News reporting and translation of the crimean conflict: the relevance of Critical Discourse Analysis for Translation Studies

This paper will underscore the relevance of Critical Discourse Analysis and narrative theory for Translation Studies by analyzing the news coverage of the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation in Crimea in March, 2014 – a period which can be defined as a “critical discourse moment” (Chilton 1987) for the commentary and debate it has stimulated both in the region and abroad. Translation, in today’s globalized world, is not only an act of intercultural communication but an integral part of political discourse. It is through translation that information is made available (or not) (cf. Schäffner 2004) and that particular interpretations of reality are promoted or contested on an international level. CDA can be of great value for the study of translation as “text” and as “act” in times of conflict (Tymoczko 2002), for it is primarily concerned with “the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk” (Van Dijk 2001: 352; see also Fairclough & Wodak 1997 and Wodak & Meyer 2001). Narrative theory, on the other hand, allows us to see how translation can either legitizime or contest existing political interpretations of violent conflict (Baker 2006). Our analysis will focus on the Russian news translation website InoSMI (ИноСМИ), a media project affiliated with RIA Novosti news agency that monitors and translates foreign press into Russian and features among the most read news websites in Russia. In order to understand how translation contributes to the creation of a particular discourse on the Crimean situation, we will look closely at the choices made by the translators and the editorial board on different levels: how is the news presented on the website? Which articles are selected for translation? To which textual and extratextual strategies do the translators resort? How are the opponents in the conflict identified? Which voices are heard and which muted? Special attention will be paid to strategies of recontextualization and framing