1. Defining “Political” texts
Alone, on a piece of paper, jot down some ideas about following questions:
What makes something a “political” text?
What kinds of texts are “political”?
Now, discuss your responses with a partner

2. Translation theorists weigh in...
Texts primarily related to political activities, ideas, relations
Often associated with institutional politics
(e.g. Political/Parliamentary debates, speeches, documents)
(see Schäffner 2007: 143)

3. Translation theorists weigh in...
“Prototypical” political texts
a) discuss political ideas, beliefs, practices
e.g. Textbooks, academic papers, essays
b) are used to establish political communities/ groups
e.g. Treaties, manifestos, speeches
(see Schäffner 2004: )

4. Applying translation theory
Text types
Text genres
Reiss: informative, expressive, operative
Hatim & Mason: argumentative, expository, instructive
Correspondence, essays, manifestos, interviews, biographies, advertisements, speeches, policy papers, treaties, etc.

5. Translation theorists weigh in...
Political texts range from:
Very culture-bound texts
(e.g. speeches, statements by politicians)
To:
Interactive, multinational texts
(e.g. standardized treaties, NATO or EU documents)
(See Trosborg 1997: 145)

6. Discussion break In groups of 3-4 discuss the following questions:
What is “political discourse”?
What is the style of political texts?
Be prepared to share your answers with the class in 5 minutes.

7. Translation theorists weigh in...
Political discourse can have different strategic functions:
i) coercion
ii) resistance, opposition, protest
iii) dissimulation
iv) legitimization/delegitimization
See Schäffner (2004: 119)

8. Translation theorists weigh in...
Political language is used to:
Formulate policies
Create alliances
Shape/disseminate the values of political associations
Establish legal systems
Identify forms of government
(See Romagnuolo 2009: 2)

9. Translation theorists weigh in...
Features of political language:
Abstract conceptual terms
(e.g. capitalism, communism, socialism, democracy, revolution)
Political jargon
Euphemisms
Metaphors
Neologisms
Acronyms
Collocations (which may border on clichés)
(See Newmark 1991: )

10. Does a text become more or less political over time?
Some parting thoughts...
Does a text become more or less political over time?

11. References
Hatim, Basil & Ian Mason. (1990). Discourse and the Translator. London; New York: Longman.
Newmark, Peter. (1991). About Translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Reiss, Katerina. (1971/2004). Type, Kind and Individuality of Text: Decision-Making in Translation. (Susan Kitron, trans.) In Lawrence Venuti, ed. The Translation Studies Reader (2nd ed.). New York; London: Routledge.
Romagnuolo, Anna. (2009). Political discourse in translation: A corpus-based perspective on presidential inaugurals. Translation and Interpreting Studies 4(1): 1-30.
Schäffner, Christina. (2004). Political discourse analysis from the point of view of Translation Studies. Journal of Language and Politics 3(1):
Schäffner, Christina. (2007). Politics and Translation. In Piotr Kuhiwczak and Karin Littau, (Ed.), A Companion to Translation Studies (pp ). Clevedon; Tonawanda; North York: Multilingual Matters.
Trosborg, Anna. (1997). Translating Hybrid Political Texts. In Anna Trosborg (Ed.) Text Typology and Translation (pp ). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.