Establishing an Online Bibliographic Database for Canadian Literary Translation Studies

Keywords: translation bibliography, online bibliographic database, literary translation, Canadian literature, translation studies

1. Introduction

Translation has long played an essential role in bilingual and bicultural Canada. Since the 1970s there has been a dramatic increase in literary translation, particularly between English and French, the two official languages, but in later years between other languages and Canada’s two official languages as well. Translation Studies has correspondingly emerged as a relatively new but increasingly vibrant field of scholarly research and publication in this country. Our database of comparative studies in Canadian, Quebec, and Foreign Literatures and its substantial component of Translation Studies reflect the marked growth of scholarly interest in Canadian literatures, and their translation in a comparative and transnational context.

The Bibliography of Comparative Studies in Canadian, Québec and Foreign Literatures/Bibliographie d'études comparées des littératures canadienne, québécoise et étrangères is the initiative of a team of Canadian researchers at the Université de Sherbrooke, Simon Fraser University and Concordia University. This team has been compiling bibliographic data on publications in the fields of comparative Canadian literary studies and Canadian literary translation studies in order to facilitate the dissemination and exchange of information about these disciplines. This interactive

database is bilingual (French and English) and offers access free of charge to users anywhere who are seeking information about theoretical and critical writing on Canadian, Quebec and other literatures, comparative Canadian literatures, and literary translation in Canada.

2. Canadian Literary Translation Studies

While writing in the two founding literatures dates back to the early years of colonisation in the seventeenth century, comparative studies of French- and English-Canadian literatures, or what the novelist Hugh MacLennan famously called the “two solitudes,”1 have been more recent.2 In his “Historical Introduction: Comparative Canadian Literature,” David Hayne traces the first comparative inquiries into English- and French- Canadian literatures back to 1867 ( 1989: 9), 3 although he states that “serious ... efforts to link the two major Canadian literatures began only during the 1920s” (ibid.:10). Comparative literary analysis developed momentum in the latter part of the twentieth century, signalled by the landmark studies of Ronald Sutherland, Clément Moisan, Philip Stratford and E.D. Blodgett.

Similarly, Canadian literary translation and its study are relatively new phenomena. As Jean Delisle wrote in 1987 in La Traduction au Canada/Translation in Canada: 1534-1984, “[a]lthough literary translation has never been a tradition in Canada, the translation of pragmatic texts is part of the very fabric of our institutions, and it permeates the daily life of all cultural and linguistic groups, whether of minority or

majority status” (1987:34). The recorded history of translation and interpretation in Canada began with a violent and coercive act: in 1534 Jacques Cartier captured two Iroquois, carried them off to France, and then used them as interpreters on his next voyage to New France. Thus, from early on, translation bore the stigma of cultural appropriation and colonial exploitation. French and English were given official status in Canada first, by the language provisions of the British North America Act of 1867, the Act which created the Dominion of Canada, and second, a century later, by the federal Official Languages Act of 1969. Under the auspices of the latter act, federal policies promoting national bilingualism were initiated and federal support for literary translation was provided. Thus Canadian translation practice has always been rooted in political necessity, since all federal documents and services must be available in both official languages throughout the country, with the Federal Translation Bureau overseeing much of this translation activity.

In the second part of the twentieth century, both English-Canadian and Quebec literatures blossomed as the two communities asserted their national identities and attempted to resist the domination of Britain, America and France. In the 1960s and 70s, in the face of Quebec’s deep discontent, fears about its cultural and linguistic survival, and occasionally violent attempts to obtain independence from the rest of (English) Canada, literary translation, especially from French to English, began to flourish. During this time of political tension, literary translation was fostered by the federal government to help mitigate the political problems surrounding Quebec’s desire for sovereignty as well as to advance official bilingualism and biculturalism. It has since grown to play a consistent if subdued role in Canadian cultural life. In more recent years, translations

from English to French have increased and have begun to outnumber those from French to English.4

As part of the government’s strategy to promote bilingualism, the Canada Council Translation Grant Program was created in 1971 to help Canadian publishers fund translations between the two official languages. Then in 1975, the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada was established by practicing translators to support literary translation and to lobby for recognition, support and fair payment of literary translators. By 1987, literary translation was included in the annual and prestigious Governor General’s literary awards. Other significant steps in the gradual legitimization of literary translation in Canada include the founding of journals such as ellipse (1969), Meta (1955) and TTR (1987); the publication of Philip Stratford’s 1977 Bibliography of Canadian Books in Translation: French to English and English to French/Bibliographie de livres canadiens traduit de l’anglais au français et du français à l’anglais; and the inclusion of the “Translation” section in University of Toronto Quarterly’s annual Letters in Canada, beginning in 1977. During this period, a number of significant literary translations were published by various small publishing houses (such as Exile, Harvest House, Pierre Tisseyre’s “Collection des deux solitudes,” Oberon, Anansi, Véhicule, Guernica, Coach House Press, Talonbooks, XYZ, Boréal, Leméac and Cormorant), and translation programs were introduced at various universities (such as Concordia, Glendon College, Laval, the Université de Montréal and the Université de Sherbrooke).

During the last ten to fifteen years, the theorization and practice of Canadian literary translation have been broadening their parameters. Whereas translation in Canada had traditionally focused on writings in English and French by Canadian and Quebec

authors, Canadian translation practice and studies have expanded of late to encompass aboriginal languages and cultures as well as other minority or migrant literatures like Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Arabic to more equitably reflect our diversity. Thus, Canadian feminist writers and translators, in part through the providential collaboration and interaction between French and English experimental women writers, have led in modeling a theory of gender and translation that has influenced international Translation Studies. Derived from their collaborative engagement with Quebec feminists and theorists such as Nicole Brossard and France Théoret, Barbara Godard and Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood have initiated what has been called “la traduction au féminine” (Tessera 6, 1989).

In Canada as elsewhere, Translation Studies has been affected by the forces of transnationalism, globalization and the problematic pervasiveness of English. Recognizing that Canada, Quebec and their literatures can be perceived in terms of colonization because of their alterity and their power relations with respect to more dominant cultures, Sherry Simon and Paul St. Pierre (2000) have incorporated postcolonial approaches into their study of Canadian literary translation. By comparing the translation status of minority literatures in Canada and India, they have also significantly extended Canadian translation terminology.

Outside Canada, international translators and scholars have recognized how Canada’s unique bilingual situation has shaped its translation history, practices and theories and influenced the field of Translation Studies. For example, as Edwin Gentzler acknowledged in Contemporary Translation Theories (1993: 184), “the complicated question of Canadian identity – problems of colonialism, bi-lingualism, nationalism,

cultural heritage, weak literary system, and gender issues are involved – seems to provide a useful platform from which to begin raising questions about current translation theory”. Susan Bassnett (1995: 157) also referred to a Canadian school that conceptualizes translation as political activity. Comparing Brazilian and Canadian translation theorists, Bassnett observed that both groups are “concerned to find a translation practice and terminology that will convey the rupture with the dominance of the European heritage even as it is transmitted.”

3. Evolution of the Bibliography Project

Our Bibliography of Comparative Studies in Canadian, Québec and Foreign Literatures/ Bibliographie d'études comparées des littératures canadienne, québécoise et étrangères has its roots in the graduate programs in Comparative Canadian Literature at the Université de Sherbrooke.5 From the outset, literary translation played a significant role, and annotated literary translations have been a popular subject of graduate student theses. Antoine Sirois and his colleague, David Hayne of the University of Toronto, began to compile bibliographic information about publications in the field, which they published as supplements in the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue canadienne de littérature comparée from 1976 to 1986, demonstrating the significance of this emerging field. The first monograph edition of the bibliography, the Bibliography of Studies in Comparative Canadian Literature/Bibliographie d’études de littérature canadienne

domestic literatures, including emergent literatures (minority, migrant, regional, aboriginal). The bibliography also encompasses relevant works in Translation Studies, postmodernism, postcolonialism, ethnicity, and cross-disciplinary studies. The parameters for inclusion in the database have been articulated as follows: works that provide a significant comparison or discussion of Canadian and/or Québécois literatures, including their production, translation, reception, study, history, effects and influences, in relation to each other or in relation to other literatures of the world.

The Translation Studies component has quickly assumed a significant role in the project. The decision to develop the area of Translation Studies within the bibliography led to our joining the project team (Pamela Grant in 1998 and Kathy Mezei in 2001). Kathy Mezei had already published an annotated bibliography in 1988, the Bibliography of Criticism of English and French Literary Translations in Canada: 1950-1986/ Bibliographie de la critique des traductions littéraires anglaises et françaises au Canada: de 1950 à 1986, in the University of Ottawa Press’s Cahiers de traductologie series, and permission was obtained from the publisher for the entries from the Mezei bibliography to be transferred to the project’s online database. Just as the Sirois group’s approach to comparative literary studies has developed beyond its original French- English focus, so has the approach to Canadian Literary Translation Studies.

Whereas the entries in Mezei’s published bibliography had focused on criticism of Canadian literary works translated from English to French and French to English between 1950 and 1986, the Translation Studies team now includes writings preceding 1950 and up to the present on the translation of Canadian literature into French, English and other languages, on literary translation from or into Canadian native languages, and on literary

translation by Canadian translators wherein the Canadian context or culture plays a significant role (for example, Michel Garneau’s translation of Macbeth into joual). The database also presents studies of translations from those minority literatures and languages in Canada that have a significant translation corpus, especially Spanish. Also included are theoretical works that discuss Canadian literary translation and works by major Canadian literary translation theorists, which mention or are pertinent to Canadian literary translation, the corpus of which has vastly multiplied since Mezei’s Bibliography. Translations themselves are not listed, but significant forewords, introductions and prefaces to translations are. As the field of Translation Studies continues to expand, two other scholars have joined the team with expertise in French/English (Patricia Godbout, Sherbrooke) and English/French/Spanish translations (Hugh Hazelton, Concordia).

This widening of the parameters for both comparative studies and translation studies in Canada reflects global shifts in literary studies. Increasingly, Comparative Canadian Literary and Translation Studies are less limited to the nation-state and more widely situated in a global and transnational context. Moreover, as Susan Bassnett (1995) points out: “[c]omparative literature has traditionally claimed translation studies as a sub- category, but this assumption is now being questioned.... as translation studies establishes itself firmly as a subject based in inter-cultural study and offering a methodology of some rigour, both in terms of theoretical and descriptive work...” (p. 11).

4. From Paper to an Online Database

The database contains at present over three thousand entries, with some one thousand entries specifically related to Translation Studies being prepared. Entries include bibliographies, monographs, theses, conference proceedings, periodical articles, book chapters, reviews, prefaces, introductions, interviews, films, sound recordings, electronic publications and linked internet sites. Each entry contains full bibliographic details, a list of keywords and geographical regions, and the titles of any works, authors or translators under study. We have constructed the website to permit users to browse alphabetical listings of authors, authors under study, translators under study, and geographical regions. The database can also be updated on an ongoing basis to include the most recent publications, with no need to wait for publication of the hardcopy version. Our goal is to ensure that the database is user-friendly and accessible.

The 2001 Sirois bibliography and the 1988 Mezei bibliography were both print publications, whereas the project’s current database is being published online. Since the team also plans to publish another print bibliography in the coming years, the project continues to compile data for both print and online dissemination. This need to prepare data, in parallel, for both the online database and a future hardcopy publication has added to the technical complexity of the project: a fundamental challenge has been to find software and interfaces (translations of a sort!) that are straightforward enough for student researchers to manipulate, can generate an online bibliography, and can also allow the generation of a future hardcopy publication.7

5. Work Procedures

The compilation of data begins with graduate student research assistants, working under the guidance of professors, first consulting selected sources and identifying articles and other works to be retrieved and analysed. All material is retained and filed in an archive at the project centre in Sherbrooke and is therefore available for in-house researchers and visitors to consult. Data entry is now web-based: the project’s internal website provides a shared virtual workspace where researchers can check each other’s entries as well as consult resource material such as lists of headings and model entries. Each researcher has his or her own MySQL account on the project’s worksite and can enter the data from any computer, using any platform, with no need for dedicated software. The internal project website is the hub of the project and allows researchers to review minutes and instructions from past meetings, consult online tutorials for various procedures, and refer to the rules, procedures and protocols that have been adopted by the project. It also enables the cross-Canada team to maintain easy contact with one another and with the database.

Each researcher’s database consists of a template with a number of fields in which data is entered. One set of fields contains bibliographic information (book title, article title, journal title, name of author, contributors, publication information, etc.); another set contains information on the content (keywords, authors under study, translators under study, geographical regions, annotations, etc.) This new procedure gives the research assistants autonomy, responsibility and control over their own entries, and allows them to work from any place where they have online access: from the library, from the office, or at home.

list continues to expand and remains open-ended. With the diverse disciplines encompassed by the database, the possibility of establishing a fixed list of keywords remains elusive; the list is inevitably in constant flux, with the unfortunate consequence that researchers must revise and update entries, a time-consuming endeavour.

A second challenge is posed by the multilingual character of the material collected for the bibliography. The print bibliographies, the website, and the entries have traditionally been bilingual, in English and French. This has necessitated the use of bibliographic formats that respect the conventions of both of these languages. Now that we have expanded our parameters to include works in other languages, questions of bibliographic format as well as the language of keywording become more complex. Of course, the extent to which we can include material in other languages is necessarily restricted by the language competencies of the individual researchers, several of whom are fortunately multilingual. The team includes researchers fluent in German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish and Icelandic.

The need to both back-date and update the database is also a challenge. As the number of publications in the fields under study continues to grow, so does the work involved in ensuring that the bibliography stays abreast of the extensive writing by Canadian translation scholars and comparatists. Communication and co-ordination among the researchers continue to be a challenge if we are to avoid the duplication of source searches and data entry. The team has recently appointed a research assistant co- ordinator who oversees data entry and vets entries for correct format and protocols. Annual meetings of the entire team demonstrate that in-person as well as virtual communication is indispensable.

supplement, 1980–81.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue canadienne de littérature comparée 9.2: 235–240.
Hayne, David M. and Sirois, Antoine. 1985 (eds). “Preliminary Bibliography of Comparative Canadian Literature (English-Canadian and French-Canadian): ninth supplement, 1983–1984.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue canadienne de littérature comparée 12.3: 462-468.

MacLennan, Hugh. 1945. Two Solitudes. Toronto: Collins.
Mezei, Kathy. 1988. Bibliography of Criticism of English and French Literary Translations in Canada/Bibliographie de la critique des traductions littéraires anglaises et françaises au Canada [Cahiers de traductologie #7]. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.
Moisan, Clément. 1983. A Poetry of Frontiers: Comparative Studies in Quebec/Canadian Literature. Victoria, B.C.: Press Porcépic.
Moisan, Clément. 1986. Comparaison et raison: essais sur l’histoire et l’institution des littératures canadienne et québecoise. La Salle, Québec: Hurtubise, HMH.
Reid, Gregory J. 2002. “Parameters and Procedures for the Bibliography of Comparative Studies in Canadian, Québec and Foreign Literatures.” Unpublished paper presented at the International Conference on “Canada in the European Mind,” University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary, October 24–27, 2002.
St. Jerome Publishing. “Translation Studies Abstracts and Bibliography of Translation Studies.” August 2006 <www.stjerome.co.uk/tsaonline/index.php>.
Simon, Sherry and St. Pierre, Paul. 2000. Changing the Terms: Translating in the Postcolonial Era. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.