CANCELED Getting Weird: Integrating "Defamiliarization" into Bible Translation Studies

As Bible translation theory continues to shift from code models to relevance theory approaches, I advocate for introducing the concept of defamiliarization from literary theory to the field of Bible translation studies. In the domesticating-foreignizing framework carried over from code model theories of language, weirdness (from elements of translation which appear unusual or unexpected) is usually assumed to be a (negative) effect of a foreignizing translation choice. But the weirdness of translations does not simply come from the distance between two texts, languages, or cultures. It is unethical to continue to associate everything “weird” with the “foreign”.

Drawing on both translation theory and literary theory, I develop a theoretical framework in which weirdness manifests as increasing relevance expectations in at least four ways: (1) foreignization (2) defamiliarization as translation object (3) defamiliarization as translation principle, and (4) defamiliarization in translational intertextuality. I then demonstrate how this framework leads to more pertinent critiques of existing translations (using a case study of Robert Alter) and more honest understandings of our own work (using an analysis of my own translation of Psalm 23). This framework can provide the foundations for a diverse range of further research, including continuing to unpick the colonial implications of associating “weirdness” with the “foreign”, going beyond the binary of traditional vs contemporary translation, and describing the role of artistry in translation.