therefore give instructions on its performance. On the basis of this argument, Scott recommends, to understand how ancient Greek audiences understood the Gospel it is necessary to discover how they "heard" the text by making a detailed analysis of its rhetorical features in the context of an Aristotelian definition of rhetoric. This involves paying "close attention to the clues the Greek offers for its performative translation" in which the rhetorical features of composition may be treated as "stage directions for its performance on the stage of an ampitheatre" Once the word track has been agreed by the advisory group, the translation moves into its next phase where the "word track" becomes the "source text" for the image and sound tracks. The content of the image track is worked on collaboratively by the advisory group, the core team, and film director. In many senses, the transformation from written to audio visual version represents the real moment of creative struggle. The procedure for finding an acceptable representational form for the video translation consists of an extended period of brainstorming structured around the search for a "mega metaphor" which will give coherence to the whole composition and determine many of the visual tropes in the video. The brainstorming is conducted partly on the basis of collective research into representations of the mega metaphor in other cultural forms: film, performance, dance, sacredart, architecture the net is cast wide in the search for an appropriate - repertoire. During this process, the director suggests treatments, based on her own knowledge of film styles and her reading of the "word track", which are checked by the biblical scholars in the advisory group against their knowledge and interpretation of the Greek original. Eventually, the group agreeson a treatment and the translation " ibid., p 103 Elsewhere,Scott insists air using thee-tcrnr "composition" which includes the notion of rhetoricaland performancefeati res, in favour of "text" which implies a much narrower conceptionof writing. (Soukup, 1999, p 111) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page215  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation moves on to the creation of a detailed shooting script which is shared with the core team and members of the advisory group who have been assigned to this stage of production. The final content of the video is the result of a complex negotiation that reflects the particular professional preoccupation and values of the parties involved. This procedure represents one of the greatest points of tension in the process and clearly demonstrates the dialogical nature of translation in general. Whereas the scholar's conception of professional integrity, acquired within the fields of biblical scholarship and translation, rests on the quality of their analysis which is justified by the academic and normative criteria of their fields79 the director's priorities are located centrally in the application of high production values and an intuitive grasp of what "works" for a chosen genre. Her integrity rests on concepts of professionalism acquired within the cultural field of film and television production which supply the evaluative criteria forher occupational group. The two sets of values do not necessarily conflict, in fact a commitment to high technical and creative quality in the filming is shared by both groups. (High production values are also imposed by the genre expectations of commercial music video production). In spite of this shared commitment, the translations are not immune from individual interpretive idiosyncrasies. In the case of The Neighbor, for example, audiences have commented extensively on two images: the approaching train in the opening scene and the pillow fight. The ambiguity of these images are partly a consequence of different approaches to visual interpretation in the project. They are analogous to "mis-translations" resulting from the individual "translator's" inexperience or lack of fluency in the other's "language". Such misunderstandings arise sometimes because the director does not fully grasp how the advisory group has interpreted the text, or the advisory group has not fully appreciated how or why the director is using a particular image. However, there is a danger that treating these images as "mis- translation" lays too great an emphasis on the mechanical aspects of translation and undermines the collaborative and intuitive aspects of the interpretive process that sustains the project's openness to experimentation. 79 Seeessayson eachsectionof the translation written forwcb site users. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneAledium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page216  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation Filming the word track is a flexible process, a collaboration between the director and her crew, the core team, and members of the advisory group who are present on location to advise on the acceptability of any last minute changes. A final edit is screened at one of the twice yearly meetings and comments invited. As the version shown at this meeting is the on-line edit, 80 it is usually too late to incorporate comments made at this stage into the final programme. Decisions made during shooting and editing are sometimes presented as a fait accompli to the whole research group. The different parties in the project have developed a certain arm's length, partly perhaps because of professional jealousies, partly to forestall unwanted criticism, or partly through a simplification of working practices. 81 The idea that the director's presence at research meetings may contribute to a greater mutual understanding of the translation task is raised regularly but, after ten years, the project has developed routinised work patterns and lines of communication that are in the main accepted as workable and the division of labour organised along professional lines is maintained. Despite The Project's innovations, translation did not happen in a vacuum. UBS translation policies provided a ready model with minimal adaptation of its principles and familiar working practices. Members of the advisory and production teams also had to adapt to the working methods of fields outside their own professionalexperience. The in essays (Soukup, 1999)documentthe impact of these new experienceson individual In members. general, however, the project probably had a more significantinfluence on the ways people think about translation than on their working methods. In practice, people tended to fall back on their own professionalrepertoiresin responseto change. This type of collective behaviour is consistent with descriptions of social and cognitive repertoires of social action. (Burman and Parker, 1993; Traugott, 1995) One feature of The Project's organisationalstructures and establishedpatterns of work was a neglectof some of the key aspects of the group's definition of "faithfulness". Faithfulness to the 80 Distinctions between"off-line" (rough)edits, and "on-line" (the final) edit are driven by the economicsof film or video production. Given the extremelyhigh expenseof setting up and running a professionalvideo editing studio, the final phase of the on-line edit is generally considered irreversible,the momentin which certainelementsof a production arefixed, 81 Haggerdomin (Soukup, 1999) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page217  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation source text and source text analysis (as well as the history of its interpretation) became the primary preserve of the biblical scholars in the advisory group, while knowledge about the translation medium becamethe primary preserve of the director and artists. There was a relative absence of critical analysis of the popular culture models used. Equally, the Project gave only passing commentary on existing models they rejected, such as the "representational" forms of Hollywood biblical epic and Jesus films. The Project relied primarily on the director's intuitive grasp of the genre; feedback from formal and informal focus group testing; peer opinion, for example, from film and television festivals. This relative absence of critical interest in the genresand repertoires that constitute the "language of translation" used in The Project reflects the conservative nature of Bible translation and its habitual focus on the source text or message. The contradictory pulls of innovation and conservatism that shaped the project reflect a model of translation and power built into the ABS organisational culture, in particular the position it takes within the field of Bible translation and publication and, more generally, the position it takes as defender of moral values basedon its founding vision of a Bible-basedsocial consensus. In this context, one may read the newmediabible's semiotic value through an understanding of the function of translation,where function consists of relationships between producer, text, and society. From the producer's point of view (in this casethe American Bible Society and the people it recruited into The Project) the rhetorical and discursivestrategiesthat identify the ABS as conservativeof certain repertoires of social and Christian pluralism and maintain that position in the face of social and cultural change,reveal the function of translation. These discoursesextendbeyond individual translationsinto the ABS's projection of a corporate imagethrough its organisationalstructuresandworking practices. In this context, faithful equivalence, is a discursive strategy that both maintains a neutrality vis ä vis the Society's. Christian constituents and makes an intervention within the broader sphere of American public life. Such intervention may, as some critics have suggested, the characterise Society's evangelical purposes,but it also arisesfrom the recognition that a translation's reception dependson expectationsshapedby the Christian and Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS,University of Warwick, 2000 page218  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation secular cultural worlds its audiencesinhabit. It is naive to imagine that Bible translationdoesnot engagethe repertoiresof secularcommunicationor persuasionin an ongoingdialecticbetweenthe sacredand profane of thesetwo worlds. From society's point of view, the socially discursive nature of programme - form and content and its reception reveal the function of translation. In the absence of any extensive audience research of the. kind- done in media sociology, 83 a discussion about the discursive strategies of reception is partial and limited. However, two important conclusions can be drawn from The Project's restricted audience testing. First, the newmediabible's value differs widely depending on the context of its reception. Within the film industry, the videos and web site have received critical acclaim for their production values and creativity. In the field of Christian education, reactions to the translations' aesthetic and their function have been more cautious. A qualitative researchstudy conducted by Greanleaf Associates Inc. on behalf of the ABS, reports that its respondents tended to judge the video in generic terms, i. e. in relation to other products that the newmediabible's target audiencemight use, thus: This audience, thesekids, are so sophisticated in terms of looking at that kind of video. I think the competition, in theform of MTV, is just so severe, that if you don't nail it, you're in trouble. and Cinema in America is so sophisticated that you really need to work hard. They need to learn the lessonsto attract kids to that media, becausekids see the best, and if it doesn't measureup, they'll know. 8' Anecdotalevidenceof the ABS Marketing Department's objections to the length of the videos(8-10 minutesas opposedto the norm of 3.5 minutes on MTV) suggests that similar generic comparisons were made. Second, it is important to pay 9' For examplesee audienceresearchstudies in television (Livingstone and Lunt, 1994; Morley, 1992) (GreenleafAssociates,1999,pp 20 and 23) It is not clear from the Greenleafreport how far thesejudgements are basedon actual experienceof watching--MTV and other music channels. Nevertheless,high production values are a featureof the music video industry. E.g. see (Fenster, 1989) The reportacknowledgesthe limited statistical value of-its sample audience. However, it is also important to note that the report was commissioned to obtain feedbackon how a particular group, Christian educators,would evaluatethe project. Thus statementsabout how the series may function as translationarefairly limited in this report. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page219  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation particular attention to how different reception contexts affect the project's semiotic value. It is fairly unlikely that reception is unmediated, since the primary channels of distribution are religious education in schools and churches. It is important, at least, to distinguish between such mediated contexts and unmediated ones where an individual buys the CD-ROM to watch at home, or logs on to the newmediabible web site. The contexts in which the 'rewmediabible translation is viewed, therefore, function as important filters in the reception process. Religious educators in a school or church are important opinion formers. The Greenleaf focus group research commissioned by the American Bible Society indicates religious educators perceive the translations primarily as vehicles to stimulate discussion about social morals and Christian ethics. Thus Connection with current events is something that really works. Discussion of what happened at Columbine High, for example, or Kosovo. How do you make moral decisions, how do you evaluate whether something is right or wrong. and For high school, the text must stimulate discussion The (resource must) help ... them begin to see the differencefaith makes to their lives.84 At the same time, perceptions of the Bible Society's neutrality as a patron of translationare consideredan important feature of videos' integrity. Their doctrinal neutrality astranslationsthat are"true to the text" revealsthe sharedcultural values of faithful translation, but paradoxically also the relativity of this concept. The Christian educatorsinterviewed (and possibly the Greenleaf researchersas well), understand faithfulness in diametrically opposite terms to Bible Society principles of functional equivalence: The sense that these video translations remain "true to the text" seemed consistent with a perception of ABS as dedicatedto word-for-word translation, without Scriptural interpretation. For some, this ABS imprimatur was very reassuring.(Emphasisadded) " (GreenleafAssociates, 1999, p 17) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page220  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation I feel comfort and trust (knowing it is ABS) I wouldn't have to listen really carefully, I wouldn't need to see each and every one to make sure the text was correct. and From my experience, ABS is so Scripture-content oriented, that it wouldn't find that they behind it because it was, like we said, surprise me at all to were for word... It doesn't try to bring you into it, it just presents the story, as it word is. 85 Finally, from the text's point of view, acceptability of the project's innovationsreflectson the ABS' corporate imageand provides an important clue to how a translation may mediate between producer and society. In this case, acceptability is a function of the producer's attempt to establish or maintain a in particular position relation to its its audiences, competitors, and related cultural fields. Whereasthe project's apparent neutrality seems to have been read as faithful translation amongABS clients, who are more interested in how significantof they will use the videos, within Bible Society circles the imagery and music are criticised for their apparent lack of neutrality and failure to conform to received principles of equivalence. In summary,evenso limited a review of the discursive spheresin which the project has circulated points to some important ways in which a translation acquires semiotic value in different contexts. However, if as I suggested earlier, the project becomesthe groundon which various contesting intellectual, institutional, and social positions are the negotiated, programmes themselves may provide evidenceof the different ways in which they function as translation. The following attempts to clarify this notion of function by exploring The Project's models and repertoires of translation,beginningwith an analysisof the music video genresthat provided one of the principal translation models. Of course, my focus on genre shifts in the series newmediabible goesto the heart of ambiguitiesin the translation project. It points up the differencesbetween what the translators and producers thought they 85 ibid., p 38. Hereis an exampleof anotherinterpretationrepertoire. "Faithful" translation is linked to a "word for word" (literal) translation strategyirrespectiveof the project's visual treatment of the biblical text. The perception quoted above is linked both to the ABS credibility as a translationorganisationand the genericplausibility of the video. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page221  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation were doing, in the context of the Bible Society's translation principles, and the interpretive effects of their efforts. The extent to which members of the Project were aware of this and modified their own actions is a measure of the reflexive nature of the Project as an experiment. Sociological approaches to descriptions of film and popular music industries describe genre as the product of three groups of interconnecting forces: the economics and production practices of a particular industry; the narrative conventions of genres themselves; and the audience's reception of generic texts. 86 Industrial practices of cultural production include commissioning, production, and marketing. They consist of a whole set of relationships between financing institutions, creative teams, publicity agents, critics and consumers. Social theorists look at the ways in which these practices and relationships contribute to the formation of a particular genre, its aesthetics and poetics, its narrative themes, and its cultural representations. Genre theory covers the whole spectrum of signifying and production practices from the rules and conventions of a generic style, the way performers and stars behave in public, the way audiences and fans behave, and how journalists and critics evaluate a particular production. 87 Genres are "constructed systems or orders of meanings and signifying practices that must continually be restructured, redefined and adapted in order to remain culturally and economically viable."88 They constitute a set of repeatable narrative, thematic and aesthetic characteristics that function on several diiYrent levels. First, a successful generic formula is central to a producing institution's economy. It is a product of commercial imperatives created as a consequence of the ways the industry gathers knowledge about audiences and promotes productions and artists. The codes and conventions of a genre serve an important function of differentiating one generic form from another.89 Genre characterises a structural relationship between industry and audience which also constructs social categories in which, as Negus suggests, rap "' For example,see(Fabbri, 1985;Fabbri, 1982; Frith, 1996; Negus, 1999) on popular music and (Altman, 1999;Neale; 1984),Neale 199 1 on questionsof film and genre - indusstries (Altman, 1999;Fabbri, 1985;Fabbri, 1982) 87 (Fenster,1989,p 124) This view of genrealso. provides-kr a conceptof media specificity groundedin social and cltural pratice in preferenceto a concept of specificity based on cognitive differencesof reception. 89 (Fenster, 1989) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page222  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation cannot be separated from the politics of blackness, nor salsa from latinness, nor country from whiteness 90 Second, genres represent a structural relation between text and audience. The narrative conventions ofa genre provide the grounds for how a story will develop as well as how audiences make sense of the narrative and predict its outcome.91 The particularities of narrative convention are central to generic plausibility and its function. For example, the final gun battle is prvotai to the Hollywood Western's narrative resolution of the genre's central oppositions between good and evil. Even apparent challengesto generic conventions acquire their significance from an established set of generic codes. For example, the characterisation of the gun fighter as an anti-hero in Clint Eastwood's film Unforgiven (1992) relies on the audience's knowledge of these codes to subvert the film's generic construction of the Western hero. Third, a genre must be culturally in credible, not any direct senseof narrative truth, but in the sense that the narrative themes of a genre resonate with audiences' own social and cultural experience. For example, the frontier thesis of Hollywood Westerns, characterised by its antinomies of garden and wilderness, provides the central narrative platform on which American and cultural identities are worked out. ' Similarly, as noted in chapter five, the social conventions of children's adventure stories in the Hanna-Barbera stories allow for charactersplausibly to cross cultural and geographic boundaries without any loss of narrative verisimilitude. I also observed how, in translation, the generic conventions of adventure construct the discourses and politics of social and cultural difference. Whereas the Hanna-Barbera series embeds a model of translation as colonisation and the politics of empire in its narrative structures and cultural representations, the Story Keepers attempts a model of regeneration, that suggests an application of 90 (Negus,1999). This view is sustainedon the basis that music genresariseout of a particular socialand cultural context. Consequentlythey encodethesecontexts within their discourses. The appropriationof a genreby anothersocial group (its translation into a new context) may result in a transformationof the genre's cultural politics but some aspect of the original still retains a signifying value for new audiences. See (Bogatyrev 1982) and (Avni, 1990) on the social contexts of semanticshifts in the signifying value of an object. The popularisationof rap music amongwhite audiencesby white superstarssuch as Eminem is significant of a broader trend of the cultural appropriationof black youth culture by white youths for whom the repertoiresof dress, language, and music adoptedby their black peerssignify an attitude of "cool". Indeed, the association of black culturewith theserepertoiresis an elementof their signifying forcefor white audiences. It is a quintessentialform of translation. 91 (Neale, 1995) 92 (Pye, 1955) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page223  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation Walter Benjamin's definition of translation to its methods of story telling and invention of reliable story tellers.93 While popular music genres do not function in precisely the sameways as the narrative genres offTm, parallel generic expectations structure relations between audience and performer, or between audience and text. For example, Negus comments on the construction of authenticity in country music through accent and styles of singing voice, instrument, clothing (especially the hat), body movement, and the artist's lifestyle. 4 To summarise, genres are empirical and historical categories constructed by producers, audiences, and critics to serve communicative and aesthetic purposes. As "systems of orientations, expectations and conventions that circulate between industry, text and subject"95 they are not neutral categories. Repetition and change are a central dynamic of the relation between a genre's signifying and production practices and audiences' expectations and comprehension. The mediatingfunction of any particular genre raises a question about the effect on a translation's reception of appropriating a generic style and the interpretive possibilities introduced by this form of "rewriting". The ABS' translationof the parableof the Prodigal Son from Luke 15:11-32 as a song about A Father and Two Sods reveals how narrative and aesthetic conventions borrowed from another genre introduce new cultural themes that influence audience expectations by their genericinter-textuality. A translation of the parable (the word track) is set to musicwritten and performed by blues singerRory Block. Although frequently describedas "country and western", the country blues track bears little resemblance to mainstream country music. Possibly people have labelled the music track's genrecountry musicbecausethe imagetrack's setting, costume, and imagery literally denote"Country" and "Western". The main part of the story is set on a horseranchin Georgiaand the opening imagesof riders and horses galloping across prairies evokescomparisonswith similar in scenes Hollywood Westerns. (See clip 19) An initial identification of the music as country and western that provides a 93 It is perhapsno coincidence,given the writer's own intellectual backgroundand interests,that the series' central narrating characteris named after Walter Benjamin. Conversation with series writer AndrewMelrose. 94 (Negus, 1999, pp 128-130) 95 (Neale, 1980, 19) p Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS,University of Warwick, 2000 page224  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation frame for viewers has important consequencesfor subsequentinferencesthey make about the text's thematic significanceand world view. As Mary Gerhart notes, Genre is a hypothesis regarding an entire text, relating the single text to one or more other texts with similar structures, styles, topics, effects 96 Mark Fenster's summary of country music themes suggests some potential interpretive effects of such genre shifts. He lists a number of key characteristics that define the genre and distinguish it from other forms of music video. The central narrative frame of country music video is the filmed or taped performance intercut with visual segments that illustrate the plot of the lyrics. The performance is seen as a crucial aspect of the music's communicative and emotional powers. The visual representations complement and enhance the music which traditionally focuses on the family, or the community, and places value on the country as opposed to the city. Country music video adopts a visual iconography of simplicity and ordinariness that draws on imagery of small town community and family rituals. A Father and Two Sons uses imagery that resonates with Fenster's description of Randy Travis' "Forever and ever, amen" (1987) and the Forester Sisters' "I fell in love againlast night" (1985)r The scenesat the party to celebrate the younger son's homecoming draw on mythical representations of small town communities in music video and film. Glimpses of a fiddle player and the ranch house in the background contrast with the earlier party scene dominated by strobe lighting that culminates in a police line-up. The final scene in which the father pleads with the elder son is intercut with a series of romanticised flash-backs of the two brothers playing with each other and with their father. The image of the boys clinging to their father's neck as he spins and bucks evokes scenesof the rodeo that are part of the iconography of country music video. The imagesflicker as if the elder brother is playing back his memoriescaptured on 8mm home movie. (See clip 20) The narrative and visual realismin the to video serve underwrite its plausibility. It is believablebecauseit conformsto viewers' genreexpectations. In somerespectsthis choice is apposite in A Father and Two Sons becausethe narrative themes and discourses of country music convergewith a popular reading of the Lucan parable as a redemption % (Gerhart, 1992, p 13) 97 (Fenster, 1989, p 118) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page225  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation narrative 98 The generic imagery of country and western in the video lend a particular thematic twist to this redemption narrative. The rules of the genre celebrate every-day, down-to-earth, ordinariness fabricated through a visual iconography and musical aesthetic that reflect a particular way of life. As Keith Negus' discussion about country music genre and its audiences suggests, A Father and Two Sons may be interpreted as an appeal to "beliefs and sentiments about the family, community and the common people [that are] still to a great extent grounded in the experience of white, rural, blue-collar, working-class life. "99 The cultural politics of the video translation reflect those of country music which provides an interpretive frame for people familiar with its generic conventions. This kind of interpretive effect depends on the viewer's knowledge of country music and its thematic significance. It does not mean, however, that the video will be meaningless to other viewers. It is reasonable at least to expect any viewer who has watched music television, to recognise the promotional function of music video. In this case, one must ask what Rory Block's performance adds to the story's significance and what the effect is of her presentation as the video's central star especially in light of Gerhart's description of genre as a hypotheses about an entire text, and Negus' view that genre categories serve a particular function in the economy of music video production. At its most basic level, video is used in the popular music industry is to promote an artist, an album, or a genre. For example, whatever the visual treatment of a song whether narrative or performative, the central figure in country music video is always the singer. Accordingto Negis and Fenster, the promotional function of video production has had an important influence on the development of aesthetic forms in music video. Form and function are therefore inseparable. The economics of promotion become part of the signifying conventions of music video. One of the important signifying elements of A Father and Two Sons is the manner in which it has packaged and promoted Rory Block by trading on her star quality. As the central narrator of the story, her is performance style an essential part of the story's interpretation. Rory Block's combined role of performer of her own music and narrator of the parable 98 (Josipovici, 1988) (Negus,1999,p 129-130) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS,University of Warwick, 2000 page226  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation raises the question whether her performance is keyed to an interpretation of the parable or the music and how the plausibility of her characterisation as narrator and blues singer bears upon the significance of the story. Viewers who were interviewed by the Bible Society, thought these two roles were contradictory. They were distracted by Rory Block's presence in the video in two ways. First, her dominant presence in the video emphasises the music in a way that detracts from the story itself. Second, her performance is perceived as "over the top". '°° In this case, however, the audiencethat was tested was more interested in the plausibility of the translation than the singer's authentic representation of a genre. Consequently, the particular expressivenessof Rory Block's performance interfered with an alternative set of genre expectations about the neutrality of the narrator, or the translator's invisibility, generatedby the ABS' public image as a reliable translator. Criticisms of this nature, however, obscure a more important signifying element imported with the project's appropriation of the music genre. As Negus suggests,music video is about "overtly socially, technologically and spatially mediated relationships" between and their fans. 101 Rory Block's performance privileges this relationship performers in a way that displaces her characterisation as a narrator and makes her performance implausible for some viewers. Focus groups interviewed by the ABS have made similar criticisms about the narrator/performer's credibility in other videos in this series suggestingthat, where audiencesare concerned, genre shifts can create a set of conflicting expectations that may or may not work in the producer's/translator's favour. While the creatorsof the newmediabibleused music video to appeal to the popular tastes of American youth and while they have arguably imported the cultural values of each music genre through their appropriation of its visual iconography,their relianceon a performer's star quality to sell the Bible story representsa distortion of the function commercial of music video. The blurring of boundariesbetweensacredand secular,commercialand non-commercialintentions, inevitably meansrepresentationsabstractedfrom one social and cultural context and .o. (GreenleafAssociates,inc., 1999) (Negus,1999,p 130). Seealso Jody-Bcr nd (Berland 1993)on the displacementby- audio andvideo recordingindustriesof the "social context of music itself". Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page227  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation made to circulate within another semiotic sphere create a different semiotic value. The reciprocal effects of this cultural exchange are neither simple nor straightforward. (See note 82 above). The appropriation and transformation of music video genres also constitutes a translation of sorts. In this context, The Project's eclectic construction of a particular type of "ritual space" through its combination of popular music with imagery from sacred and secular traditions counteracts the localising specificities of music genres that were used as the principal model translation. '02 Genrecriticism usefully highlightssomeof the tensionswithin the video, but doesnot necessarilyaccountfor its function as translation becauseit leavesopen the question of what precisely has been translated. Since the project as a whole has applied Bible Societytranslation practicesand principles, it is reasonableto analyse all elementsof the seriesto explorethe repertoires of transfer and transformation, cultural difference,and social agencythat register on the site of the newmediabible. The Neighbor, a translation of the parable of the Good Samaritan(Luke 10:25-37) published on the internet, provides a suitable starting point since its mega-metaphor of travel encodes a semiotics of cultural difference and transfer,103while its treatment of the story and its visual style embedthe themeof socialagency. The web site structure consistsof a seriesof framesaroundthe centraltext of TheNeighbor (seefig. iii). The homepagepresentsthe user with three options for accessto the content of the web site: "Travel", "Explore" and "Locate". These options representdifferent ways of organisingtheprogramme'scontent that lead the user along different paths of discovery. The "Travel" option is primarily linear, "Explore" suggestsa more interactive approach through its non-linear structure, and "Locate" is a topical index of the web site. Each option is a frame that directs the user's gazeandguidesher interpretive choicesin a particular direction. Graphically, "Travel" appearsas the first choice on the home page. The textual forms of the translationarerankedequally on the first screenof the "Travel" option. ºoz See Goethals in (Hodgson, 1997) on New Media translation as ritual space. 103 (Cronin, 2000) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page228  The Limits and Possibilities of'Translado'1 (fig. iii) The Neigbour home page- - The user has the choice of reading, viewing or hearing the parable through links from this page to the video and sound studios or the text base. The "Travel" option functions as a particular unifying element for the web site as a whole. As a feature of the site's mega metaphor of the journey, "travel" suggests a more purposeful senseof direction than the idea of "exploration" which has no definitive end in sight. The "Travel" option inscribes the semantics of location which functions as a mapping exercisedrawing attention to the spatial relationships between elements of the web site. In contrast, the "Explore" option is designed round the idea of a game or puzzle that users have to solve before they gain access to the next level of the programme. Access through this option is therefore more random. The web site's narrative frames present two reading strategies. (See fig. Iv) One consists of paradigmatic and syntagmatic options for interpretation. The user may click on any one choice of story presentation, or on the links to other related texts in the Bible and engagein a sort of hermeneutic reading. The other narrative frame consists of diachronic and synchronic dimensions options for interpretation. This Joy Sisley. Translating from One .Medium to another BCCS. University of Warwick. 2000 page229  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation Diachronic: historical articles on the theological, artistic, literary, musical interpretations of the Good Samaritan Paradigmatic: chcicv of starr format - %aritten/ video/audio/N%holeparable/fragments READ VIEW HEARJ Svntaomatic: links to other texts in the Bible - hermencutic reading Synchronic: links to other web sites (fig iv) frame presents a choice of either going to the text base articles, which describe the reception history of the parable in music, art, literature, and theology, or of clicking on links to other web sites belonging to contemporary Church communities. The essay on the history of interpretation, for example, shows how over time commentators from Augustine onwards have treated the story as allegory, history, language of metaphor, or have used reader response theory or deconstruction to explain the parable. Hypertext links connect users to other commentaries on the parable that link users virtually to interpretive communities with whom they can enter into a dialogue about the contemporary function of the parable. This narrative level introduces the idea that the meaning of the parable is not fixed for all time but acquires different semiotic value at different times in its history. Finally, the Sound and Video Studios provide links to other representations of the parable in music and film. The Video Studio also contains the equivalent of a translator's preface in the form of a short documentary about the making of the video translation. Many of the para-textual and meta-textual elements of translation are incorporated in the web site from Onetlediumto Another JoySisley.Translating . BCCS. University of Warwick. 2000 page 230  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation and becomepart of users' in experiences whatever way they choose to use the material. Yhe Neighbor assumes a very high level of media literacy on the part of its users, and although it is tempting to assume from the web site's hypertext structure that it offers a virtual infinity of interpretive choices (the ultimate postmodern text), in fact the meaning and function of the story have been carefully constructed. The characteristically rich intertextuality of the image track connects the parable to its history of representation, while the travel metaphor connects with the user's own experienceof social and cultural mobility inviting an allegorical interpretation of the story. The look and style of the video translation is modelled on Lewis Hine's social documentary photography. 105The story's temporal setting is ambiguous: the actors wear clothes that give the story a 1930's feel, but the train in the opening shot and the bicycles on which the Priest and Temple Official ride are modern. The style and e orris-eit-scci, refer to mythical constructions of social migrations in 1930's America giving the video a certain "Grapes of VVrath" feel. One of the most striking aspects of the word track is the description in vs "a3of the Samaritan as a "foreigner from, Samaria". The character is clearly flagged as Other. The use of "foreigner" is a departure from representations of the Samaritan in other major English language translations of the Bible. ' This departure from a translation norm has the interesting effect of constructing an unambiguous point of view in the story. An analysis of the photographic repertoires on which the video is modelled together with its representation of the Samaritan as a "foreigner-" in the word and image tracks provides an insight into the function of translation on this web site. It will be helpful for readers to bear in mind the social and cultural attitudes behind the founding vision of the American Bible Society as my chapter develops. '°s Lenis Wickes Hine, 1874-1940. Photographer,writer, humanist. Best known for his photographsof immigrants at Ellis Island and his views of housing and labour conditions in the U.S.A. Hine participatedin several«elfiarcagencycampaignsincluding the Pittsburg Survey (1907) and the National Child lLabourCommission, for whom he worked as a staff photographer. He also photographedthe constructionof the Empire State Building 1930-31. He is credited with creating the socialdocumentarystyle of photographyat the turn of the century. However,I understandthat it is not uncommon for Bible Society translators to use the word "foreigner"in modernvernaculartranslationsin other languages. My informant is Dr. Philip C. Stine, formerly United Bible SocietiesTranslationsand Publications Director. Translating fOne Afediwn to Another Joy Sisley, rom BCCS, University of Waxwick,2000 Page231  the Limits Possibilities and of Translation The key to The Neighbor's function as translation is its incorporation of the word "foreigner' in the word track, a choice that establishes its discourses of difference and structures the user's identification with the different characters in the story. The image track's representation of the foreigner adds another layer to the parable. The video's focalisation of difference departs radically from that of the word track. This is achieved in two principal ways. The first is its manipulation of the gaze that structures the story's point of view. The word track tells the story from the point of view of an expert in the Law of Moses (the parable's narratee) who asks Jesus who is his neighbour. In this case, the story constructs the Samaritan as other to the narratee's social identity. The expert is, therefore, the principal focaliser of difference. Readers' notes in the Good News Study Bible explain that the parable "removes any limits to the definition of "neighbour", which Jews used to refer to fellow-Jews. "107 hie Neighbour's word track is an important device for achieving this effect. Midway through the story point of view shifts to the man from Samariaand the reader looks at the traveller through his eyes. Vs 33: "Men a foreigner from Scrnurria traveling along, that road happened tipott the r7zai,, arul ic/,en he smt, hint, he wasfilled with compassion. " This shift in point of view dramatisesthe relationship between the Jew and Samaritan and shifts the balance of power in the story. The "foreigner" gazes at the man who has identified him as other through the expert's question - "who is my neighbour?" The foreigner's gaze therefore challenges the narratee's subjectivity. The exchange of looks that structures the story's point of view and the content of the gaze in the image track is quite different. There are several significant shifts in point of view. The first occurs when the Samaritan and the traveller recognise each other as opponents in a flash- back to the fight scene. In this little scene, the grammar of shot and reverse shot locates the dominant point of view with the traveller not the Samaritan. Then the point of view shifts back to the narrator/camera, but with a framing that establishes empathy for the Samaritan. (See clip 21) The second significant shift in point of view occurs in the scene at the inn. This shift has a similar function to that, of the word track where the narratee's own subjectivity is challenged. The principal narratee of the image track, however, is the viewer. This difference is significant, aas(GNB, 1994,p 1599) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Mediumsto Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page232  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation Characters at the inn engagethe viewer's gaze by looking directly into the camera. The look implicates the viewer in the video narrative itself as a witness to the violence perpetrated on the traveller. The characters' gazes compel the viewer to take a moral position on this violence. At the same time, the nature of the characters' looks and the_mis-etz-scene at theinn_invites_inter-textuaLreference. to constructions by news reportage of natural and human disasters (wars, floods, famine). The referencescue the viewer to wider social perspectives on some of the video's narrative themes. The characters at the inn appear as more than travellers, they stare back at the viewer in the same way victims of crisis stare back at news cameras. The gaze has a distancing effect which challenges the viewer's subjectivity in relation to the identity of the story's characters. Whereasthe word track structures the discoursesof difference around an historical enmity betweenJew and Samaritanwhich Jesususes to challengethe law expert's lack of in inclusiveness his definition of neighbour,the imagetrack reworks this discourseas a contemporary theme in far more complex ways. The image track's representationof differenceis crucial to understandinghow the translation's her or his own focalisationof self and-other-functions_to- oonfront`the_narratee_with_ subjectivity. The introductory scroll that frames the video translation ostensibly createsan historical for context the story and explains the causesof a centuries' old enmity between Jews and Samaritans as "differing religious practices, ethnic identity, and land claims." This frame radically repositions the story's conception of differenceby giving it the title of "ethnicity", which itself is qualified in terms of religiouspractice and land claims. The causesof difference are thus explained in terms, anthropological not historical ones. The Neighbor's historicity is couchedin terms of modernity and the viewer's subjectivity in terms of "western culture" through the post-colonial discourses of ethnicity mobilised by the 1°7 frame. '07 The cultural connotationsof othernessframedby the discoursesof ethnicity are discussed by Tim Ingold in his essay"Tlie-art of translationin a continuous world". (Pälsson 1993} Irr this essayhe shows how ethnicity is associatedwith the anthropological Other who is defined as the productof a cultureof tradition and natureirr-oppos4iow-to the westernSelf-who is- defined as-the productof the Culture of civilization and reason. The anthropologistadopts a position outside this anthropologicaldistinction between-culture as- civilization --and. culture as tradition through, the Westerndiscoursesof modernity. "If westernculture is a culture of Culture to be western is not ... .. to be the bearerof yet anothertradition hui to disclosea ennditinnthat is utterly opposedto the traditional- the condition of modernity." (p 215) The condition of modernity, he argues,is a state Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS,University of Wanvick, 2000 page233  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation Moreover, I would arguethe fight sceneparticularises and localises the discourses of ethnicity in The Neighbour. The fight which is intended to refer to the traditional enmity between Jews and Samaritans embeds the connotations of "ethnic conflict". The contending parties are represented by two racially mixed groups of actors. The image track's characterisation of difference, therefore, depends on its appearance. Ironically, this representation of "ethnicity" is a literal, image-for-word translation of "ethnic" and "conflict" (/ethnic conflict/ functions here as a supersign). The video dramatises and contextualises the multi-ethnic, multi-racial politics of American society that are personified by casting Native American as the Samaritan. This _a further localises the story within the recent political history of American Indians, notably on the issue of land claims. In this context, James Clifford notes that ethnicity emergesas "a weak conception of culture suitable for organizing diversity the pluralist state". 108Ethnicity, in its modern usage, is about the discursive within construction of the identity of self and other based on political, national, or religious boundaries. Depending on who is making the claim to ethnicity, it can be a term of derogation, or of democratisation. 109 Thus although the gaze structures the relationship of the viewer to the story, it cannot predetermine the viewer's interpretation. This depends rather on whether the viewer identifies with the video's characterisation of the ideal viewer as anthropologist which places her outside culture, or with the anthropologist's construction of otherness which places her inside whatever definition culture or ethnicity she chooses. One of the weaknesses of the story's framing by an anthropological rather than a historical discourse is that it reinforces the status quo of a particular construction of social difference given by the frame's definition of culture. As Ingold notes of anthropological definitions, culture tends to be something that is inherited already fully formed. "° The Neighbor's translation of difference, framed by the word of alienation,of not belonging in which the West figures as `the outside world', the `rider society', `the majority'. (p 214) On the strength of this argument,I would contend that by refraining the story in anthropological terms The Neighbor characterises its ideal viewer as an anthropologist. 108(Clifford, 1988,p 339). He also notesthat the political identity assertedby Indian tribes "is more subversivethan that of Irish-Americansor Italian-Americans:Native Americans claim to be both full citizensof the United Statesand radically outside it. " (p 339). If this is the case,the role of th9Samaritanin TheNeighbor gives the story yet anothertwist. See Levon H. Abrahamian,`The anthropologist as shaman:interpreting recent political events in Armenia" in (Pälsson, 1993) 1° Tim Ingold in (Pälsson,1993) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page234  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation "foreigner" into an image of racial pluralism makes it harder for viewers to challenge the social construction of difference because the image track's reliance on appearancesrather than history it presents as given_112 The imagesof racially mixed groups are a recurringmotif in the new media video translations. They are borrowed from a larger repertorial representation of the multi-cultural mix of American society, in advertising for example. These images serve a variety of purposes, not least of is which to support the notion of a plurality of Christian communities bound together by the universality of the biblical message. This is part of a strategy of inclusive translation which aims to accommodate the Society's heterogeneous interpretive communities. 113 The image of social and is cultural pluralism as much part of Bible Society (particularly ABS) organisational structures as it is of its publications. A closer look at the function of translation in the Society through the concept of repertoire may account for the extent to which the New Media Translation Project reflects, or is a product of, the discourses of plurality in Bible Society. The analytical model I propose here is intended to explain both the consistencies of The Project as well as its many contradictions. The Project does not merely reflect a wider set of social and organisational structures, it is the ground on which those structures are discursively negotiated. The Project, therefore, produces certain sets of social relationships. An analysis of the function of The Neighbor in these terms may help to elucidate the relevance of repertoire as an appropriate metaphor for describing and evaluating the "limits and possibilities" of translation that serve as an implicit set of instructions for the newmediabible. One of the most interestingaspectsof The Neighbor is its resolution of the narrativeof ethnic conflict set up by the video frame and the fight scene. This is 12 That differencesbasedon appearance are social constructions,and that these constructions can be used to explain conflict and overwrite the historical causes of conflict is demonstrated extremely well by Philip Gourevitch's book about the origins of genocide in Rwanda. (Gourevitch, 200T I3 The term "inclusive" translationused by Bible Society is a politically correctattempt to createa universally acceptable translation. The policy specifiesthe use of gendergenericlanguage and an avoidanceof anti-semitism where appropriate. See (Newman, 1996, ch 6- "Taking on SensitiveIssues"). Inclusivetranslationreflectsa sensitivity to contemporarycultural discourseson gender and difference, but it also has a tendencyto encouragea cultural relativism that reinforcesthe status quo in the story (see Fish, 1999). Some people argue that inclusive translation strategies sanitisethe original text by overwriting its gender,race,and class politics. However, as the history of Bible translation reception shows, neither side of this argument is-conclusive. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page235  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation where the full force of the concept of repertoire can be applied. In her book Symbols of an Ideal Life: social documentary photography in America 1890-1950, Maren Stangetraces the development and use of documentary photography in the publicity campaigns of the American social reform movements during that period. She argues in her chapter on the use of Lewis Hine's documentary photography in social reform campaigns, that the utopian ideology of American liberal reformers who proposed a programme of social change through increased technocratic and industrial efficiency eventually subordinated the complexity and social realism of Hine's and other's camera practices. Stange notes, for example, how Tugwell reframed the economic and social realities of Hine's subjects by cropping and captioning the photographs for his economic textbook American Economic Life and the Means of Its Improvement published in 1924. The publication promotes social reform through rationalised, efficient production and the bureaucratisation of corporate welfare programmes. Thus the conditions of social and economic inequality portrayed in Hine's photography were overwritten by a progressive ideal of integration that has become one iconographic vision of American identity. The Neighbour has borrowed images of American rural classes already framed and captioned by a discourse of progress that obscured the social and economic realities of those people. Stange's book demonstrates the considerable deconstructive effort required to see past that discourse. This suggests The Neighbor's reference to the repertoires of early documentary photography reinforces a particular vision of social reform that concurs with the founding principles of the ABS. There are some interesting parallels between the ideological effect of documentary idealism developed by the social reform publicity campaigns of the 1930's and The Neighbor. The video has apparently imported the ideologies of those repertoires by appropriating the representational repertoires of rural poverty and migration in the early part of the twentieth century in America In the video, . the narrative resolution to ethnic conflict becomes one of "integration", which glossesover its origins. There is no motivation for the fight scene which sets up the video narrative. It just happens. The groups seem to appear from nowhere and begin to yell at each other across the railway track. Because the racial mix of the two Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page236  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation groups is identical, viewers have no access to the possible social causes of conflict. The imagery suggests that conflict is a function of social pluralism. The video displays an historical amnesia similar to the one encouragedby news reports of civil by Western media institutions. ' 13 Intertextual reference to the American conflict social reform movement via reference to Hine's photographic style is only one of the repertoires mobilised in this video, but one of the effects of this choice from among other representations of the sameperiod and topic is to present an idealised solution to conflict. This effect highlights a particular ideological tension arising from an attempt to visually represent a principle of inclusive translation by casting racially mixed groups for the In crowd scenes. conclusion, where the image track loses some of the force of the parable through its representational repertoires, the word track retains the full force of the text through its innovative use of "foreigner". The innovation jars the reader into thinking about the social politics of difference and exclusion whereas the image track tends to meliorate this effect. The dialecticalcontradictionsof word and imagein The Neighbor raises the questionwhat factors have shaped the transfer practices, and how they can account for the textual effects of the translation. While the foregoing analysis has dealt Toury would term operational textual norms,"4 it still leaves primarily with what open the question of how those repertoireswork. Sheffy suggestsin her discussion of the term, that a "repertoire" should include all the skills and knowledge deployed in encodingor decodinga communicationevent. Her referenceto the rules of football in this context is interesting becauseit implies that a repertoire also includes knowledgeof technicalskills - the "materials" which govern the making of a product and, ultimately, the cultural or professional values invested in the acquisition of - those skills. As Maren Stange demonstrates when she writes about Lewis Hine and the establishmentof a documentary style, a repertoire is thoroughly in grounded the socialrelationsof its formation anduse: "' It would be fair to say, however,that many of thesegapsare filled in by the text base, and that abstractingthe video from its textual contextsconstitutes an analytical reductionism. But, in defenceof my abstractionof the video, it should also be pointed out that there is no guaranteeeither that a users i11readthe text basearticles. 1° SeeChapter2 "The Natureand Role of Norms in Translation" in (Toury, 1995). Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page237  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation Hine's mastery of a flexible yet identifiable documentary style helped to reify it: the style itself - rather than "scientific"-looking graphic representation or the actual subject matter of photographs - was to become the symbol not only of a concern to discover and disclose social reality, but also of liberal reformer's authority and ability to explain and ameliorate that- reality. 1' A repertoire, therefore, cannot be separated from the social context within which repertorial knowledge is acquired and manipulated. However, Sheffy's definition of repertoire as "pre-organised options" that constrain action and her view that repertoires develop a relative autonomy, are too narrow to account for the interesting contradictions of word and image in The Neighbor. As with Toury's theory of norms, Shelly's repertoire cannot explain the function of innovation within a set of social practices. Neither can it accommodate the symbolic value of the repertoires of social photography used in The Neighbor. A formulation of the concept of repertoire is required that explains how the ABS's willingness to invest in the translation project's exploratory nature functions to maintain the Society's corporate vision of social reform but, at the sametime, how this vision acquires new value through the discourses of ethnicity mobilised in The Neighbor. The conceptual use of repertoire by social scientists to account for the surprisingly limited and ordered patterns of collective action or protest in moments of apparently disorganised social movement is more useful in this context. Charles Tilly, who introduced the term to social scienceresearch, describes it as : A limited set of routines that are learned, shared, and acted out through a relatively deliberate process of choice. Repertoires are learned cultural creations,but they do not descendfrom abstract philosophy or take shape as a they result of political propaganda; emergefrom 116 struggle. According to Tilly, repertoiresdesignatemeansof interaction among actors or groups of actors. They include a range of styles of collective action such as strikes, public protest, barricading, legal action, as well as the discourses that accompany thesevarious forms of action. They are "the establishedways in which the actors make and receive claims bearing on each other's interest.""' Mark "s (Stange,1989,p 55) 116 CharlesTilly in (Traugott, 1995,p 26) 117 CharlesTilly in (Traugott, 1995,p 27) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of War ick, 2000 page238  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation Traugott summarising Tilly's work on repertoire, notes that repertoires have a metaphorical similarity to a game in that they involve a necessary amount of extemporisation around a basic set of rules. This allows for a combination of ritual and flexibility in which "neither element must be allowed to displace the other, lest the performance lose either it creative edge or its ready communicability. s118 The consistency of repertoires over a long period time gives them the appearance of relative stability, and naturalness. However, Tilly is also interested in the changes that repertoires undergo over a cycle (which may span several generations). Traugott arguesthat to understand the dynamics of collective action repertoires it is important to examine both their discursive and instrumental dimensions. He claims by "mediating between consciousnessand action, discourse shapes the conception of just claims and their legitimate pursuit and the targets for their redress."19 Discursive and instrumental repertoires interact in mutually reinforcing, and stabilising ways. However, "to the extent that the two repertoires are not mutually reinforcing during contention, groups may be pressed to reexamine the cogency and validity of each. Stasis and change in both repertoires are functions of reciprocal affirmation. 99120 Applied to an understanding of the consistencies and contradictions of translation, this view of repertoire, with its emphasison cyclical changeand the interactionof ritual and flexibility, provides a more flexible approach. Translations areproducts of the real relations between interested parties - publishers, translators, distributors, readers.Thus, it is impossibleto abstracttexts from the social,political and economic circumstances of their production and reception. The New Media TranslationProject is exemplary. The Project is characterisedby tensions inherited from the intellectual and occupational dispositions of the various academic and professionalfields by represented its members. The whole translation process from selectionof the sourcetext to its completion as a hypertext document on the world wide web is highly complex. To how examine tensionsin decision-makingprocesses coherein the project, I havefocusedon the video translation, but to understandhow 18 (Traugott, 1995,p 44) 19 ibid., p 60 '20 ibid., p 61 Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page239  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation the project acquiressymbolic valuethrough its repertoires and models of translation it may help to locate the video within the larger frame of its production contexts. The following map attempts to accountfor the social and historical contexts of the repertoiresof translation. (fig. v) The left hand column of the chart shows the various stages through which the translation progresses: creation of an authoritative source text, preparation of English languagedrafts and word track, video production, creation of the web site, and so on. The dotted lines indicate the path that the text takes through the various stages of translation and modification. The boxes that intrude into the left hand column show how decisions at each successive stage (left hand column of the box) are filtered through the models and repertoires (far right box) of different cultural fields occupied by the various occupational groups involved (centre column). Each stage represents a point at which some aspect of the text is fixed during the production process, for example, once everyone has agreed the final form of the word track, they use it as the script for video production. Although the process is presented diachronically in the scheme, it should be borne in mind that each successive stageconsiderably modifies, but does not displace, the "original" text. By specifying the network of social relations and the models and repertoires of translation, the chart attempts to show how in each successive stage the text acquires a different semiotic value. The chart is an exemplification of Peirce's theory of semiosis, where The interpretant is nothing but another [sign] to which the torch of truth is handedalong; and as a [sign], it has it has its interpretant again. Lo, another infinite series.' 21 12' Peircein (Gorlee,1993,p 57) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Wanvick, 2000 page240  the Limil. %and Possibilities n/' 7rran.s/aiwn PROCESS PRACTICE Produc t tics, io ec gnomic Context Models Fr Repertoires ["ORIGINAL" -oral histories, fragments... ___ ------------- ºText-linguistic t3IHIIc AL. analysis to establish CHOLARS S authoritative version of a _ presu ed original SOURCE TEXT eekNew Testament 1<- --- --- ------------ r ENGLISH At3S IRAN SLATORS ;" linguistic fr biblical exegesis F'LATION `" U95 translation principles DRAFTS " Semiotic & rhetorical analysis of Bible agency social ' musical, visual, and performance economy `r values ý codes I TRANSLATION e\t version <--- ---- ------------- ----------- ' v SCRIPT... ; PRODUCER/DIRECTo ' traditions of sacred art and music tihoot picture edit " repertoires of chosen genres n' production values . popular culture representations music edit and conventions of biblical narrative TRANSLATION --- ------------- ºu io-visual version --- ------------T P"Iti' EB SITE SOFTWARE F" graphic design repertoires DESIGN ENGINEERS " Bible publishing conventions internet design conventions Er repertoires I TRANSLATION Hvper-text Hyper-text version --- ------------ joy SisIcN. I run. ýlulrrrt h. "uz c ýný leclruin to. I pother .I BCCS. Uni%crsitN of Wannick. 2000 page 241  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation It also attempts to show the ground of interpretation for each succeeding moment of sign interpretation. Thus the Greek source text used for translation is already a translation based on authoritative agreement among scholars that it is the most accurate representation of the earliest known written fragments of the original. The academies that support text-critical research, and sanction the theories and methodologies of text criticism constitute the social contexts that invest the source text with the authority of originality. The source text, however is only fixed by agreement. New research methods, the discovery of new fragments, new archaeological and historical insights into the social and cultural contexts of the original stories, all contribute to an ongoing process of "fixing" the source text. As any review of text critical literature reveals the ground of interpretation here is a heavily contested one . The translators of the newmediabibleword track have to contend with a numberof factors as regardsthe object of translation, or the nature of their referent. These have alreadybeendiscussedat the beginningof the chapter and there is no needto reiteratethe points here. The translators interact with the interested parties of translation who "make and receive claims bearingon each others interests. " The translators are employed by the American Bible Society which acts as both a member of a global organisation,and as an organisationthat wants to distinguish itself from other Bible agencies,such as the Wycliffe Bible Translators, or the International Bible TranslatorS222 The- transbitnrc alsa have ta. contend with- conventions of linguistic and biblical exegesis establishedby academictraditions and UBS translation principles formed through the theory and practice of translation. The social and cultural contextsbearingon their decisionsare also informed by the purpose of this stageof translation: to produce a word track for an audio visual translation. Thus the exigenciesof their new context modify the habitual repertoires that inform their decisionsas print translators. As in noted, my analysisofA Father and Two Sons, and The Neighbor, these repertoires and models are themselves in grounded various sets of social, economic,and technical relations. A sustained analysis of the social, economicand technical relations is beyond the scope of this u2 The ABS distinguishesitself fron theseotheragenciesby its translations. Seems - , 1993andDuthie, 1985) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page242  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation chapter, but obviously, it would add to the thick description of this project. My summary of these two stages adequately make my point about the conventional character of translation except, once translation moves into the creation of an image track, the ground of interpretation shifts dramatically. The director has learned her professional and intellectual competencies in a totally different cultural field. She does not have the benefit of the translators' linguistic or biblical training. Consequently, her interpretation of the word track is informed by other interpretive/translative repertoires and other priorities. The process of translation is therefore not cumulative as suggestedby my map. It is subject to radical shifts in unforeseen directions. The ground of interpretation therefore becomes a proliferating network of different social relationships and professional and intellectual contention which may seem to the casual observer like shifting sands. To an outside observer,the decisionsthat fix eachstage of translation may appear quite arbitrary and lacking in any of the constraints of Toury's translations norms. Even members of the translation project have difficulty reconstructing, in any more than vague terms of what works, the decision processes that led to a 123However, the apparently arbitrary nature of decision making particular choice. be can misleading. The final form and content of the project reflect the tastes and preferencesof individuals working on the project. Decisions are 1pnerally reached through consensus,so that these preferences have to be negotiated. There are, however, a number of shared principles that have evolved during the project's development. The group has a list of "do's and don'ts" of translation invoked in a short handthat has becomepart of the translation process. The dominant ones are that "one-to-onecorrespondence"and a "representational" style should be avoided. These are in fact sanctionsformed in the early days of the programmewhen the American Bible Society sought to position itself in the field of Bible story by adaptation makingunfavourablecomparisonswith other video products on the market. One-to-onecorrespondencemeansany attempt to represent the words in the text literally. Representational,simply refers to narrative and representational 'Z' "I don't remember«-ho actually commeup-with the-idea of children, but I think it Ras a stroke of genius" (Amy-Jill Levine, background video, Video Studio, httpJ/w,wlv.newmediabible/7/1 goodsam) Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page243  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation styles of Hollywood biblical epics in which actors are dressed in a way (flowing robes and head dress) presumed to be faithful to the period of the "original" text. This disinclination to use dominant repertoires of cinematic and televisual biblical representation stems from a commitment to innovation as a highly valued principle that The Project's members strongly defend in the face of other more conservative factions within the organisation on the grounds that the New Media Translation Project is positioned at the cutting edge of innovation in Bible translation and media use. The principle of innovation, a desire to put the organisation at the forefront of developments in Bible translation, results in a high degree of experimentation sometimes at the expenseof other translation or market considerations and provides justification for a lengthy production schedule. This dynamic is not unique to The Project. It is an important element of ABS corporate culture. The Society's pursuit of the modernisation of Bible translation practices is one of the driving forces of this culture, and one which the organisation has been willing to underwrite both 124 materially and socially. In summary, while a principle of innovation has led to a rejection of the dominant repertoiresof biblical representationin American popular culture and the appropriation of a different set of genresand repertoires, a conservativetendency may account for an overdetermination of discoursesof identity and difference in the translations and a particular idealisation of social integration. One may readily observe how theseconstructionsand the principle of inclusive translation are linked when placedwithin the broader discursiveframe of the organisation's culture. If the project's motivation for inclusive translation makes it acceptable to different interpretive communities,ideologically it redefinesthe concept of community, both through its presentation of multi-culturalism and the acclaimedcollegiality of its working practices. The moral order expressedin the is videos one which reflects a contemporary American preoccupationwith social integration and civil rights. As with the social reform programme that used Hine's photography, the tensions 124 The ABS's support of innovation in translation is not entirely parochial. The society's sponsorship of Eugene Nida's research on translation has had a much broader impact on modern translationtheorythan its narrowercontextualisation«ithin Bible translationpractices. See (Simon, 1990) It is also worth noting that Nida continuesto commanda very privileged status in the ABS his since retirement. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page244  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation between the utopian vision of reform and the economic and political realities of American society are visible in the project. As artistic director of the image track, Merle Worth is like a traveller in a foreign land where her lack of familiarity with the language spoken and her own social pre-conditioning make her ignorant of the nuances of the cultural landscape through which she journeys. The same holds for the scholars and translators who ventured into the world of film making. If the ground of interpretation for these two groups is so radically different, arguably they have not worked on the same text at all. In that case, the model of faithful equivalence the project used to "test the limits and possibilities of translation" amounts to little more than an ideological posture that points to the impossibility of translation. However, if as I suggested earlier, equivalence is not an absolute, a set of pre-organised structures that delimit the similarities of different languages in translation, but a method for managing inter- relationships within the community of the faithful across time and space, then faithful equivalence points to the possibility of translation. Translatability from from one medium to another has acquired a new metaphor that moves The Project beyond the constraints inherited from an epistemology of time and narrative. Time and narrative belong to the conceptual boundaries of print, to a linear process of communication, a cumulative progression of events whose causes are rooted in a particular perception of history. If the conventional translation repertoires rejected by The Project are characterised by their versions of historiography, the translation repertoires adopted by The Project are characterised by a version of ethnography whose narrative structures are predominately spatial rather than temporal. A review of the project's history shows a distinctive and progressive shift from linear modes of expression to spatial ones. By the time Resurrection and Nativity were made, the transition was complete. The dominant narrative theme of Resurrection is space, outside and inside. The visual theme of Nativity is purely architectural from its setting, to the performers' costumes, to the way they move in and out of the film space. Herein lies the radical innovation of the New Media Translation Project. The metaphors used to describe faithful translation in the ABS publication "Fidelity in Translation" reveal a stronger interest in the logic of space; architectural, Joy Sisley,Translating from OneMediumto Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page245  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation performative, auditory, and ritual rather than an Aristotelian logic of time, plot, and structure. These spatial metaphors privilege the continuity of connections between different points in the translational landscape over the discontinuities of time. Even the choice of music video as the idiom of translation reflects this definitive shift, for as Berland and Negus argue, the significance of music video is the "spatially mediated relationships" of the genre. If translation in the ABS functions to forge social cohesion in a changing, heterogeneous and plural world, then the spatial metaphors of translation also suggest a redefinition of the translator's task. I have already remarked on how the anthropological frame for The Neighbor repositions ideal viewers in relation to the text. The anthropological metaphor also brings into play a re-evaluation of the epistemological and methodological terms of translating cultural difference provoked by criticisms of ethnographic writing in the field itself. 125For example, in his essay "The Art of Translating-in a Continuous World" Tim Ingold contrasts the discourses of homogeneity in which difference is the property of constructed boundaries which serve to delineate distinctions between "us" and "them", with the discourses of heterogeneity where cultural collectivity inheres in a network of interpersonal relationships in which "the category we ... expands indefinitely outwards from the centre where I stand to embrace others ... rather than rebounding inwards on myself from an exterior opposition with them."126 Reflecting on the same distinctions constructed by anthropologists, Uhni Wikän asks how the ethnographer faithfully translates the observations of her field work, or how ethnography expresses similarity in diversity without constructing a false homogeneity. Wikan proposes an attitude of "resonance" as a solution to her question about the limits of translation, a methodology that she finds difficult to describe in conceptual terms other than a rather vague "Resonance is what fosters compassion and empathy; it enables appreciation; without resonance, ideas and " 127Merle Worth describes her task similarly as understandings will not spring alive. developing a sense of empathy for her subject. "Usually the greatest challenge for me is to first imagine the emotional line of development I need to first imagine: ... How and why does this experiencecontinue to reverberate? Only then can I address 123(Clifford, 1988;Gcertz,1993) 'z6 (Pilsson, 1993,p 228) 'Z' ibid., p 194 Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of War ick, 2000 page246  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation the actual meaning of it. Again, it is working from the inside out. "129 This anthropological model of translation suggestsan alternative interpretation ofthe gaze in The Neighbor that is consistent with the parable's redefinition of "neighbour". Rather than staring out across the boundaries constructed by concepts of cultural difference, the looks of the characters in the inn embrace the viewer drawing her into the story and its moral and social implications. 130 The New Media Translation Project has turned Jakobson's problem on its head in its search for new repertoires and innovative ways to represent biblical narrative. Within the continuous space of the virtual page, members of the Project's production and advisory team discovered the limits of translation are defined by its possibilities. In terms of the Project's aim, "to test the limits and possibilities of translation," this is conclusion a radical and startling one, especially in the broader context of an institution whose cultural identity is based on a conception of the universality and unity of the Bible. It, however, confirms Petrilli's associationof the iconic qualities of the translated sign with "dialogism, alterity, polyphony, polylogism and plurilingualism" (Ch 1 p. 37), in other words the creative nature of translation. If I have a particular generalcriticism of the New Media Project, apart from my sustainedcritique of genreshifts, it is that the producers did not push their discovery of the possibilities of translation far enough- This brings us back to the questionof the limits of translation. In the context of my argument here, however, to we areobliged rephrase that question,not in terms of an intrinsic equivalencenor of the Project's aestheticvalue, but as something imposed by the social context of translating. In other words, in terms of the function of translation within the American Bible Society. In the event, the ABS withdrew its funding from the Project beforeit was completed. By privileging the open-ended,creativecharacterof translation, the Project underminedthe very thing it was supposed to achieve,to reinforcethe conservativemission of the American Bible Society in an era of rapid social and cultural changeunderpinnedby rapid changesin technologiesand forms of mediacommunication.(This perhaps explainswhy the ABS as a sponsoring,agency 129 (Soukup, 1999, 66) p 10 For a paralleldescriptionof how framing cncour cs radically different interpretations of a look see(Stange,1959,pp 95-96) Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warrnick,2000 page247  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation finds The Visual Bible translation project a more attractive prospect, becauseThe VisualBible encodesand attempts to neutralisea fear of the discursivenessof the iconic sign in its narrative and aesthetic structures. ) But as Philip C. Stine points out, there are more fundamental ideological reasons for the American Bible Society's withdrawal of funding. He writes, Most translators (and translation consultants) believed that what they gave people should not be seen as a translation of an ancient document, but rather it should be "The Bible". The Incarnation occurred or became real in a language group hen the Bible gras translated. With that belied how could they do any kind of translation other than one that was understandable and clear, and (in their understanding) equivalent? That being the case, could a translation in any medium other than print be "The Bible"? No. A video or audio rendering of the Bible could be said to communicate the message of the Bible, but it could not be The Bible. (Hence the requirement of the ABS Translation Sub-Committee to have the text read as part of the videos.) If we could get the Bible Societies to understand that distinction they could be freed up to produce all kinds of things that you and I and Venuti would see as translation, but which they would see as means of communicating the biblical message without actually being The Bible. 13' In conclusion,I have shown the function of translation defines its limits where function consists of a constellation of action, experience and experimentation that allows for translation as an open, active, creative process without losing sight of action modelled on routine behaviour. I have also shown, through my discussion about genre shifts, how the content of the story may have altered through changes in the temporal and spatial elements of narrative organisation, while the function of translation and publication to sustain the Society's founding vision to promote moral and social cohesion remain relatively untouched. This is because the models of translation used, whether country music video or documentary photography of the 1930s, inscribe a similar set of social values constructed through the political economy of production and reception in each medium and their development as cultural forms. The translation models adapted and transformed by the New Media Project have shown a remarkable capacity to rework the Society's founding 131Personalcommunication.(8thMay, 2001). Philip C. Stineretiredin 1998from his position asUnitedBible Societies Director of Publication, Translation andDistribution, He alsoworkedas a on consultant Bible Society for Translation over25 years. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Afedium to Another BCCS, University of War ick, 2000 page 248  The Limits and Possibilities of Translation principles in each new translation context. This then represents the referential power of translation that is both the title and topic of this thesis. There is, however, a paradox here. If the newn:cdiabible is indeed so intellectually conservative, why did the ABS hierarchy cut its funding? I suggest they looked at the style of the videos, not the continuity of a set of social and cultural values inscribed in their form. In so doing, they failed to remark the irewmediabible's referential power as translation. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Medium to Another BCCS, University of Wanti ick, 2000 page249  CONCLUSION The argument in this thesis has moved from the central problematic of translation as similarity within difference and the theoretical assumptions that underpin this problematic to an attempt to understand translation in terms of its referential power or function. While I cannot pretend to explore the question with the same philosophical rigour as Morot-Sir's meditation on language (which has provided an intellectual model for this study) my discussion has, I hope, made a tentative gesture towards considering the function of translation, without introducing the kind of tautologies that were found to mark Jakobson's, Steiner's, or Toury's discussion of languageand translation. The lessons learned from the principles underlying this shift are worth reiterating: First, if translation aims to give coherence and significance to a text in a context other than the one for which it was originally composed, a translation's reception becomes a centrally important issue. That translation entails a change of meaning in the content of texts, whether it involves transfers between languages, between different media, or even between different time frames, is not the point. Nor is the precise content of difference between one text and its translation necessarily significant in itself. In this respect, change as a factor of translation is something to be remarked in passing. Given the often unreliable manipulation of content inherent in translation, both word and image, it no longer seems feasible to evaluate the adequacy of a translation. It is perhaps more productive to examine the rhetorical codes that assure a translation's acceptability for its interpretive communities. The narrative and semiotic discourses that valorise a translation are a central factor in this process. At the same time, where the coherenceand significance of a translation, and therefore the translation strategy, are at stake genre analysis serves as a powerful explanatory tool for observing, the passage of a text from one interpretive context to another. Genre questions in this study have both alerted us to the power of interpretive traditions as well as enabled the location of individual translations within concrete inter-textual configurations that assure their JoySisley,Translatingfrom OneMediumto Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page250  Conclusion contemporarysignificance.Genre analysis has also accountedfor the heterogeneity of translations with respect to the expectations of their reading or viewing communities rather than the indeterminacy of the original or the polyvalence of the translative medium. Secondly,my explorationof a translation's referencein terms of its semiotic structures and value has required rethinking relationships between a translation and its original. An attempt to establish the ground of interpretation in this instance has involved introducing a new metaphor of translation as frame or parergon. The metaphor raises a question about what translation frames, what is the work for which translation functions as supplement. The question recalls one of the central paradoxes of translatability. If a parergon's function is to stabilise meaning or to provide closure to the otherwise open ended character of translation, the dialectic of a translation's derivative and creative character may not pull in opposite directions at all. Rather, they are complementary functions of reciprocal affirmation. The relevanceof the metaphor of aparergon for considering whole texts such as the ABS newmediabible or the Story Keepers as translation also becomes clear. Like Derrida's ergon and its parergon the various elements of the production are not detachable. At this level, narrative framing serves a broader purpose of assuring the authority of a translation and the credibility of its translator, so that in cases such as the ABS newmediabible, the inscription of the codes of innovation and conservation serve to maintain the Society's social status and credibility with its constituents. Thirdly, it is evidentthat the narrativeand semiotic discoursesof framing tie a translation and its textual function explicitly to its socialand cultural contexts. By thus locating translations, it is possible to conceivethe process as a competition betweenvarious stakeholders,hencethe reciprocity of innovation and conservation, or creativity and derivation. This givesforce to the conclusionsdrawn from Section Two that a translation's context gives it semiotic value as much as the formal structuralrelationsbetweentexts. In this instance,claims to authenticity embedded in the narrative and representationalstructures of a translated text and translators' statements about their work, or the promotional framing of translations, are powerful indicationsof the politics of translation and representation. Ultimately, it Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page251  Conclusion is not the absolute value of a stable referent (the source text) but the complex networks of social relations that give rise to particular texts and authenticate them as translation. The significance of individual translations, therefore, lies in their power to narrate and interpret the social realities of their audiences so as to give coherence to the social circumstances within which translations are made. Nevertheless, it is important not to lose sight of the original that lives on in translation. The difficulties of keeping the original in view when, as Peircean translation theorists argue, all translation is interpretation, constitutes the principal challenge to structuralist theories of equivalence and comparative methodologies. The alternative approach presented here of tracing a text's semiotic value, supplied by its ground of interpretation, through its various translations, not only avoids misleading and restrictive attempts to categorise translation, it also considerably broadens the scope of what may properly be called translation. Arguably, the semiotic value that lives on in the translation of religious texts is the universal human experienceof transcendencethat supplies the interpretive ground for such texts. But it is immediately apparent that literature such as the Bible narrates and interprets a far wider range of human experience and interaction. So that, irrespective of whether a series such as the Turner Pictures Old Testament epics represents a faithful equivalent version of the biblical narrative's content, it does appear to narrate politically and socially explosive themes that have deep historical roots whatever form their contemporary expression takes. Moreover, it appears that the stories about promised lands and frontiers live on to valorise contemporary constructions of identity and social interaction. The critical approach taken here means that it is much more difficult to make value judgements based on a translation's adequacy or acceptability. In fact, it reveals the culturally relative character of such judgements. The real difficulty in understanding translation as translation, thereby distinguishing it from one or other of its basic constituents, interpretation and "rewriting", has beentwofold: establishingits limits and determining its referent. My casestudieshavedemonstratedthe impossibility of definingtranslation either as a text type or a relationalproposition, thereby beingableto distinguishtranslation as a specialform of rewriting. The examplesused in this thesis have proved equally Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page252  Conclusion resistant to comparison with an original event or authorial idea independent of the text itself. Yet to affirm translation as something more than mere interpretation, or a wholly creative act in its own right, seemingly requires the notion of a shared referent in source and target texts. Is this referent the language of the original text - that lives on to affect the languageof the target text as inferred by my discussion of Niranjana, or Testament? Or is one obliged to fall back on a notion of universals or an ur-text that functions as a standard for subsequent rewriting? The evidence of universals suggested by the ability of texts to translate fundamental human experience from one context to another does not help much in understanding translation or its power of reference. Viewed through the lens of its referential power, translation has acquired a muchbroaderfocus than its restriction to languagein translation studies. To show is what meant a by translation's in power of reference my corpus ideally requiresa longerhistorical perspectivethan the scopeof this thesis has allowed. For example, to tracethe semioticvalue of a Chosenpeople through it entextualisationas a theme to of exile and restoration an original homeland would involve an examinationof its translation into biblical writing over its three thousandyear history. Even so, the Turner Pictures epic series demonstratesthat the ancient historical experienceof population displacement apparently still resonateswith contemporary American ' audiences. Moreover, as a modem experience, it is. still imaginedin biblical terms. The enduringpower of biblical narrativeto translatethis experienceinto new secular is contexts remarkable. I stated in my introduction the purpose of my researchwas to investigate practices of translating from one medium to another. To achieve this it was to necessary challenge the epistemologicaland ontological boundaries constructed aroundconceptsof translation. The I examples chose to illustrate the problematics of these intellectual constraints are interesting becausethey confront the limits and possibilities of translation by their inter-textuality. I stressedin my introduction that theseaudio-visualtranslations not only raise questionsabout the specificity of Bible translation as a practice but also about the particularity of translation as a 1 See[Thompson, 1999#3081for a discussionabout history and exilic writing in the Bible. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page253  Conclusion process of inter-lingual rewriting. The purpose of my bibical examples was to examine the theory and practice of translation rather than controversies in Bible translation. Indeed, these controversies are incidental to the principal arguments of my thesis and apply very well to other central canonical texts such as animated translations of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales or Shakespeare's plays for British Television, or indeed Disney's version of Mulan. To demonstrate the validity of my hypothesis about the general nature of translation and the wider applicability of my model it is necessary to use an example that does not belong within my corpus. My final example distills many of the translative issues raised by my biblical corpus - questions of authority, representation, space/time compression, generic expectations, framing, experimentation - but is to also easier see as a whole (as a textual unity in its various translations) because as an experiment in translation from start to finish it has a relatively shorter time span. Jesper Jargil's The Exhibited (Denmark, 2000),. is a documentary film about Lars von Trier's live installation Psychomobile 1: the World Clock. Using the cinema verite principles of Dogma 95, Von Trier created an experimental drama in which an image of an ant colony was transmitted from New Mexio via satellite link to an art museum in Copenhagen. Actors portraying 53 characters and inhabiting 19 different rooms, took part in two months of non-stop improvised theatre in which the movements of the ants dictated their moods. Each of the different versions of the "text" kept within the generic conventions of its textual form, so that the video cameratrained on the ants maintained a fixed, strictly observational perspective; the installation observed the conventions of dramatic improvisation allowing actors freely to explore their characters without the constraints of a predetermined script; and the documentary is an observational representation of the event. However,. the form of each antecedent text interferes in the form of its translation, so that the installation, dictated by the ants' movements could not be wholly fictional, just as the documentary filming of the improvisation crossed over the boundaries of observation into drama. Note, this example is already characterisedas a translation between media that involves a genre shift. Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneAledium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 - page254  Conclusion The 78-minute documentary film intercuts its record of the installation's _. dramatic development with scenes of production meetings held with the actors during the event and interviews made with actors after the installation's completion. The interviews reflect the actors' experience as subjects of the experiment. The terms of engagement for the live installation were very basic: each actor had a character script and four moods dicated by four coloured lights. The light changes were triggered by the ants via a grid, containing a number of boxes, placed over the image of the ant colony beamed from New Mexico Each time four ants crossed one . of the boxes, the lights changed to a different colour and the characters' moods changedcorrespondingly. Members of the audience could watch any part of the improvisation for as long as they chose. They could follow the development of a particular character or stay in the same room and watch the drama unfold in that particular space. The installation and its reception, therefore, mirrored the apparent randomness of the ant colony's daily activity. The documentarydemonstratesthe difficulty of determiningits own and the project's reference. Time in the two month installation followed that set by the anthill, not the logic or conventionsof narrative time. As von Trier in explains the documentary,he was interestedto seewhat would happen if naturebecamea kind of gigantic clock to which the rhythms of human nature were subordinated. Consequently,it is impossible to use narrative time or structure as a comparative value. Does this meana real objective referent gives meaningto the installation and the documentarythat was made of it? Of course, the randomnessof the ants' is activities intelligeableas suchbecauseit is a sign given significance,not by the fact of a cameratrained on the ant colony, nor by an imagebeamedhalf-way round the world, but by the grid placed over an image and projected in an art centre in Copenhagen which encouragedviewers and actorsto experiencethe ants' movements as random. The grid's perspective createsthe expectationof a certain significance. This givesforce to Eco's and Ricoeur's argumentsabout signs and their significance presentedin chaptersone and five. As with the reconstructionsof biblical history, the grid as interpretive frame constructs a geographicaland temporal consciousness that enablesaudiencesto imaginethemselvesin time and space. Joy Sisley, Translating from One Tedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page_255  Conclusion PsyrlxomobileI is a "translation" of the experience of randomness by actors who have no predetermined outcome for their character scripts. The experience of randomness is translated into an un-authored, open-ended improvisation, which together with the grid denies the possibility of a simple causal relation between the ants and the actors. The improvisation's subversion of narrative expectations of closure also gives significance to the experience. The documentary's interpretation of randomness, the most consciously constructed of all three texts considered here and in Peircean terms, the most transparent of the three interpretants, is partially built into the process of documentary filming. This genre is characterised to a great extent by the very nature of its unplanned recording of events as they unfold in front of the camerawhich encouragesa denial of the productive character of its language. The Exhibited uses the adventitious nature of its recording practices to translate "randomness" as a sign into its central narrative theme. As a sign, randomness is made intelligeable because the processes of editing and post-production and the generic rules and expectations of cinema write that frame both the installation and its documentation by the film maker feature randomness as a sign. Randomness is self- reflexive in both Ps3vhomobile I and The Exhibited, it functions as a trope that gives a particular perspective to the installation's experimental exploration of reality and fiction and the documentary's exploration of boundaries between fiction and _the reality. What is really at stake in the ants becoming a sign of randomness is the location of meaning, whether as a relation of the sign's object to its interpretant, or the structures that give their relation significance. The documentary highlights the ambiguities of this relationship in its own representational style when the Psychomobile imposes its dramatic form on filming. The documentary blurs the line between reality and fiction as it slides between sequences taken from the improvisation and the actors' interviews. This deliberate blurring forms the ground of interpretation that motivates the philosophy of cinema verite otherwise known as the creative interpretation of reality. To place the self-reflexive nature of randomness as a sign, thus its semiotic value (or its power to evoke the circumstancesin which it becamea sign and subsequently governs its evaluation) in perspective, it is necessary to recall that an audience has to recognise the sign's referential function or its effect within a particular signifying system. In this case, 2 Secmy discussionin chaptertturc. Joy Sislcy, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS,University of Wangick, 2000 page256  Conclusion the signifying system or codethat gives coherenceto the sign of randomnessis the conventionsof cinemawriIt that to aim capture the inner reality of its object rather than representits surfaceappearance.Dogma95 has translated this convention into a refusal of all forms of dramatic artifice or closure and their superficial 3 representationof character. The parallels between The Exhibited and my biblical corpus are far from superficial. In fact, they highlightthe commongroundbetween translation and other forms of narrativerepresentationsuch as history, ethnography, and documentary. The Exhibitedinscribessomeof the basic philosophical questions about translation and referenceraisedin my thesis, namely the relations of causality and experience and the languageof experienceand experimentation. Both the documentary and the biblical translationsdemonstratethere is no simple causal relation between reality its and experience,nor do they exist as independententities in our representationsof that experience.Similarly, we cannot establish a causalrelation between sourceand target texts by stressingthe translation's derivative characterat the expenseof its creativity. The Exhibited also reminds us that our representations are always translations. As Morot-Sir arguesthere is no experienceindependentof our language and there is no language independent 4 of our- experience. This fundamental reciprocity of experienceand (in language its broadest semiotic sense)provides the starting point for an analysis of translated texts and their interpretive grounds or reference that involves an emphasison the text itself, its internal structures and unavoidableambiguities,and rejection of simple causality between a work and its author. The critique of a text's referenceoffers a practical and theoretical approach that transcendsthe particularities of different textual forms and their intellectual boundaries. This approach extends the relevanceof questions about translation beyond the frame of translation theory's conventional focus, languageand writing, thus demonstratingthe generalnatureof translation.At the sametime, insights from other forms of intersemiotictranslation illuminate the specificities and problematics of translationas a textual form that the historic logocentrism of writing has often obscured.The iconic and creativeforce of translation challengesthe very terms that areusedto describeit. 3 SeeDogma95 manifestoand Vow of Chastity on http:/lwww. dogme95.dk/ 4 (Morot-Sir, 1993)pp 132-137 Joy Sislcy, Translatingfrom OneMedium to Another BCCS, University of Warwick, 2000 257 page  APPENDIX I PROPOSED GUIDELINES FOR FAITIHFULNESSIN-AUDIO VIDEO MEDIA (These are proposed guidelinesas to what would be appropriate productions in audio video mediato be sponsored by Bible Societies. Only the guidelinesfor the relationship betweenthe visual, verbal,and musicalaspectsare proposed here. ] 1. Faithfulnessis definedas maintainingthe horizon of the biblical text in relation to the visual andmusicalhorizons in an audio video production. 2. The horizon of the biblical text should be essentially maintained in a holistic production «ith an interaction of language,music and images. 3. The audiomediaproduction should be a meansof opening the biblical text to new insights and interpretations. The imagesand music should enhanceand thebiblicalwords. complement 4. The words of the biblical text with which there is interaction by the visual and musical aspects should be in represented the production in a translation appropriatefor audiovideo mediawhich takes into accountthe oral aspects of language. UBS Bulletin, 170/171,1994 Joy Sisley, Translatingfrom OneMediumto Another IICCS, University of Warwick, 2000 page258  Acknowledgements Work on this project was supported by a fellowship from the American Bible Society. I am grateful to colleagues on the ABS New Media Research Team from whose research I have benefitted enormously and who have generously encouraged me through their useful comments and criticisms. In particular, I would like to thank Robert Hodgson, jr. and Susan L. Ward, Paul A. Soukup who have read parts of my thesis and made many helpful suggestions. I would also like to thank Gregor Goethals, Fern Lee Iiaggedorn, and Ritter Werner for sharing their perspectives on the project and for their special enthusiasm for my contribution to the New Media Translation Project. I am gratefulfor imitations to present portions of my research- particularly for responsesto my presentationsfrom: Mona Baker, Translation Studies Seminars, UNIIST, Manchester,Martin O'Kane, the Bible and Culture, Newman College of Higher Education, Birmingham, Basil Rebera, United Bible Societies, ABS Symposium on Fidelity and Translation. Thanks also to Warwick College, for supplying facilities to producevisual materialsfor my dissertation, particularly Colin Evans, Stuart Insall andJamesWillson for their technicalsupport. My researchwould not have been conceived without the invitation from Philip C. Stine,formerly UBS Director of Translation, Publication, and Distribution, to help organisethe UBS video consultation in 1994 and subsequentlyto advise on the UBS Panel for Multimedia translation. I am privileged to have such an invaluablefriend and mentor to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for help and advice throughout my research. I have been very fortunate in my supervisors, Susan Bassnett and Joanne Collie, whose insights have contributed immeasurably to the quality of my research and writing. Thanks also to my many friends and colleagueswho have contributed in ways largeand small to my research,particularly Eliana Franco, Lynn Guyver, Pat Holland, Martina Linneman, Stefania Taviano, Patrick Cattrysse, Basil Rebera, Ubaldo Stecconni,the CETRA class of 1998, and CETRA 1998 professors Yves GambierandTheo Hermans. Last but not least, I would like to thank Charles Bound for sharing my dissertation. 12th November, 2000 page259  BIBLIOGRAPHY Aichele, Georgeand Pippin, Tina eds., The Monstrous and the Unspeakable: the Bible as FantasticLiterature (Sheffield: SheffieldAcademicPress, 1997) Aland, Kurt, et al., eds., 7%e Greek New Testament (Stuttgart: United Bible Societies, 1966) Altman, Rick, Film Gehre (London: British Film Institute, 1999) Anderson,Benedict,ImaginedCommunities:Reflectionson the Origin and Spreadof Nationalism,revisededn. (London: Verso, 1991) Andrew, Dudley, Concepts in Film Theory (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984) Arichea, Daniel C., "Authorship and Translation. The Authorship of the Pastorals and its Implications for Translation", The Bible Translator 44.3 (1993) pp 331-341. Avni, Ora, "L'Oedipe de la traduction: Lokfis" RevuedesSciencesHumaines: Le texte et sesR&eptiois 189(1990) pp 137-145. 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