Mouse or Rat : Translation As Negotiation - Softcover

Umberto Eco

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753817985 ISBN 13: 9780753817988

Publisher: Orion Paperbacks, 2004

Synopsis

'Translation is always a shift,not between two languages but between two cultures. A translator must take into account rules that are not strictly linguistic but, broadly speaking, cultural.' Umberto Eco is of the world's most brilliant and entertaining writers on literature and language. In this accessible and dazzling study, he turns his eye on the subject of translations and the problems the differences between cultures can cause. The book is full of little gems about mistranslations and misunderstandings.For example when you put 'Studies in the logic of Charles Sanders Peirce' through an internet translation machine, it becomes 'Studies in the logic of the Charles of sandpaper grinding machines Peirce'. In Italian 'ratto' has no connotation of 'contemptible person' but denotes speed ('you dirty rat' could take on a whole new meaning!) What could be a weighty subject is never dull, fired by Eco's immense wit and erudition, providing an entertaining read that illuminates the process of negotation that all translators must make.

About this title

About the Author:

Umberto Eco is Professor of Semiotics at the University of Bologna and one of the world's most famous -- and admired -- writers. His is the author of the novels In the Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum, Baudolino and The Island of the Day Before.

Review:

"Eco's book is an entertaining, fluid tour around the problems that arise from the awkward fit between the world's languages" -- ALAIN DE BOTTON THE TIMES

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0753817985
• ISBN 13: 9780753817988
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208