Language and Translation in the Pacific

A Special Issue of the Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies

Guest Edited by Alessandra De Marco, Eleonora Federici and Anne Magnan-Park

Language is a powerful marker of gender, cultural, ethnic, and national identity, a potent tool used to achieve social justice and, conversely, a pivotal instrument to further disenfranchise marginalized groups. For the indigenous people of the Pacific, it is also a treasure and a life force. As such, language plays a fundamental role in the translation, (re)presentation, remediation and adaptation of diverse and multifaceted identities in the Pacific. Pacific nations, it can be argued, are translationations, where translation itself – including mistranslation and untranslatabilty – has been at the very core of the formation and transformation of national, group, and individual identities within and across the Pacific. The Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies invites contributions that offer an insight into the ways in which specific identities are expressed, (re)presented and translated through and across languages (indigenous, non-European, and European languages), within and across nations, as well as across different texts and media in such fields as literature, the performing arts, print and visual media, tourism and advertising, social media and the Internet, education, policy making including bi/multiculturalism, the environment, migration, and the health industry.

Topics of interest related to the Pacific and New Zealand may include, but are not restricted to:
• language varieties: their distribution, encounters, and pollination within and outside the Pacific
• language and translation as discursive practices: representations of cultures and identities (collective, indigenous, gendered) and discursive constructions in/of the Pacific
• interlingual and intralingual translation; translation as an instrument for social justice/disenfranchisement; postcolonial translation studies: which books/films/texts get translated, how and why?
• cultural and intersemiotic translation and/or adaptation in/across the media
• audio-visual translation (AVT) and film subtitling
• the publishing, film, and music industries: how do texts circulate within and across Pacific cultures, why, and to what effect?
• linguistic cartography as a mirror of migration flows; critical toponymy; naming practices as tools of enfranchisement or disenfranchisement.

The Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies is a double-blind refereed journal. Articles, accompanied by a short bio, need to be between 5000 and 8000 words including notes and references, and must be formatted according to the journal style guide ([url=https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/MediaManager/File/intellectstyleguide2016v1.pdf]https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/MediaManager/File/intellectstyleguide2016v1.pdf[/url]). Reports between 1000 and 3500 words are also welcome as are original interviews.


Deadline for submissions is 15 May 2019, with publication in December 2019. Please submit articles and enquiries to Alessandra De Marco, alessandrademarco04@gmail.com.

Posted by The Editors on 3rd Apr 2019
in Call for Papers

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