Various sorts of external constraints (which, among others, may be cultural, political, religious, economic, aesthetic, psychological in nature) may lead to a text being rewritten or otherwise manipulated, and such rewriting and manipulation may result from self-censorship, preventive censorship or repressive censorship. Cultural and political institutions establish socio-cultural norms that become transformed into textual norms, and are applied to pragmatic texts (official documents, scientific and technical texts) as well as to literary ones. Autocratic and patriarchal regimes (twentieth century totalitarian regimes, for example) use textual manipulation to reproduce their world view and to consolidate their power. An original text or a translation that does not conform to the norms of these regimes and institutions invites expurgation, blacking-out, the use of euphemisms or of paraphrase, etc., whether at the hands of a reviser, an editor or a censor. Textual manipulation and rewriting is thus an observable form of censorship. And if manipulation does not sufficiently transform the form or the content of the text, the authorities may still consider it unacceptable, even subversive. In this case, the work itself may simply be banned.

Toury, Berman and Genette, along with other translation studies and literary studies scholars, deal with the issue of textual manipulation and rewriting, and, more precisely, with the question of censorship. Several translation studies scholars have also investigated the role that intercultural and interlinguistic negotiation plays in the translation process. The purpose of this Conference is to investigate the various forms that this particular manifestation of textual manipulation, stemming from negotiation, can take, and it invites pluridisciplinary approaches. This issue is of fundamental importance in order to gain a better understanding of how cultural and political institutions shape and direct the world view of a given culture.

This Conference will constitute a forum for expressing a diversity of points of view about censorship and translation. The organizing committee invites papers relating to the theme of the Conference. Among possible sub-themes are the following:

• Causes of censorship in translated texts (institutions and censorship): ideology/ gender and censorship; psychoanalysis and censorship, e.g. the unconscious and repression

• Typology of translation censorship (historical periods, socio-political movements)

• Subversion of institutional censorship – feminism and the rejection of censorship through language; political, cultural, intellectual, etc. subversion contesting the status quo

• Socio-cultural and political roles of censorship in cultural exchange

• Intercultural transfer and censorship

• Pluridisciplinary reflections (anthropology, sociology, history, political science, etc.) on the manifestations of censorship in translated texts (literary, philosophical, political, medical, administrative, religious, etc.)

• Censorship to which interpreters are subjected, esp. community interpreters.

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Joint Session : CATTW and CATS – Université Laval

May 26, 2001 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. (tentative)

Communicators as Cultural Interpreters

This session will address issues related to the role of professional communicators, translators and interpreters in an increasingly global economy. Researchers are invited to explore issues of globalisation and localisation in writing, translation, and interpretation, in English, in French and in languages and language combinations other than English and French. Following are questions that may be discussed in this session. Canadian context: what challenges does it present for professional communicators, translators and interpreters? Thinking internationally: what does it mean for a professional communicator and for a translator? How do professional communicators and translators deal with intercultural differences in texts and in contexts? How can we integrate an international perspective into the classroom? This list is not exhaustive.

For futher information: http://www.uottawa.ca/associations/act-cats/congress.htm