Teaching Translations of the Environment - Intersemiotic Considerations

Abstract: How do we understand the environment as a cultural concept linguistically embedded in multiple signifying chains? How do we experience it? That is, how do we see, hear, smell, touch and, yes, taste the world around us? Finally, how do we translate these sensory experiences into language? Embracing the idea of intersemiotic translation, this talk will reflect upon the teaching of the environment in the University of Toronto’s English and Chinese Translation (ECT) programme. We consider issues related to student understanding of what translation is, what and how the idea of ecology/environment means, as well as how retranslations of (implicitly) environmental terms from classical Chinese can aid us in thinking the environment differently. Ecotranslation (Cronin’s term) foregrounds what the course aims to accomplish; this talk aims to invite colleagues into a discussion of how translation is intersectionally implicated in conceptualisations of environment, ecology and being.

Speaker bio:  Dr Christopher Payne currently teaches Chinese and English translation, broadly considered, at The University of Toronto (Scarborough). His background is in East Asian Studies, with a particular focus on cultural production from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan and Hong Kong. His scholarly work can be found in a wide array of contemporary journals and his translations from Mandarin to English include authors Mai Jia, Li Juan and Jia Pingwa. His current research focuses on the nexus of translation, culture and understandings of the environment.