Soldando Sal. Galician Studies in Translation and Paratranslation, ed.

by Burghard
Baltrusch, Gabriel Pérez Durán and Kathrin Sartingen, Munich: Martin Meidenbauer
Verlag 2010.

Abstracts

In “Na orografía do mudable. Cara a uns Estudos de Tradución & Paratradución” (The
changing relief. Towards Translation and Para-translation studies), Burghard Baltrusch
and Gabriel Pérez Durán present translation as a constantly moving transposition
process without a fixed location. Since translation, in a wider sense of the term, is a
form of transcultural knowledge, the concept of paratranslation, in an acceptable
comparable sense, would mean interpretation and translation along its boundaries.
Moreover, since it is comprised of materials with different origins and of varying
speeds, there are ways to articulate it just like there are ways to escape from it.
Therefore, in order to analyse the same, we have broadly defined a coherent and
transversal methodology which is based on multiple adjacent disciplines from human
and natural sciences.
Translation and paratranslation therefore make up an interdisciplinary space where
not only deculturisation, vulgarisation, etc. but also resistance, crossbreeding and
hybridisation are carried out constantly and increasingly at a global level. For minority
cultures, such as Galician, this process involves the need to carry out resistance and
tradition translation strategies, by maintaining a balance between opening up to
global networks and the individualised concept of translation studies. A search of
reality requires adaptation of concepts to reality without reconciling with
contradictions. The presentation of this book therefore offers some “salt welding
points” of a hypothetical thought structure that tries to accompany the cultural turn of
translations within the fields of cultural resistance, critical appreciation of translation,
literature, reception, cultural studies and translation tools.

Translating Galicia for the world

Under the first epigraph titled “Traducindo Galicia para o mundo” (Translating Galicia
for the world), three approaches and methods that arise both from research and
essays, and that deal with the need to translate present day Galician culture are
presented.
In “Recoñecer que existimos” (Acknowledging we exist) Rosa Aneiros carries out a
SWOT analysis of Galician culture and its overseas projection from a world context. She
states that Galician culture should not hide behind its cultural exception or its minority
language, in order to avoid falling into insecurity, which is absurd in any case. For the
culture to exist abroad it needs to acknowledge its own existence, which should be
through a constant reinforcement of self esteem. It is essential that a culture be placed
in the epicentre of the cultural world, so that it can acquire and strengthen such self
esteem, especially if we bear in mind the numerous opportunities that are available to
Galicia. Galician culture should not only be well versed with handling the
communication media in general and the Internet in particular, but it should also know
how to convert the globalization mass destruction weapons into mass construction
weapons. Furthermore, there arises a need for institutional willingness and
competitive concurrence, such that management and financing do not depend on just
the one administration nor the one government, since a constant subsidy policy results
in the creation of nothing else but debtors. This is why we defend business initiatives
and marketing so that the participation of Galician businesses in cultural
dissemination, through fiscal incentives, would not remain as a utopia. Furthermore,
we claim the need for ongoing training for the domestic receiver since the capacity to
value art is acquired after a long period of training and the creation of culture
consumption habits will finally enable the autochthonous culture to compete with the
imposed globalisation.
Along the same lines, Burghard Baltrusch develops a pragmatic argument that looks
into the strategic advantages and disadvantages of associating Galicia to the
Lusophone world wherein he affirms that Galicia would benefit from the same because
of the innate talent of Galicians to translate and be translated. The issue as to whether
Galicia should or should not be part of the Lusophone world has aroused a lot of
controversies and has been used by several types of ideological discourses, which
further hinder a pragmatic and future reconciliation. A comparative inventory of the
several ideological discourses on the subject is outlined, including a critical and post
colonial appreciation of the very Lusophone phenomenon. From the perspective of
cultural translation (Bhabbha), it is argued that a potential association of Galician to
the Lusophone world would mean an appropriation, for the very first time, of its own
history, in order to create its own contemporariness and with a view to projecting it
abroad in a planned manner. However, there would be no room for foundational
essentialism within a global, trans-cultural and trans-discourse panorama where
people, ideas and values undergo constant migration and crossbreeding. The illusions
of orthographic and linguistic unity and that of the lost cultural unity paradise must be
abandoned in favor of a post colonial and transnational model of identifying hybrid
cultures. The transnational social fields of Portuguese-Galician are diffuse in nature but
are linked to networks that represent an important social capital, of which Galician
emigration was one of the precursors. In our era, which is characterized by the
continuous migration of people and ideas, such cultural mobile identities (Rivas)
represent one of the most powerful cultural translations that has been able to
update the nineteenth-century national identity towards an increasingly transnational
and cosmopolitan model.
In a comparative sense, Agustín Fernández Paz, in “Un lugar no mundo” (A Place in
the World), states that Galicia should become aware of its worth, i.e., of the fact that it
is something unique. The hypothesis that an artist is never peripheral means that
everything else is nothing but an immense periphery from the perspective of the
creator subject. Any person who works in the world of cultural creation must
necessarily be placed in the center of the world, especially during the creation period.
We defend a Galician society of the 21st century that strives for a “Global Galicia”
(Valdehorras, Miranda), which is linked to other societies through communication,
transversalness and innovation. The Galician reality characterized by financial and
business elites, which to a great extent still ignore their country, and a part of the
population that still denies its cultural identity, leads to the great challenge of trying
to make ourselves heard within a cultural global sphere and occupy our niche in the
world. Faced with all the cultural products imposed upon us by the USA, and to a
lesser extent by the Spanish State, there is a need to explore all possible alternatives in
order to exploit our privileged position that will enable us to place one foot in Europe
and the other in Latin America. Just like the music created in Galicia is heard in many
parts of the world, we have to ensure that other forms of cultural expression also
follow suit, by being aware that we have an original voice that can match any other.

Towards a critique of translation

This second chapter explores the several analysis perspectives of the translation
activity mostly from paratranslation and standardization points of views.
In “A paratradución, entre a ideoloxía e a tradución” (Paratranslation, between
ideology and translation), Xoán Manuel Garrido Vilariño discusses the current state of
knowledge on the relationship between ideology and translation and focuses on the
responsibilities of the translator as a mediating subject amongst inter-cultural
relationships. He first describes the spaces of the text and the paratext where there is
an implication of the beliefs and the values of the societies that receive the cultural
product and which try to incorporate them into their cultural heritage. At a later
stage, he distinguishes between conscious and unconscious ideology, as well as the
two types of textual modifications that they can generate. As an example, he compares
a fragment of an original Italian text that is taken from the book Se questo è un uomo,
by Primo Levi, with its versions in French, English and Spanish. Faced with the total
modification that can be seen in the English version, which shows an ideological
manipulation that is non-existent in the original, and due to the impossibility of calling
it a translation, the author coins the term paratranslation. The origin of this concept is
being presented by the research group that prepares its postulates and aspiration to
convert it into a concept that will be capable of embracing the most diverse aspects of
the knowledge of human beings, languages and cultures.
“A crítica da literatura traducida nas páxinas culturais da prensa” (A critical
appreciation of translated literature published in the cultural press), by Ana Luna
Alonso, looks at the reviews of literary translations into the Galician language provided
by the Galician general press over the past years within the pages dedicated to cultural
aspects (A Nosa Terra, in its culture section; Faro de Vigo, in its supplement “Faro da
Cultura”; and La Voz de Galicia, in its supplement “Culturas”). The author starts by
summarizing the criteria used in judging a translation (to make an evaluation and an
opinion prior to reading), that have been traditionally focused on the search for errors.
Despite there being articles in specialized journals on translation as well as in other
research studies, the most valuable information is found in the prologues of the
translated texts that have been written by the actual persons who translate them.
However, the criticism that reaches the great majority of the public, that enables sale
of product, and which has authority to declare whether a particular work is interesting
or not, is mainly the critical review that is published in the press. By performing a
systematic analysis of literary translation criticism, the author is able to conclude that
such criticism should abandon its traditional format of providing information about the
original text and instead talk about the person who translates, how he/she translates
the product, and the result of such translation. Generally speaking, there are
subjective and inaccurate value judgments made, with little or no fundament, and
based on personal presuppositions, which tend to be implicit rather than explicit. One
must bear in mind that there are no universal or systematic criteria when determining
quality of literary translations and that they depend on the different priorities of the
agents that intervene during the translation process, something which should not be
ignored when analyzing the result.
In “De cara a “Forever in Galicia” no marco actual da literatura galega
traducida a inglés”, (Towards Forever in Galicia within the present framework of
Galician literature translated into English”, Olga Castro Vázquez and Craig Patterson
present the most recent historical context (1995-2005) of the translation of Galician
literary texts into a British framework. This article also provides an analysis of the
translation and editing conditions that have had an influence on each publication. At
the same time, it offers a comparative reflection on the literary relationships that take
place between Galicia, a nation without a state whose literary system has not yet
attained full autonomy, and the United Kingdom, which has a strong literary system,
on the premise that it foments cultural self-confidence and an awareness of national
identity, especially with regards to the Galician literary and cultural system. The act of
translating and publishing translations of Galician literature in the Anglophone world
connotes a determined interplay of commercial, philosophical and artistic interests, as
well as practical difficulties within a specific cultural and global context. This paper
therefore seeks to interrogate the sometimes unpredictable market laws for
translation of Galician and foreign literature in English-speaking countries, by
examining the reception of translations and the perception of their source culture. And
lastly, the challenge of translating and publishing Castelao's Sempre en Galiza within
the practical and often problematic parameters established by this analysis will also be
considered.
Xoán Montero Domínguez in “O papel normalizador da tradución e dobraxe dos
produtos sudamericanos” (The standardisation role of translation and dubbing of
South American products) touches some crucial aspects of the translation activity in
Galician Television (TVG). The TVG favoured the use of Galician within groups and
sectors where it was poorly used because it was considered to be a second grade
language. It simultaneously showed that, through translation for dubbing, Galician
cities can live without actually speaking Spanish. One example of such translation into
the Galician language is South American cinematographic products ―normally soap
operas. The usual difficulties suffered by translations in such contexts also appear
here, despite them being viewed as “minor” works. Some examples of difficulties
found in translations were extracted from a full review of soap operas televised from
1985 to 2005. In fact, as stated by the dubbing actors and actresses, such soap operas
are the best school to learn how to dub, since the protagonists of such soap operas are
not very professional and therefore, the professionals that do the dubbing have to put
in extra effort to obtain the best dubbed version possible. This has contributed greatly
to the standardization of the Galician language but unfortunately has often been
ignored.
The paratranslation aspect of the standardization role played by translation is
also highlighted by Liliana Valado in “Funcións da tradución editorial en Galicia” (Roles
of translations for publishing houses in Galicia). The author completes this epigraph
with an observation on the criteria used by publishing houses when deciding to
translate Swedish literature into Galician. These refer specifically to the educational
texts which Spanish publishing houses publish in Galician. The concepts of cultural
paratranslation and the reception theories are used to create a framework which
demonstrates the relevance of external transversal factors for the product over its
translation process, while pointing the relevance of applying translation as a
standardization tool. This review seeks to bring out the criteria, which from the
background, are the authentic protagonists for decision making in publishing houses.
Market trends will surely determine what is published and what stays on the agenda of
publishing houses in as far as translating educational texts is concerned.

Translation, comparative literature and reception

The third epigraph, “Tradución, literatura comparada e recepción” (Translation,

comparative literature and reception), offers several examples of how Galicia relates
with the world through literature, translation and present day publications.
Locking at present day literature, Alberto Valverde Otero, in “A linguaxe per-
formativa en Antón Reixa, Adolfo Luxúra Caníbal e Arnaldo Antunes” (Performative
language in the work of Antón Reixa, Adolfo Luxúra Caníbal and Arnaldo Antunes),
provides parallelisms between the performative languages of a Galician author, a
Portuguese one and a Brazilian one, from a truly comparative, paratranslational and
Lusophone perspective. He starts with a reflection on the consideration of
performance as a literary genera that arise from the rupture between the different
arts. Whilst the author admits that there is little tradition on reflection about this
aspect in Galician literary studies, he highlights that performance studies in other
latitudes are configured as a postmodern brand. In order to do that, he revisits
certain stages of Literature and Art History of the 20 th century, which provide us with
ways to understand this new praxis. For comparative purposes, this performance
approach uses three writers in three parallel cultural spaces as an example, namely;
Antón Reixa from Galiza, Adolfo Luxúria Canibal from Portugal and Arnaldo Antunes
from Brazil. He defines the most representative characteristics of these creators, and
highlights the intergeneric and performance aspects within the context of their
respective works.
In as far as contemporary literature is concerned, Carlos Paulo Martínez, in “A
disgregación do discurso ficcional (Clarice Lispector e Lois Perereiro)” (The
disintegration of fictional discourse -Clarice Lispector and Lois Perereiro), looks into the
anti-traditional narratives of Clarice Lispector and of Lois Pereiro based on the concept
of literary paintings and the importance of plasticity within the synthetic legacy of
modernity. He covers the anti-traditional narrative writings of Clarice Lispector and of
Lois Pereiro, wherein he confronts discourseness of the structures of Água viva
(Ficção), and the unfinished novel Náufragos do Paradiso. The two fiction works
present a blurred narrative plot which, diluted by lyricism and by emblems that refer
to plasticity, demand a trajectory from perception to conception from the reader.
During this trajectory the background of ‘magnetic attraction’ between the literary
and the plastic fields is threatened, there is (con)fusion of the two discourses, and all
this is done using different meanings and procedures but by always having images as
the central object that are normally centered on what can be perceived by the eyes, on
the non-ecphrastic nature and also on the desire to arrange, to set order in the
invaluable “Chaosmos” territory. With the concept of literary paintings in the modern
sense– he tries to respond to the following questions: How is the presence of painting
in words developed? How does plastic thinking that sustains and “explains” them
function? The author therefore tries to learn and understand the underlying
importance of plasticity and the backbone references of modern syntactic legacy, by
seeking the reconstruction of a minimum sinuous (in)coherence –without which
reading becomes immobilized and gets lost– since these ‘derived’ writings are located
within a “slithering” movement towards another destination, and which are
constantly evolving on an interstitial ground of ‘landslides’.
In “A literatura brasileira traducida en España no século XXI ao catalán, español,
éuscaro e galego” (Brazilian literature translated in Spain during the 21 st century into
Catalonian, Spanish, Basque and Galician), Áurea Fernández Rodríguez offers a global
view of Brazilian literature translated, over the years of the 21 st century, into the four
languages of the Spanish State (Catalonian, Spanish, Basque and Galician), with a view
to analysing its reception and ranking in the national literary system. After compiling a
list of the works that have been translated, published and distributed in Spain
(excluding those that were published in Latin America), a review is performed of their
reception and the interest generated by some of the Brazilian literary works in each of
the mentioned languages. Despite space not permitting a comparison of the reception
of Brazilian literature with that of other translated literatures in Spain, nor covering the
issue of whether the reception of such literature in other cultures was different, the
author nevertheless provides some conclusions related to these aspects. In general
terms, it can be stated that the list of Brazilian authors translated into Spanish is very
poor, not only from Portuguese into Spanish but also into the other minority language
combinations. While it is true that the demographic parameter favours the number of
translations into languages with the most number of speakers/ readers, publishers
follow their own rules, amongst which worth mentioning are: public expectation,
mediators, advisors and informed literary agents, specialised readers and obviously
qualified translators. Brazil is geographically and culturally located in a peripheral
position with respect to the Spanish speaking countries, and has limited relationships
with publishing houses from the old metropolis, where we cannot find the likes of
Barcelona for Spanish speaking countries. If the list of Brazilian literature titles
translated is very poor in Galicia, we find that the percentage is even smaller;
Portuguese does not fall within the selection criteria of the principal Galician
publishing houses since they consider the language to be accessible for learned
Galician readers. However, some of the Brazilian translated works have had good
reception in Galicia which surprised the management of publishing companies and
which shows that planned translation and proper selection of works for translation can
result in benefits to companies and readers who want diversity and originality.
Translation and culture

Chapter IV deals with the several cultural aspects that act as starting points for Galician
studies which concentrate on cultural translation elements.
In “Gallegos en la mirada del joven documental cubano” (Galicians in the eyes
of the young Cuban documentary) by Astrid Santana Fernández de Castro, she looks
for new involvement of Galician culture in Cuba and its transformation within a
Caribbean context, and then analyses the representation of Galicians in the young
Cuban documentary, especially in Los últimos gaiteiros de La Habana and Fillas de
Galicia (The last Bagpipers of La Habana and Daughters of Galicia), which were
directed by Ernesto Daranas and Natasha Vázquez. Such audiovisual products
represent updating of the dialogue on the Galician presence in the Island and throw
light on those vital zones of intercultural processes from the intimate history of the
common folk who make up the dynamic flow of insertion and transculturation of
Galicians in Cuba. These are informative documentaries that simultaneously bring out
the story and drama of these “Galicians souls” and further become consolidated as
historical products and moving documents on the meaning of emigration.
One specific continuation from this perspective is provided by José F. Colmeiro
in “Testemuño e transculturación. Hibridacións culturais en “Gallego” de Miguel
Barnet” (Testimony and Transculturation. Cultural Hybridisations in Gallego by Miguel
Barnet), . This paper talks about the third novel in Barnet’s series of testimonial novels
about transcultured Cuban identity, Gallego (1981), which openly challenges
preconceived rigid notions of cultural identity and nation formation, as well as the
status of testimonial literature vis-à-vis historical reality. In this deceptively
transparent work about the process of transculturation of a Galician migrant, cultural
and textual hybridity govern the processes of identity construction and literary
creation. Established boundaries are systematically crossed and a new hybrid reality
arises from the confusion of differences, polarities and categorical definitions. The
fundamental instability and fluid process that characterize the Galician migrant’s
experience in the New World, always within languages, cultures, ethnic and racial
groups, challenge the monolithic idea of cultural and national identities as pure, fixed
and always already prefabricated, without erasing cultural contingencies. Likewise, the
seemingly inseparable confusion of documentary reality and literary fiction in his work
creates a form of hybrid narrative that redefines generic conventions and disciplinary
borders, thereby hindering the status of the spoken/written subject in testimonial
literature.
In “Televisão e cultura. Análise da trajéctoria de duas TVs públicas” (Television
and Culture. An analysis of the trajectory of two Public TV Stations), Renata de Paula
Trindade Rocha studies the relationship between Television and Culture through an
analysis of the history of two public TV channels: Televisión de Galicia (TVG) and
Televisão Educativa da Bahia, which is located in the state of Bahia (Brazil). She starts
by assuming that these stations, due to their being public and to the great audiovisual
coverage in the world today, actively participate in forming and nurturing regional
identities. She tries to understand how a TV channel trajectory interferes with society
and vice-versa, in their place of location, as well as how it is able to participate in a
training and dissemination process of certain cultural identities. The author proposes
that debates on public TVs be aimed at establishing independent management
methods and means for stabilising programming quality.
“Voulez-vous danser avec moi, ce soir? A música galega na asociación «A Nosa
Casa de Galiza» de París” (“Would you like to dance with me tonight”, Galician music
in the Paris Association «A Nosa Casa de Galiza»), by Olga Fernández Nogueira,
focusses on music from the Galician community in Paris. She analyses the elements
that were brought into the scenario in order to keep the culture alive when distant
from the home country, and how such elements have evolved over the past decades.
Since music is one of the most universal languages that is capable of crossing borders
and reaching hearts, it was used by the Galician emigration associations movement
right from the very beginning as a binding element for emigrants thereby ensuring
continuity of Galician culture abroad. Galician culture uses music to exhibit: rhythms,
melodies, language, food, holidays, the flag, the national anthem, etc., thus making the
Galician community more visible in the host country, integrating non-Galicians into the
same and providing more visibility to women.
And finally, in “Gaiteiros na emigración en América” (Bagpipers in American
emigration), Bieito Romero reviews the most important but less well-known figures of
bagpipe music within Galician emigration in America.

Translation and paratranslation tools

This last epigraph presents some examples of the translation tools developed over the
past years within the field of Galician translation studies.
In “A Biblioteca Dixital da Tradución (1980-2005): o observatorio da tradución
literaria ao/do galego” (Translation Digital Bibliography (1980-2005): an observatory of
literary translation from/into Galician), the BITRAGA group from the University of Vigo
(coordinated by Ana Luna Alonso) presents a research project titled “Biblioteca Dixital
da Tradución Literaria Galega (1980-2005)” (BiDix), which was financed by the Ministry
of Education and Science, as well as FEDER funds. This is a database that seeks to
compile all bibliographical references of the many literary texts translated from and
into Galician and published in book format during the last quarter of the century. The
prime objective was to prepare a census of Galician translations and literary texts
translators within a specific time period, which would be highly productive for the
Galician literary and cultural system and simultaneously project the cultural and
political importance of such translated production both from and into Galician. The
first version of the database is presented here and there are comments on some of the
several possibilities that this catalogue can offer both for general and specialised
referencing, in addition to being an open door towards new research on the subject.
The catalogue permits us to simultaneously contrast information vertically and
horizontally: study reception from and into Galician, study authors, genera, languages
and cultures translated, etc. The project also brings together all agents directly
involved with translation and furthermore provides a forum for debate and exchange
of information not only on general characteristics but also on the deficiencies of the
Galician literary system. In this manner, the portal BiDix contributes to knowledge
collaboration and exchange amongst people and institutions that are related to or
involved with the standardization and universalization process of Galician publications
through translation.
In “A elaboración terminolóxica do galego, a propósito da tradución científica
na área de xenética” (The preparation of Galician terminology for scientific translation
in genetics), Iolanda Galanes Santos analyses the procedures, resources and tools used
for preparing the Galician scientific-technical terminology. She starts by analysing
French>Galician translation of two dissemination works on genetics and the
preparation of a multilingual glossary on bioethics. Extracts from these works are
taken to study the adaptation procedures used for technical terms, the incidence of
borrowing, the efficiency of compound words from Greek and Latin, and the validity
of specialised terminology from neighbouring languages for Galician. Special attention
is paid to how far such terminology tallies with solutions from languages that are
structurally close, such as Portuguese, or with others, such as Catalonian, where
solutions are being prepared. The result will help us explain selection criteria used by
specialised text translators in minority languages such as Galician.
Daniela Braga and Xosé Ramón Freixeiro Mato in their work titled “Algoritmos
de Conversão Grafema-Fonema em Galego para Sistemas de Conversão Texto-Fala”
(Conversation Grapheme-Phoneme Algorithms in Galician for Text-Speech Conversion
Systems) provide a description of a grapheme-phoneme conversion system based on
linguistic rules. Their objective is to integrate this module into a Galician voice
synthesizer system. This converter is one of the two main text processing modules that
are found to underlie the architecture of the text-speech conversion system. This is a
system that receives text in Galician as input. Such text is then converted into phonetic
labels using a SAMPA system that has been specifically developed for Galician, based
on systems that already exist for Portuguese and Spanish. The system output is
phonetic transcription in SAMPA, which will be linked to a synthesizing engine based
on HMMs (Hidden Markov Models). Test results with the system gave an accuracy of
98.50% which in turn helps us to appreciate the importance of linguistic knowledge for
developing text-speech systems in Galician. The authors further discuss the results
obtained after identifying the principal problems and then offer solutions to resolve
the same.
The authors

Rosa Aneiros is a writer and researcher at the Consello da Cultura Galega. She also
works as a journalist in the press, radio and digital media. Some of her articles, which
straddle literature and journalism, have been compiled in Agardando as lagarteiras
(2003) and Ao pé do abismo (2007). As a fiction writer she has published short stories
and novels such as Resistencia (2002), O xardín de media lúa (2004), Veu visitarme o
mar (2004), Os ourizos cachos e o gran ríos gris (2008) and Sol de inverno (2009),
among others. She has also collaborated in the Proxecto Neuston, a cooperation
scheme among scientists and writers, and has won numerous prizes, including the
Manuel Lueiro Rey (1996), the Modesto Figueiredo (1998), the Arcebispo Juan de San
Clemente (2003) and the Xerais (2009) awards.

Burghard Baltrusch (http://uvigo.academia.edu/BurghardBaltrusch) received his Ph.D.

(1996) and M.A. (1991) from the University of Bonn where he worked as assistant
lecturer in Portuguese Literature. He is senior lecturer in Portuguese Studies at the
University of Vigo, since 1999, where he has coordinated several Ph.D. programmes,
e.g. in Translation & Paratranslation Studies. He has been President of the
International Association of Galician Studies (<http://www. estudosgalegos.org>) and
has taught seminars on Portuguese and Brazilian literature, cultural studies, Galician
studies and translation studies in Vigo, Bonn, Augsburg and Coimbra. His publications
include more than 30 articles and book chapters mostly on Portuguese and Galician
literature, as well as on postmodernism and translation studies. Other books published
are Bewußtsein und Erzählungen der Moderne im Werk Fernando Pessoas, Frankfurt &
New York 1997 and Kritisches Lexikon der Romanischen Gegenwartsliteraturen (with
W.-D. Lange et al.), 5 vols., Tübingen (since 1999).

Daniela Braga (<http://www.danielabraga.com/>) has a B.A. degree in Linguistics

(2000) from the University of Porto, Portugal, an M.A. degree in Discourse Analysis and
Pragmatics (2005) from the University of Minho, Portugal, and a Ph.D. in Speech
Synthesis (2008) from the University of A Coruña, Spain. She worked as a researcher in
Speech Technology at the University of Porto (Portugal) from 2000 to 2006. Her
current assignment at Microsoft Spain is as the person-in charge of speech synthesis,
language expansion and research areas at the Microsoft Language Development
Centre, the only Microsoft Research and Development Centre dedicated to speech
technology in Europe. She was assistant lecturer at the University of Porto, Polytechnic
Institute of Porto, and at the University of A Coruña. She has participated in national
and international R&D projects and consortia (cost actions, ecess, lc-star) since 2001,
besides being an author in more than 50 papers in national and international
conferences and journals, on Text-to-Speech Conversion, Speech Synthesis, Phonetics,
Prosody, and Speech Recognition in several languages, including Galician.

Olga Castro Vázquez (<http://webs.uvigo.es/olgacastro/>) has B.A. degrees in

Journalism from the University of Santiago de Compostela (2002) and in Translation
and Interpreting from the University of Vigo (2006). Ms. Castro received her Diploma in
Advanced Studies (2006) from the University of Vigo, where is currently completing
her Ph.D. thesis on the interactions between gender, language and translation. She has
also worked as research associate at Sheffield Hallam University and at the University
of Vic. Her published articles include: “As traducións da literatura galega no Reino
Unido. A situación actual e proxección de futuro”, Anuario Grial de Estudos Literarios
Galegos 2005, 22-37; “Ideoloxías textuais e paratextuais nas traducións de Le
Deuxième Sexe de Simone de Beauvoir”, Viceversa 12, 2006, 49-78; “(Para)Translated
Ideologies in Simone de Beauvoir’s Le deuxième sexe: The (Para)Translator’s Role”. In
Teresa Seruya & Maria Lin Moniz (eds.), Translation and Censorship in Different Times
and Landscapes, Newcastle 2008, 130-146; “Género y traducción: elementos
discursivos para una reescritura feminista”, Lectora 14, 2008, 285-301.

José F. Colmeiro (<https://www.msu.edu/~colmeiro/>) has a Ph.D. from the University

of California, Berkeley, in Hispanic Languages and Literatures (1989), an M.A. in
Comparative Literature from Stony Brook University, New York (1984), and a B.A. in
English from the University of Salamanca (1980). At present he holds the position of
Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Michigan State University. Dr. Colmeiro has
taught seminars on modern Spanish literature and cultural studies, Hispanic cinema
and popular music, Galician studies and transatlantic studies. His publications include
more than 60 articles and book chapters and three single-authored books: on historical
memory and cultural identity in modern Spain (Memoria histórica e identidad cultural),
on Spanish detective fiction (La novela policiaca española), and on Manuel Vázquez
Montalbán’s fiction (Crónica del desencanto), which won the 1995 “Letras de Oro”
prize in the U.S. He is also the editor of three books of critical editions and collective
monographs, and co-editor of the book Spain Today: Essays on Literature, Culture and
Society. His latest works being finished now are: Galeg@s sen fronteiras (Xerais), a
book of conversations with contemporary Galician cultural figures, and a monograph
on Galician cultural studies titled Peripheral Visions, Global Positions: Remapping
Galician Culture.

Gonzalo Constenla Bergueiro is a Professor of the Escolas Oficiais de Idiomas and

associate lecturer at the Faculty of Philology and Translation, University of Vigo. He
was a member of the La traducción literaria en España 1940-2002 research group at
the University of Barcelona, and the Biblioteca dixital da tradución literaria galega
(1980-2005) at the University of Vigo, funded by the Ministry of Science and
Technology. Mr. Constenla has spent time at the Universities of Kent (England), Cork
(Ireland), Malta, Wales and Costa Rica, and has been guest lecturer at the Universities
of Bochum (Germany) and Brussels (Belgium). He is a member of the board of editors
for the journal Viceversa. Revista galega de traducción, and has been on the organising
committees of several congresses, symposia and seminars. Main publications:
Antoloxía do ensaio sociolingüístico, Vigo 1998; “A situación do galego: do colonialismo
á mundialización. Unha lectura política”, in Nacionalismo e globalización: lingua,
cultura e identidade, Vigo 2003; as well as overviews on literary translation into
Galician published in Anuario de estudos literarios galegos, from 1995 to 2006. He is
also the author of several translations from English into Galician.

Olga Fernández Nogueira has an M.A. in Galician Philology from the University of
Santiago de Compostela, where she is a member of the Galician Literature History
research group. She also has an M.A. in Musical Anthropology from the École des
Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris (2006), where she worked as a lecturer at
the Centro de Estudos Galegos of the University of Paris iii. From 2006-2009 she looked
after overseas promotion at the former igaem and collaborated in the development
and promotion of the Galician Tunes Project. She received the María Casares Theatre
Award (with Avelino González) for best adapted text from 2007 to 2009 for A raíña da
beleza de Leenane, A bombilla máxica, and Aeroplanos, respectively. Her other
interests are singing and playing the accordion, and she was a member of the group
Chouteira.

Agustín Fernández Paz teaches Galician Language and Literature in a secondary school
and is a writer with a long career in storytelling for children and youngsters. Besides
receiving many awards (Merlín, Edebé Juvenil, Lazarillo, Raíña Lupa, etc.), his work has
been recognised outside Galicia, where he has been a member, for example, of the
International Board on Books for Young People (ibby, 1992 and 2002) and has received
the National Award for Literature for Children and Young People (2008). Of particular
note among his numerous published works are: Contos por palabras (1990), Cartas de
inverno (1995), O centro do labirinto (1997), O laboratorio do doutor Nogueira (1998),
Aire negro (2000), No corazón do bosque (2001), Noite de voraces sombras (2002), O
meu nome é Skywalker (2003), Trece anos de Branca (2006), Corredores de sombra
(2006), O único que queda é o amor (2007). He was a founding member of the Avantar
and Nova Escola Galega movements and has published several educational works.

Áurea Fernández Rodríguez has a Ph.D. degree in Romance Philology from the
University of Santiago de Compostela, and is presently working as a senior lecturer at
the Faculty of Philology and Translation, University of Vigo. Her research focuses on
French literature, comparative literature and translation studies (teaching and theory).
She has participated in scientific groups and meetings in Brazil, Cuba, Canada,
Switzerland, France, Romania, Germany and the United Kingdom. Her most recent
works include: “L’orthotypographie pour traducteurs: usage et norme”, López Díaz,
Montserrat & María Montes López (eds.): Perspectives Fonctionnelles: emprunts
économie et variation dans les langues, Lugo 2006, 433-436; “Correspondances
missionnaires: l’écart entre le texte source et le texte cible (missions d’Amérique latine
xvi siècle)”, Transversalités, 104, 2007, 13-33; “La recepción de las literaturas
francófonas en España en el siglo xxi”, Luis Pegenaute et al. (eds.): La traducción del
futuro: mediación lingüística y cultural en el siglo xxi, Barcelona 2008, 175-184; “La
traducción literaria en el siglo xxi español-gallego-español”, Assumpta Camps & Lew
Zybatow (eds.): Traducción e interculturalidad, Frankfurt/Main 2008, 125-140.

Xosé Ramón Freixeiro Mato has a Ph.D. degree in Galician-Portuguese Philology from
the University of A Coruña, where he has been a senior lecturer at the Faculty of
Philology, since 1993. His main lines of research are Galician grammar and
sociolinguistics, literary language and stylistics. In addition to Lingua galega:
normalidade e conflito (2002) and Gramática da Lingua Galega in 4 volumes (2006), his
work also includes: Os marcadores discursivos. Conectores contraargumentativos no
galego escrito (2005, Critics Award for research 2006), Lingua, nación e identidade
(2006) and Cucou o cuco cuqueiro. Lingua e estilo na obra de Manuel María (2007,
Ánxel Fole Literary Award).
Iolanda Galanes Santos has a Ph.D. degree in Galician Philology from the University of
Santiago de Compostela and has done postgraduate studies at the University of Laval
(Quebec). She is presently working as a senior lecturer at the University of Vigo and
has been President of the Galician Terminology Society since 2005. Her research
focuses on linguistic planning, translation of specialized texts and terminology, and she
has contributed in the production of glossaries, dictionaries and lexicons both
nationally and internationally in the field of terminology. Her publications include: A
lingua galega do dereito (2002); “Procesos de implantación lingüística: a planificación
terminolóxica en Galicia”, Madrygal 8, 2005, 43-54; “A utilización das formas de
tratamento persoal no galego lexislativo e administrativo actual”, J.M. Oro Cabanas et
al. (eds.): Lengua y sociedad: lingüística aplicada en la era global y multicultural, 2006,
233-246; “Os traballos de fin de carreira de T&I, un tesouro terminilóxico inexplorado”,
Viceversa 13, 2007, 207-220.

Xoán Manuel Garrido Vilariño has M.A. degrees in Romance Philology (French) and in
Hispanic Philology (Galician-Portuguese) from the University of Santiago de
Compostela. He received his Ph.D. in Translation and Interpreting Studies from the
University of Vigo, in 2004. He is a secondary school Professor and teaches Galician
language & literature, and Portuguese language. He also works as an associate lecturer
in Translation and Interpretation, at the University of Vigo, besides working as a
translator from French and Spanish into Galician. He has a permanent position in the
University of Vigo’s “Tradución & Paratradución” research group and is a consultation
group member of the Centro de Estudos Interculturais at the Instituto Superior de
Contabilidade e Administração in Porto. Main publications: “Os límites do cinema na
representación do Holocausto: o modelo de Shoah como tradución/paratradución do
acontecemento” in Carmen Becerra et al. (eds): Lecturas: Imágenes, Cine y Memoria,
Vigo 2007, 29-49; “Texto e Paratexto. Tradución e Paratradución” (2005) in Viceversa
9-10, 31-39; (with Ana Luna Alonso) “L’image des interprètes dans les films de
l’Holocauste: Du casque au visage” in Anales de Filología Francesa 12, 151-175. Main
Translations: Gaston Leroux: O Fantasma da Ópera (fr. Le fantôme de l’Opéra), Vigo,
1998; Jean-Jacques Roubine: Introducción ás grandes Teorías do Teatro (fr.
Introduction aux grandes théories du théâtre), Vigo, 2002; (with Burghard Baltrusch
and Silvia Montero Küpper) “A tarefa de quen traduce” (de. “Die Aufgabe des
Übersetzers”), in Viceversa 13, 2007, 84-103.

Ana Luna Alonso (http://www.bibliotraducion.uvigo.es/) received her Ph.D. degree in

French Philology from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1998, and is
presently a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Philology and Translation, University of
Vigo, where she teaches translation of general and specialized texts for the French-
Galician language combination. She is the head researcher for the bitraga group and
the “Panorama e desenvolvemento da tradución en Galicia” Project at the University
of Vigo, a member of the board of editors for the journal Viceversa, and has
participated since 2005 in the University of Barcelona project: La traducción literaria
en España (1940-2002). Her publications include: La traducción en el ámbito
institucional: autonómico, estatal y europeo (with Susana Cruces Colado), Vigo 2004;
“A literatura galega traducida no estranxeiro: un intercambio desigual”, Grial 167,
2005, 32-45; “La qualité en traduction: contexte professionnel et contexte
pédagogique”, Jean Peeters (ed.): On the Relationships between Translation Theory
and Translation Practice, Paris 2005; Tradución e política editorial de literatura infantil
e xuvenil (with Silvia Montero Küpper), Vigo 2006; “Sobre las relaciones entre el
sistema literario gallego y el castellano en la época contemporánea a través de la
traducción”, El pensamiento contemporáneo sobre la traducción, Barcelona 2008.

Carlos Paulo Martínez Pereiro received his Ph.D. degree in Galician-Portuguese

Philology from the University of Santiago de Compostela (1990), and has been a senior
lecturer at the University of A Coruña, since 1992. His teaching and research works,
which have been published in numerous editions, monographs and articles, focus on
Galician and Portuguese medieval literature, Galician literature and Portuguese and
Brazilian literatures, as well as the relationship between art and writing in the
contemporary world. His noteworthy published works include: As cantigas de Fernan
Paez de Tamalancos. Edición crítica (1992), Natura das Animalhas. Bestiario medieval
da lírica profana galego-portuguesa (1996), A Pintura nas Palavras. “A Engomadeira”
de Almada Negreiros: Uma Novela em Chave Plástica (1996), Hospital das Letras.
Ensaios e in(ter)vencións literarias (1997), A indócil liberdade de nomear. Por volta da
“interpretatio nominis” na literatura trovadoresca (2000) and Querer crer entrever.
Expresións críticas de reflexión e lectura (2007). He received the Xunta de Galicia
Research Award (1992) and the Espiral Maior Essay Award (1999).

Xoán Montero Domínguez has a Ph.D. degree in Translation and Interpreting studies
from the University of Vigo, where he has worked as a lecturer since 2004. His
research centres on audiovisual translation (theory and practice), with particular
emphasis on Galicia. He has collaborated with several groups and participated in
scientific meetings in Brazil, the United Kingdom, México and Spain, and organised the
I Congreso de tradución para a dobraxe en Galiza, País Vasco e Cataluña. His recent
work includes: “Un achegamento á tradución audiovisual en Galicia”, Madrygal 8,
2005, 91-96; “Achegas para a tradución de produtos destinados á dobraxe cara ao
galego”, Viceversa 12, 2006, 111-120; “A importancia da relación texto-imaxe na
tradución da literatura infantil”, en Ana Luna Alonso & Silvia Montero Küpper (eds.):
Tradución e Política Editorial da Literatura Infantil e Xuvenil, Vigo 2006, 277-285; “La
utilidad de la traducción audiovisual en el aprendizaje de idiomas”, Lenguas en
contexto 4, 2007, 46-51.

Silvia Montero Küpper has an M.A. degree in Hispanic and German Philology and in
Comparative Literature from the University of Bonn and received her Ph.D. in
Translation and Interpreting Studies from the University of Vigo. She is currently a
senior lecturer at the University of Vigo, Department of Translation and Linguistics,
where she teaches translation of general and specialised texts for the German-Galician
language combination and translation criticism. Her research centres on translation in
Galicia as a tool for standardisation, analysis of paratranslation elements in translation
for publishing and Galician-German-Galician lexicography. She is a co-editor for the
Real Academia Galega’s German-Galician-German Dictionary project and a member of
the scientific board of the journal Íkala. In addition to several works on contrasting
aspects of the German and Galician languages, she has published (with Ana Luna
Alonso) Tradución e política editorial de literatura infantil e xuvenil, Vigo 2006; O
comportamento traductivo do alemán ó galego: análise da tradución dos verbos
modais ó alemán, Vigo 2006; and “Paratranslatorische Aspekte der deutsch-galicischen
Übertragungen seit 1983”, Ibón Uribarri Zenekorta (ed.): Übersetzungen, Viena/New
York 2009, 89-101.

Craig Patterson lectures in Galician and Hispanic studies at the School of European
Studies, University of Cardiff. His research focuses predominantly on the meeting of
Modernism and cultural nationalism in Galicia during the early twentieth century. The
Galician version of his first book was recently launched under the title O devalar da
idea: Otero Pedrayo e a identidade galega. He has also published on the Generation of
1898 and Ramón del Valle-Inclán, and is a regular contributor to the Galician-language
daily newspaper, Galicia Hoxe. He is currently on sabbatical leave and finalising his
translation of Castelao’s Sempre en Galiza into English.

Gabriel Pérez Durán (http://uvigo.academia.edu/GabrielPérezDurán/) received his

M.A. degree in Galician Philology (2006) and his Diploma in Advanced Studies (2008)
from the University of Vigo, where he is currently completing his Ph.D. thesis on the
relationships between music and translation, using applied methods from both
sciences and humanities. Furthermore, he is a member of the Tradución &
Paratradución research group and a literary critic for the journals ProTexta, Anuario
Grial de Estudios Literarios and Grial. He has published several articles on the plays of
Xohana Torres, the third culture and music. As a musician he has participated in
several groups performing a wide range of styles including classical, traditional and
experimental.

Renata de Paulo Trindade Rocha has an M.A. degree in Communication and Journalism
from the Federal University of Bahia (2006). She is a trainee researcher at the Centro
en Estudos Multidisciplinares en Cultura on the postgraduate Culture and Society
programme at the same university, with a scholarship from the Fundação Amparo à
Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia. Her current research includes the reorganisation of
Televisão Educativa da Bahia under the influence of audiovisual cultural policies in
Brazil. She has published Sobrados e Coretos - Breve História de 10 municípios do
interior da Bahia e suas bandas contemplados pelo Projeto Domingueiras, Salvador
2005.

Bieito Romero plays the bagpipes and accordion and is also a composer. He is a
founding member Luar na Lubre, one of Galicia’s most important folk groups that has
also achieved recognition internationally. Mr. Romero has received numerous awards
which include two gold discs. Despite being founded in 1986 and having released
several records, Luar na Lubre became well-known in 1997 with Plenilunio, and have
gone on to produce 11 cds. Their most recent works are: Hai un paraíso (2004),
Saudade (2005), Camiños da fin da terra (2007) and Ao vivo (2009). He has taken part
in the Radio Galega programme “Lume na palleira”, which specialises in traditional and
folk music.

Astrid Santana Fernández de Castro has an M.A. degree in Humanities (2000) from the
University of Havana, where she works as assistant lecturer in the Department of
Linguistic and Literary Studies at the Faculty of Arts and Culture. She works in the field
of non-Hispanic literature and collaborates in the discipline of literary theory. Ms.
Santana holds the Chair in Galician Culture at the University of Havana and has
published several articles within this field of study, as well as the book Islas y ficciones.
En torno al Sinbad de Álvaro Cunqueiro (2007). Her main lines of research focus on
comparative literature and cultural studies, with special attention to the relationships
between literature and film, about which she published “Entre la literatura y el cine:
otra vuelta por El siglo de las luces”, Universidad de La Habana (2004) and “Cumbite.
Palabra y performatividad”, Anales del Caribe (2008).

Liliana Valado is a translator a BA. in Translation and Interpreting and a Ph.D. from the
University of Vigo, Spain. She is also a lecturer at the University of Vigo and teaches
Translation from English into Galician and Spanish, and vice-versa, in the Translation
and Interpreting B.A. degree program. Her research interests include translation
theory, practice and pragmatics, translation for publishing houses, translation quality
in publishing as a process, and protocols for professional translation with didactic
applications. She has specialised in the field of modern Galician translation in
publishing and has translated works from English, French, Norwegian, Spanish and
Swedish. She is currently editing the monograph A tradución editorial a debate en
Galicia (forthcoming from Edicións Xerais de Galicia). As a scholar, she has written
Xestión de proxectos de tradución editorial (forthcoming from Servizo de Publicacións
da University of Vigo).

Alberto Valverde Otero has M.A. degrees in Galician Philology and in Portuguese
Philology from the University of Santiago de Compostela, and received his Diploma in
Advanced Studies from the University of Vigo, where he is currently completing his
Ph.D. thesis on the Galician avant-garde movement ‘Rompente’. He currently teaches
Galician Language and Literature in a secondary school and collaborates with the
Translation and Paratranslation Group at the University of Vigo. He has also
cooperated in various works for Galician Associations. Among other contributions he
has published “A performance en Rompente”, Anuario Grial de Estudos Literarios
Galegos 2004, 130-146.