TRANSLATION ANALYSIS OF ACADEMIC TEXTS IN THE HUMAN SCIENCES: A CASE STUDY

Abstract With the purpose of internationalisation, present-day academic research is being largely published or translated into English. In Brazil, there are several bilingual publications in all academic fields available on SciELO Portal. In areas related to the Human Sciences, the necessity of translating cultural references tends to be more frequent than in the Natural and ‘Hard’ Sciences. Research in the Human Sciences focuses primarily on cultural issues such as beliefs, rituals, behaviours, habits, etc. This article presents a case study of a bilingually published research article on the History of Brazilian slavery. The analysis is based on how Brazilian cultural references are represented in English and the possible effects this may cause in the target text audience. Considering the specificities of academic texts in the Human Sciences, our theoretical framework is based on, on the one hand, Intercultural Studies and, on the other, German Functionalist Translation Theory. Results show the role of the translator in the case of texts in the Human Sciences as an active contributor concerned with his/her international audience.

摘要：为推进国际化进程，当前绝大多数学术研究成果均以英语发表或被译为英语。在巴西，SciELO平台（SciELO Portal）所收录的各学术领域的双语出版物数量颇丰。相较于自然科学与"硬科学"领域，人文科学领域对文化参考内容的翻译需求更为频繁。人文科学研究主要聚焦于信仰、仪式、行为、习俗等文化议题。本文以一篇双语发表的巴西奴隶制史研究论文为案例展开分析。本次分析围绕巴西文化参考内容在英语译文中的呈现方式，及其对目标文本受众可能造成的影响展开。考虑到人文科学学术文本的特殊性，本文的理论框架一方面基于跨文化研究（Intercultural Studies），另一方面则依托德国功能主义翻译理论（German Functionalist Translation Theory）。研究结果表明，在人文科学文本的翻译实践中，译者作为积极的参与者，需充分兼顾其服务的国际化受众群体。