Thoughts

Luci Tapahonso and Laura Tohe: Ecopoetics of Navajo Poetry Amidst Climate Change

Lauren Clark — 2024-11-26

This article examines two Navajo Nation (Native American) female poets’ works in the context of environmental studies, ecopoetics and climate change. Luci Tapahonso and Laura Tohe remain critically neglected female poet laureates of the Navajo Nation for a variety of potential reasons mentioned herein. By considering ecopoetics and concerns with climate change from the early 1980s onwards, this article examines how Tohe and Tapahonso’s poetry from the same era reflects and engages with concurrent formal and environmental literary theories extending over thirty years. The bilingual and performative nature of the poetry is a formal testament to the difficult existence eked out by indigenous American dwellers of the Navajo Nation. Themes unveiled within poetry include social injustice, poverty, racism, extractivist enterprises on Navajo soil and environmental and spiritual pollution. Both poets, it is argued, deliberately situate their works in discourses of climate change, erosion, and environmental harm. How their poetry expands the field of ecopoetics and acts as an intervention against social and environmental injustices facing Navajo people is expounded.

Analysing Types and Translation Approaches of Tourist Signs at Four Hot Springs in Mae Hong Son Province, Thailand

Rossukon Rattanathada — 2024-11-26

With wellness tourism growing in popularity worldwide and Thailand drawing a lot of foreign tourists whose primary goal is improved physical and mental well-being, quality information signs at wellness tourist destinations are thus vital. This article attempts to identify the types of tourist signs and their English translations at four hot springs—Mae Um Long, Ban Nong Hang, Pha Bong, and Sai Ngam—in the northern province of Mae Hong Son, Thailand. Calori and Vanden-Eynden’s (2015) categorisation of sign types was applied as the analytical framework. Both literal translation and adaptation are employed for identifying the types of translation approaches used for the signs’ messages. The study found seven types of signs that adhered to Calori and Vanden-Eynden's taxonomy and six types that differed from it. Regarding the translation approaches, both literal translation and adaptation were identified, along with the three further sub-types of adaptation: addition, reduction, and interpretation. The findings can contribute to both academic and professional domains, especially tourism translation.

Human-Nonhuman Interdependent Relationship during Fictional Pandemics in The Animals in That Country (2020) and How High We Go in the Dark (2022) in Comparison with COVID-19

Tammapas Kalawantawanich — 2024-11-26

This paper examines the human-nonhuman relationship during the pandemic in McKay’s The Animals in That Country and Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark, pandemic narratives published during COVID-19. It employs material ecocriticism and ecophobia to examine this interspecific relationship. While the widespread nature of a virus unquestionably causes tremendous impact on humans and the natural environment, this paper proposes that the agential virus in a pandemic discloses and highlights the undeniable entangled relationship between humans and other living beings. During the viral pandemic crisis, both novels depict humans’ unwavering attempt to separate themselves from other living lives, for they fearfully believe that other animals are the origin of the virus. Both texts, nonetheless, illustrate the human need for nonhumans to survive this bleak situation. Since the two pandemic-related novels were published during the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper concludes that the human-nonhuman relationship reflected in fictional pandemics calls for a reconsideration of human-nonhuman entanglements to prevent future disasters.

Shifts, Traces, and Translator’s Visibility: A Deconstructive Analysis of an English Translation of The Brotherhood of Kaeng Khoi

Intira Bumrungsalee — 2024-11-26

Contemporary deconstructive translation studies are significantly influenced by Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction theory. Generally, deconstruction challenges traditional notions of meaning, language, and interpretation by emphasising the fluidity and multiplicity of meaning within texts. When applied to translation, deconstruction goes beyond the conventional aim of rendering a text from one language to another as faithfully as possible; instead, it prioritises the exploration of diverse interpretations and the creative potential of translation as well as seeking to expose the ambiguities and tensions inherent in both the source and target texts. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a deconstructive analysis of the English translation of Uthis Haemamool’s The Brotherhood of Kaeng Khoi (2012). The primary focus is on an analysis of translation shifts that reveal the translator’s agency. Another key point of discussion is non-standard language translation that requires the translator’s creative intervention and results in the translator’s traces. Ultimately, this paper aims to argue that, with an act of deconstructive translation, the translator also takes on the role of a creative collaborator.