Remapping Habitus in Translation Studies
... The recent surge in sociological translation research has propelled the notion of agency into the scholarly debate (Milton & Bandia, 2009), but actor-centred methodologies tend to insufficiently account for the underlying inequalities generated by the dynamics of capitalist globalisation. Bourdieu's ideas, however, have facilitated a better understanding of the ways in which translation both shapes and is shaped by solidified yet also fluid and emergent regimes of power (Hanna, 2016;Inghilleri, 2005;Vorderobermeier, 2014). The three economies of translation that we wish to highlight in our discussion bear relations to Bourdieu's approach, because (1) an agent's habitus is embedded within a given libidinal economy, (2) it is dependent upon forms of capital that are in turn increasingly dependent on the shifting technological provisions within the digital economy, and (3) it is ultimately tied to the capitalist logic within the globalised and globalising political economy. ...
... The spotlight that translation research has placed on the libidinal manifestations of the human condition certainly helps to advance our understanding of translation. Sociological research in particular has taken critical note of Foucault's theory of power (Nakai & Solomon, 2006) and of Bourdieu's conception of the subject as a confluence of socially and perceptually constituted dispositions known as habitus (Vorderobermeier, 2014). The postmodern 'libidinal' perspective has given us much to think about with regard to both identity and agency. ...
... To take the latter, in 1998, Simeoni's call to heed 'translatorial habitus' gave rise to numerous conceptual and applied studies, which attempted to describe, criticize, or integrate this notion into other analytical frameworks (see, e.g. Heilbron & Sapiro, 2002;Shilling, 2004;Wolf & Fukari, 2007;Vorderobermeier, 2014;Robinson, 2015). Habitus, according to Bourdieu (1984, p. 170), refers to an individual's (or a collective's) dispositions which result from the interplay between free will and social structures and are not fixed but shaped by past events. ...
This article explores the concept of ‘translator’s posture’ within translation studies, drawing on research from literary sociology. It first reviews the work of scholars such as Alain Viala and Jérôme Meizoz, who have theorized the notion of ‘authorial posture ’ – the way writers present and position themselves within the literary field. The article then evaluates how posture materially manifests ‘translatorial habitus’, the formation of which is not observable. Therefore, we construct a multidimensional framework for analyzing translators’ postures, both textually and socially. By observing how translators occupy a position in their domain of practice, the study of postures, or stances, promises to offer new analytical affordances for translation research, complementing existing approaches focused on sociological factors shaping the translation process and product, and the actors. Teaching habitus directly, while auspicial, is not feasible. However, it is more plausible and feasible for aspiring translators to be taught how to acquire a translator’s posture, and project a capable image of themselves. The development of such presentational skills may be a valuable component of translator education, within and without academic institutions.
... (2007) Chief among the sociological theories and models that were borrowed by the field of translation studies are Bourdieu's theoretical frameworks, Latour's Actor-Network Theory (ANT), and Luhmann's theory of social systems (Buzelin 2005;Inghilleri 2005Inghilleri , 2009Tyulenev 2012Tyulenev , 2013. These theories, in turn, have brought in several key terms such as field, habitus, capital, actor, and network, each of which constitutes an area of investigation in the sociology of translation (Inghilleri 2003;Gouanvic 2005;Vorderobermeier 2014). ...
Using data from abstracts and methodology sections of a total of 48 MA theses and PhD dissertations on the sociology of translation in Iran, this study renders a map of the 2009-2022 postgraduate research trends in the field. The researchers focused on, among other issues, the frequency of investigated areas and their subdivisions as well as the most frequently used translation theories and models by the researchers. The findings of the study suggested that while the number of studies on the subject was relatively smaller than other investigated translation areas in the country, research on the sociology of translation remained popular over the 14-year period, witnessing a marked increase in 2019 and then followed by a sharp decrease presumably due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, Bourdieusian theoretical frameworks and context-oriented research methodologies were vastly employed in the studies. The authors have concluded that the subject is still unmapped and open to many avenues for investigation in the Iranian context. Implications of the findings were discussed. Finally, a tentative map of postgraduate research on the sociology of translation in Iran was proposed.
... This gap, both in terms of the work carried out and the state of previous research, has drawn the attention of translation scholars who have recognised the need to place greater emphasis on research dedicated to translators, particularly focusing on their habitus (see Vorderobermeier, 2014). Sapiro (2014, p. 83) also stressed this, stating that investigating translators as a professional group is ' […] an emerging research domain which opens up to comparative approaches between countries and between different translational activities.' ...
This paper aims to establish a profile of Polish translators who apply CAT tools in their professional practice. The investigation identifies six primary categories, shedding light on the translators themselves, their experience, and interactions with specialised software. The first category delves into demographic data, analysing age groups and gender distribution among the users. The second category focuses on basic data encompassing the translators' experience with programs and their preferred foreign languages. The paper also explores the link between higher education and CAT tool proficiency, examining fields of study, educational institutions, specialised training, and opinions on the integration of this technology into academic curricula. In order to assess the non-academic aspects of learning and applying such software, it investigates the translators' engagement in training courses, certifications, and sources of qualifications improvement. Various methods for acquiring skills in CAT tools are also explored, such as online webinars and practical translation practice.The results reveal that the translators are rather experienced users of the software, they rely heavily on such programs, employing them in various types of translations, mostly non-literary texts. Translators perceive them positively, acknowledging their contribution to accelerating work processes and improving competitiveness in the translation market. The use of CAT tools is expected to increase, emphasising the need to incorporate these tools into translator training programs and adapt study plans to accommodate their further popularisation. The data was collected through an anonymous survey and provides insights into the preferences, habits, and perspectives of Polish translators using CAT tools. This paper serves as a foundation for further research and comparison with other translator groups, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the translator's profession in the context of translation technology utilisation.
... The conducted research follows current trends in translation studies, especially in the sociology of translation, and refers to the need for further investigation of translators themselves and their habitus (see Vorderobermeier 2014). It also stands in line with the observation made by Schögler (2017: 405), who noted that the sociology of translation ʻcontinues to shape translator training and professional self-perception of translators by revealing the complexities of this endeavourʼ. ...
As audiovisual productions are becoming increasingly popular, the need for specialized translators in this field is growing. This study aims to create a profile of a typical Polish audiovisual translator who officially delivers commissioned renditions for clients. The study reports the results of an online survey with 56 questions in seven domains to gather data from the intended research group. The domains covered basic information, educational background, actual translation education, individual ways of mastering audiovisual translation skills, translatorsʼ preferences, workspace, and aspects of teamwork. The results of the profile indicate that audiovisual translation is the predominant type of work for an average Polish translator. However, those who graduated in foreign languages had no opportunity to attend ATV courses at university. Most translators had not completed any translation-oriented postgraduate studies or specialized translation courses, but preferred a less institutionalized form of self-education. The average translator delivers target subtitles but also provides other types of AVT, in a majority of renditions from English into Polish. SubtitleEdit is the most commonly used translation tool, while CAT tools and online services like Google Translate are avoided. Translators tend to work alone but cooperate with external proofreaders. This profile can help establish specialized profiles for other domains of translation and compare them in cross-linguistic, national or cultural contexts.
... 27-28) As publicações dedicadas às perspetivas sociológicas da tradução (e.g. Angelelli, 2014;Heilbron & Sapiro, 2007;Inghilleri, 2014;Pym, Shlesinger, & Jettmarová, 2006;Tyulenev, 2014;Vorderobermeier, 2014;M. Wolf & Fukari, 2007) demonstram o dinamismo que esta área de investigação adquiriu nas últimas duas décadas e oferecem um vasto conjunto de propostas e metodologias. ...
The main objective of this study is to investigate the internationalization of contemporary Portuguese children’s literature, considering phenomena of mediation and transfer. The corpus comprises the catalogue of Planeta Tangerina, a publishing house that has gained international recognition and overcame linguistic and cultural barriers by publishing its works in a wide range of countries with very different cultural, educational, and editorial backgrounds. Following an interdisciplinary theoretical framework and methodological approach, which integrates the domains of Literary Studies, Translation Studies, and Publishing Studies, one aims to answer the following investigative questions: in the globalized world of the 21st century, how are foreign rights negotiated and which factors influence the negotiation? Which literary themes and formal and stylistic features are more likely to appeal to foreign publishers? Are they different depending on the target country, culture, or language? What are the most relevant textual, visual, and peritextual adaptations and the main translation strategies used by intercultural mediators? What do these adaptations reveal about the target mediators’ perception of what children’s literature should be — especially regarding the balance of didactic, ludic, and aesthetic features — and their evaluation of children’s interests and reading competences? Does internationalization affect the posterior Portuguese production? Do authors try to pursue and conform to specific international standards? Overall, this study contributes to the characterization of contemporary Portuguese children’s literature, by analysing and portraying the production of one of the country’s most prominent publishing houses. It also sheds light both on the editorial processes involved in the importation and exportation of literary texts and on the role of the mediators that take part in the cultural transfer, especially the editor and the publisher. Additionally, the study identifies and correlates the factors that influence the internationalization of literary works, including state policies for funding translations; literary prizes and fairs; linguistic, geographic, and cultural proximity between linguistic areas; affinity between publishing houses; and the proactive attitude of Portuguese mediators, mainly fostering international communication and promoting professional and interpersonal networks. Lastly, this work provides an overview of the most used translation strategies and procedures, portraying trends by regions and linguistic areas.
... Bourdieu's rich theory has a broad spectrum of disciplines from "sociology, anthropology, education, cultural history, linguistics, philosophy" and cuts across a wide range of fields of "specialised sociological inquiry" such as schools, religion, politics, intellectuals, to mention but a few (Wacquant, 1989: 26). But in translation studies it is his habitus that is more effectively researched, (see for instance , Inghilleri 2003;Semioni, 1998;Vorderobermeier, 2014;. ...
This thesis presents a new perspective on power relations in translation by
introducing Retro-cultural Translation (RCT), a concept developed for this work to
capture a subtle case of inverse translation of cultural writing. Examined in the Arabic
translations of Anglophone books about Iraq following the 2003 war, this concept
demonstrates the potential to reverse the power balance on various levels.
Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, the study argues that the
language and the cultural aspects the RCT texts consist of are owned by the native
culture. It contends that such a possession of capital can allow this type of translation
to disrupt the cultural capital gain that some scholars claim to flow from English, the
dominant language, into other peripheral languages, Arabic in this case.
RCT in the context of the US-led war against Iraq materialises in three levels of
dominance: that of English over Arabic, of the source text over the target text, and of
the invader over the invaded. By integrating a postcolonial perspective into cultural
translation paradigms, this study attempts to demonstrate if these relations could be
reversed and, hence, whether the accumulation of cultural capital is inactivated.
... TS scholars have drawn on the concepts of influential sociologists (for a survey, see Wolf [2010]). The most frequently applied sociological theory is Bourdieu's (1990) theory of practice, mainly his notion of habitus, introduced to TS by Simeoni (1998) and then applied and discussed by others (for surveys, see Sela-Sheffy [2005], Vorderobermeier [2014], and Xu and Chu [2015]), as it makes the connection of the individual and social levels possible: ...
The aim of this study is to present a methodology of joint translatological–sociological cooperation in data collection, analysis, and interpretation to study translation strategies and norms. In order to identify norms, research cannot be restricted to translations: it is imperative to include translators and their practice as well. Thus, key research methods drawn on in this study are textual analyses and semi-structured interviews. The use of these two methods allows for the merging of the observable results of translation practice with translators’ social contextualisation and their reflection on practice (doxa). This method aims to answer the following questions: How do translators translate? Why do they translate the way they do? What do they really do when translating?
... The role of such sociocultural patterns has been discussed in translations studies for decades (e.g. Angelelli, 2014;Chesterman, 2016;Halverson, 2014;Hanna, 2016;Harding & Cortes, 2018;Hermans, 2019;Hermans, 2014;Lefevere, 2016;Maitland, 2017;Pym, 2017;Tymoczko, 2014;Tyulenev 2014;Venuti, 2018;Venuti, 2017;Vorderobermeier, 2014). For example, Tymoczko (2014) in her extensive research on cultural translation reflects in detail on what she calls 'signature concepts of a culture', which, according to the scholar, (Belyanin, 2000), style and even genre (Tomashevskij, 1996) of a literary text. ...
... Użyte w niniejszym artykule podstawowe pojęcia socjologii tłumaczenia zostały zaczerpnięte z socjologii Pierre'a Bourdieu (1998) oraz z jej zastosowań w przekładoznawstwie zarówno z perspektywy teoretycznej (np. Simeoni 1998;Inghilleri 2005;Gouanvic 2007;Wolf 2007;Vorderobermeier 2014), jak i praktycznej (np. Gouanvic 1995;Meylaerts 2010;Sela-Sheffy 2005;Xu, Chu 2015). ...
... In a more restricted field, the habitus must be particularly attuned to the shared set of customs, regularities and beliefs of the field (doxa). In later studies, however, Simeoni's position was criticised, as a more expansive view of the translation field and translatorial habitus was developed (see overview in Hanna 2016:7-9;Inghilleri 2005;Vorderobermeier 2014 (Hanna 2016:201). Although translation practice takes a vast variety of forms today, in the next section I will illustrate how Simeoni's stance is applicable in many situations, including OSM and UGC platforms, in which translation is functioning within a specific field of production and does not manifest its own rules as a field. ...
This article presents a socio-cultural study of user-generated translation (UGT) mediated by YouTube, a video-sharing platform and a social network. It discusses the issues of the theoretical and methodological framing of UGT and online social media (OSM) research. The reported study attempts to uncover the mechanisms which engender and foster a new type of audiovisual-translation practice, specific to OSM. To do this, it employs the explanatory power of Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus and capital reframed for digital-media research. The empirical investigation concentrates on the phenomenon of translation-focused YouTube channels featuring user-generated or informal Russian-language voiceover renditions and versions of popular YouTube content with embedded subtitles. Based on longitudinal observation of the ten most popular UGT-focused channels, the study maps the user-translators' practices onto the structure of the online field. It uncovers a close link between translation and a YouTube-specific struggle for legitimization of derivative or remixed content. It also tracks how the pursuit of attention capital (measured in video views, comments and channel subscriptions) defines the strategies of user-translators as agents in the platform-wide online field. It is argued that translating already popular English language content serves as a springboard for user-translators who eventually start producing their own original, non-translated content.
This study examines literary translators' ontological narratives and how translatorship is embedded in their life-stories. Translatorship refers to how they portray themselves as literary translators and what translation as an activity means for them. The data constitute of four life-story narratives by contemporary Finnish literary translators collected as a part of a wider interview project in late 2018 and early 2019. Based on an earlier study (Heino, 2021) translators identify themselves either as mediator- or writer-translators. This study focuses on the narratives of two mediator- and two writer-translators who all have a Master's degree in Translation Studies and analyses how they utilize selective appropriation and causal emplotment to construct a coherent narrative that reflects their experiences of becoming and being a literary translator. The analysis demonstrated that to negotiate the challenging working conditions and low status of the profession, the mediator-translators emphasise the ethos of hard work and professional qualifications whereas the writer-translators aim to promote qualities such as innate talent, vocation, and a way of life.
This article presents selected contemporary answers to the old question of the need for literary translation from Slovak into Czech. It also draws attention to the implications of the question of the legitimacy of this translation. To describe the place occupied by translated Slovak literature in the Czech literary field, I propose the practical application of the language of sociology of literature.
This article has its starting point in an apparently marginal undertaking: Bridget Fowler’s translation of Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘Comprendre’, a methodologically oriented chapter which appeared at the end of the collectively authored book La Misère du monde. Its objective is to show how translation, beyond its apparent marginality, is in fact a key component of sociological practice, and inseparable from sociological interpretation and theorizing. Because of this, translation can provide an original and unexpected point of view that sheds light on little considered sociological matters and relations which usually escape from critical consideration. First, Fowler’s translation is discussed in the context of her critical engagement with Bourdieu’s sociology. Second, sociological approaches to the mostly neglected craft of academic translation are examined. Third, the project of a reflexive sociology is related to that of reflexive translation through what can be characterized as a translational sociology.
Socially driven research questions require a suite of theoretical and methodological approaches to understand the products, processes, and people involved in translation and interpreting (TI) activities in embedded and situated contexts. In some instances, these approaches are drawn from the field of sociology, while in others, the boundaries of sociology as a discipline have been challenged in order to account for translational activities and their role in society. This chapter addresses commonly adopted research methodologies and data collection methods used to study sociological aspects of TI. First, the chapter establishes some of the ontological and epistemological assumptions employed when researching TI, followed by a review of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches to research that align socially driven research questions with data collection methods and the associated research data. Topics include surveys, interviews, ethnography, experimental and quasi-experimental research, natural experiments, and analytic approaches that draw on existing datasets. The chapter concludes with a reflection on research ethics, outlining important tenets that researchers should consider throughout the research endeavour, from initial conceptualisations to the dissemination of the results.
This article reports on a research project that elicited translators’ emotional narratives of their work with the aim of better understanding the contemporary scene of professional translation. The respondents (n = 102) represent EU translators, Finnish professional translators and translation students from two countries (Ireland and Finland). The method of data collection was “love letter/hate letter”, an exploratory tool borrowed from user experience research (Hanington & Martin 2012: 114). A total of 148 letters drafted by the respondents has been analysed, and the findings are contrasted with the notion of habitus put forward by Daniel Simeoni in his classic essay from 1998. A content and discourse analysis of translators’ predominantly positive emotions, their spatial discourses, preference for efficiency and yearning for freedom largely supports Simeoni’s hypothesis of translators’ voluntary subservience, but the results also suggest that his model is too simplified to fully capture the variability of empirical data.
This article outlines some main developments that have led to the recent emergence of research on the ‘sociology of translation.’ Such research adopts approaches from the broader social sciences, particularly sociology, but is also directly related to the so-called ‘cultural turn’ within translation studies. The scope of translation research has subsequently expanded to include cultural and power-related issues, creating common ground with the social sciences both in terms of how translation is conceptualized and the methods used to study it. Translation has come to be understood as a socially situated relation with difference, just as translation practitioners and researchers have been understood as complex, situated agents acting within and across the social spheres that condition cross-cultural, multilingual exchange. This orientation opens the way for new discoveries at the intersection of translation studies and the social sciences – work Translation in Society seeks to advance.
The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Methodology provides a comprehensive overview of methodologies in translation studies, including both well-established and more recent approaches.
The Handbook is organised into three sections, the first of which covers methodological issues in the two main paradigms to have emerged from within translation studies, namely skopos theory and descriptive translation studies. The second section covers multidisciplinary perspectives in research methodology and considers their application in translation research. The third section deals with practical and pragmatic methodological issues. Each chapter provides a summary of relevant research, a literature overview, critical issues and topics, recommendations for best practice, and some suggestions for further reading.
Bringing together over 30 eminent international scholars from a wide range of disciplinary and geographical backgrounds, this Handbook is essential reading for all students and scholars involved in translation methodology and research.
This chapter introduces the reader to theories of the body, a topic with a rich history and one whose importance is magnified via the contemporary fascination with the politics of bodily representation. The chapter covers the key contributions to knowledge in this field, including Mary Douglas’ anthropological approach to the body; Michel Foucault’s more disciplinary approach to bodies and bio-power focusing on the ways in which bodies become labelled and marginalised—for example, ‘disabled’, ‘abnormal’ and so on; the concept of habitus as developed by both Pierre Bourdieu and Norbert Elias, as well as theoretical developments relating to gender and gender theory, including the work of Judith Butler on the relation between the body and sexuality.
Much attention in Interpreting studies has been devoted to the Nuremberg trials, a landmark event for our profession since they are considered the birth of simultaneous interpretation. In turn, the role played by interpreters at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 has raised considerably less interest among academics, although the visible functions of scribes, translators and advisors uniquely performed by interpreters at this historical moment made them relevant agents in the geopolitical configuration of subsequent international relations. The Paris Peace Conference was an important milestone for two closely intertwined disciplines: International Relations and Conference Interpreting studies. For the former, it set the departing point for drafting treaties that promoted the creation of international institutions that would later become decisive in world politics. For the latter, it meant the institutionalisation of this profession in the political arena, as this was one of the first occasions in which the role of interpreters was made visible to the very powerful stakeholders involved in decision-making processes.
This proposal will look into the role of diplomatic interpreters as tools for exerting symbolic power (Bourdieu, 1991, p. 170) in the negotiation of the Treaty of Versailles, and the repercussions thereof in reframing the totalizing grand narrative (Lyotard, 1979) that prevailed in politics throughout the interwar period, on the basis of the following assumption: the choice of English and French as the Paris Peace Conference main working languages (and the subsequent exclusion of German) had direct impact on the ensuing conformation of alliances and animosities among the parties involved in the negotiations and, therefore, in world politics. An interdisciplinary approach drawing on sources from International Relations, Interpreting Studies, and, most specifically, the dynamics between language and power addressed by Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1989; Van Dijk, 1998; Chilton & Schäffner, 2006) will be used to analyse a corpus of minutes of conferences organised by the League of Nations between the years 1918 and 1943 that run like a red thread in describing the role of interpreters as co-constructors of political metanarratives.
La traduction d’un ouvrage est généralement accompagnée de changements au plan matériel. Dans le cas des manuels d’introduction à la sociologie, ces transformations liées à l’importation d’un titre dans d’autres espaces culturels et linguistiques n’ont, à notre connaissance, jamais retenu l’attention. Dans le présent article, nous examinons les composantes physiques de certaines versions en anglais et en français d’un manuel d’introduction à la sociologie, Invitation to Sociology (Berger, 1963). Plus précisément, nous nous penchons d’abord sur les dimensions matérielles de la première version publiée de l’ouvrage, pour évaluer son influence potentielle sur les trajectoires des versions ultérieures. Puis, nous analysons les couvertures et le format d’une version adaptée pour le Royaume-Uni (Berger, 1966) en lien avec les traditions visuelles éditoriales de ce pays, avant de réaliser le même travail pour les différentes éditions des deux traductions françaises (Berger, 1973b, 1977, 2006b, 2014). Deux conclusions se dégagent de ce travail exploratoire sur la matérialité des traductions de manuels d’introduction à la sociologie. D’une part, les aspects matériels de la première version ont eu, dans notre étude de cas, un effet important sur la circulation subséquente du manuel et sur sa traduction. D’autre part, les transformations matérielles qui marquent les versions d’Invitation to Sociology au Royaume-Uni et en France laissent entrevoir des changements relatifs au public cible et à la fonction assignée à cet ouvrage par leurs maisons d’édition respectives.
In this article I apply the concept of narrative identity to examine how the translatorship and professional identity of contemporary Finnish literary translators emerge from their life-story narratives. The data were collected by interviewing ten literary translators in 2018 and 2019. In the analysis my aim is to identify key themes in the translators’ narratives of becoming and being a literary translator. Moreover, my intention is to examine if formal translator training has an effect on the way the informants construct their professional identity as translators. According to the analysis, the professional identity and translatorship of these translators is very much defined by their love for reading and literature, and how rewarding and fulfilling they find the work itself. However, there was no striking difference in the professional identity of those informants who had studied translation and those who had entered the field some other way. The most significant finding was how six out of ten translators consider themselves as writers and creative artists, whereas four translators see themselves more as mediators. It could be argued that for both groups the translatorship is located in-between; the mediator-translators position themselves between the source text and its author and the target reader, and the writer-translators between being an author/artist and a translator.
Desde una perspectiva hispánica y comparatista, revisitamos el fenómeno de la ausencia de consenso en la terminología de los estudios de traducción, en particular en cuanto al uso de los conceptos clave original, texto fuente y versión. Reflexionamos cómo la supuesta sinonimia entre texto original y texto fuente y entre versión y traducción puede incidir en el rigor de la investigación, dificultar el trabajo de la crítica e impactar la didáctica de la traducción. Hacemos esta reflexión sin fines normativos, pero sí con la intención de convocar a un posible consenso en aras de una mayor precisión, entendimiento e incluso una discrepancia argumentada.
This volume presents the results of three editions of DOTTSS Doctoral and Teacher Training Summer School. The school is an international joint initiative between five universities: University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), University of Turku (Finland), University of Granada (Spain), Boğaziçi University (Turkey) and Tampere University (Finland), as well as University of Eastern Finland prior to Professor Kaisa Koskinen’s transfer to Tampere in 2017. The venue of the school rotates annually between the organizing universities. Since its previous publication in 2016, New Horizons in Translation Research and Education is now hosted under a new publication series, namely Tampere Studies in Language, Translation and Literature.
The edited volume contains 10 research articles:
Sonja Kitanovska-Kimovska, Self- and Peer Assessment for Summative Purposes in Translator Training. Validity and Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions
Erja Vottonen, The realisation of foreignisation, domestication and “the golden mean” in students’ translation process
Marta Fidalgo, A Text-Linguistic Approach to Translation Standards. Implications for Revision in the Portuguese Context
Miia Santalahti, Ideology in Neutrality. Case study: Soviet discourse in bilateral treaties
Janž Snoj, Translating Ideology with Ideology. The Case of Sienkiewicz’s Novel In Desert and Wilderness and Its Slovenian Translations
Annamari Korhonen, Representations of Gender and The Flow of Events in Pride And Prejudice and a Recent Finnish Translation: Looking for translational norms
Anu Heino, Finnish Literary Translators and the Illusio of the Field
Marina Peršurić Antonić, Reception of English Translations of Croatian Tourist Brochures: A pilot study
Antarleena Basu, Translating Trauma Fiction: A Comparative Study of the Strategies and Challenges of Translating Trauma Fiction from Bengali to English
Tadej Pahor, Undergraduate and Graduate Writing in Translation. Making sense of corpus data
A History of Modern Translation Knowledge is the first attempt to map the coming into being of modern thinking about translation. It breaks with the well-established tradition of viewing history through the reductive lens of schools, theories, turns or interdisciplinary exchanges. It also challenges the artificial distinction between past and present and it sustains that the latter’s historical roots go back far beyond the 1970s. Translation Studies is but part of a broader set of discourses on translation we propose to label “translation knowledge”. This book concentrates on seven processes that make up the history of modern translation knowledge: generating, mapping, internationalising, historicising, analysing, disseminating and applying knowledge. All processes are covered by 58 domain experts and allocated over 55 chapters, with cross-references. This book is indispensable reading for advanced Master- and PhD-students in Translation Studies who need background information on the history of their field, with relevance for Europe, the Americas and large parts of Asia. It will also interest students and scholars working in cultural and social history.
Translation and Practice Theory is a timely and theoretically innovative study linking professional practice and translation theory, showing the usefulness of a practice-theoretical approach in addressing some of the challenges that the professional world of translation is currently facing, including, for example, the increasing deployment of machine translation.
Focusing on the key aspects of translation practices, Olohan provides the reader with an in-depth understanding of how those practices are performed, as translators interact with people, technologies and other material resources in the translation workplace. The practice-theoretical perspective helps to describe and explain the socio-material complexities of present-day commercial translation practice but also offers a productive approach for studies of translation and interpreting practices in other settings and periods.
Translation is commonly regarded as a service both in translation industry and within Translation Studies (TS), but the question of what makes translation a service has not been widely explored. This conceptual paper looks at non-literary translation as a service, applying a paradigm of Service-Dominant S-D logic (S-D logic) to the field. Practices in translation service provision are analysed using the Facilities-Transformation-Usage framework (FTU framework), designed on the premises of S-D logic, as a tool. The paper shows that translation practices in general comply with this theoretical perspective, making translation, by definition, a service, and opens a window into the aspects that make it a service. Some current practices in the field do not, however, meet the criteria of an ideal service. These practices are discussed briefly in order to pinpoint, from the service theoretical point of view, where the problems lie.
Even though contemporary Finnish literary translators are very dissatisfied with the pay they receive from their work, they are very satisfied with their working conditions in general. Thus, in this article I investigate what attracts literary translators to continue working in the field of literary translation if monetary gain is only secondary for them. I employ the Bourdieusian concepts of disinterestedness and illusio to examine why the translators find the field and working in it so attractive that remuneration seems to be only secondary for them. The data were collected in 2016 through an online questionnaire that was distributed only to Finnish translators who translate literature into Finnish. The analysis concentrated on the issues the respondents found either decreasing or increasing their work satisfaction. The qualitative analysis was complemented with quantitative analysis of such variables as age, satisfaction with the fees and whether the respondents work as full-time or part-time literary translators. The results reveal that the translators show tendency for disinterestedness of economic capital as they prefer utilizing and accumulating social and cultural capital over economic one. Thus, for these translators the illusio of the field is in finding satisfaction in the work itself.
Este artículo explora la construcción de la subjetividad en el discurso literario autotraducido. Según sostendremos, la noción de retrabajo del ethos previo, definida por Amossy (2001, 2010, 2014) como el conjunto de elementos y procedimientos sociodiscursivos que le permiten al locutor restaurar, modificar o transformar en un nuevo intercambio la imagen que el interlocutor pueda tener respecto del orador, resulta productiva para reflexionar acerca de la naturaleza distintiva de la práctica discursiva conocida como autotraducción (Grutman y Von Bolderen, 2014; Ferrara y Grutman, 2016). Nuestra propuesta teórico-metodológica será puesta a prueba a través del análisis de dos ensayos de la escritora puertorriqueña Rosario Ferré (1990, 1991a). Este trabajo persigue dos objetivos: articular una propuesta que, a partir de la noción de retrabajo del ethos explique la singularidad de la subjetividad en el discurso autotraducido y, en el plano del análisis, aportar al estudio de la autotraducción en el campo de las literaturas latinas de Estados Unidos.
This volume presents recent research that follows translators, interpreters and translation project managers into their various work contexts and environments. It extends the scope of analysis of translation research from individuals and texts to collectives in their social and material worlds. Particular attention is paid to current translation and interpreting practice, the genesis of translations, the handling and completion of translation projects in real workplaces and the factors that shape these translation/interpreting situations. Covering fields as diverse as technical and literary translation, transcreation and church interpreting, the chapters show just how varied translation and interpreting processes and workplaces can prove to be. They provide new insights into the effects of the increasing use of technology in the translation workplace and the manifold requirements placed on translators and interpreters in a heterogeneous and fast-changing field of practice. Originally published as special issue of Translation Spaces 6:1 (2017).
This study examines representativeness by compiling a sample of translations for textual analyses and a sample of translators for interviews. The process of achieving representativeness is exemplified by reporting on each case. The investigation is grounded in ongoing research on the strategies of literary translation from English to Czech that combines comparative text analyses and biographical interviews. The research objective is to generalise the strategies to the level of Czech literary translation norms. It is thus necessary to work with samples that are (1) representative to allow for such a level of generalisation and (2) of sizes that enable feasible analyses and interviews (i.e. the samples are not too extensive). The applied methodology pursues the fulfilment of both conditions through the three following steps: (a) Determination of the target population size and calculation of the sample size through statistical methods, (b) creation of a representative sample through probability sampling, analysis, and description, and (c) purposive sampling to obtain samples of texts and translators that represent the research intent.
Recent decades have seen a focus on the translator as a socialised individual as one approach favoured in Translation Studies. Scholars have employed sociological concepts such as habitus (socio-cultural conditioning) and field (environment) as methodological tools in empirical translation research, yielding new and interesting perspectives on the process of translation. In the field of Qur'an hermeneutics, however, such methodological tools have not been applied systematically. The present article constitutes an initial attempt to address this omission, by delineating Muhammad Asad's habitus against the backdrop of his socio-political, cultural, and intellectual background in order to explore the significance of its impact on his The Message of the Qur'an. It will contextualise Asad's rendition of the Qur'an into English through comparative critical intertextual and paratextual analysis, thereby introducing the ‘realm of sociology of translation’, a Translation Studies perspective, into Qur'anic studies.
This chapter gives a frame for this book and aims to propose an agent and process-oriented approach to the analysis of literary translation and cultural mediators. It builds on cross-border studies and their criticism of a nation-centred research lens and deals with so-called mediations and mediators. Specifically, we analyse the role of cultural mediators as customs officers or smugglers (or both in different proportions) in so-called peripheral cultures. The chapter presents the focus of this collective volume, which lies not only in a variety of agents, spaces and translation flows in less studied settings, but also in asking questions about intra- and international networks and less typical patterns in the migration of people and texts, as well as atypical channels of transfer. The chapter advances some insights into an under-analysed body of actors and institutions promoting intercultural transfer in often multilingual and less studied venues such as Trieste, Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, Shanghai, Lahore, and Cape Town.
Whether a student, an instructor, a researcher, or just someone interested in understanding the roots of sociology and our social world, The Cambridge Handbook of Sociology, Volume 2 is for you. This second volume of the Handbook covers specialties within sociology and interdisciplinary studies that relate to sociology. It includes perspectives on race, class, feminist theories, special topics (e.g. the sociology of nonhuman animals, quality of life/social indicators research, the sociology of risk, the sociology of disaster, the sociology of mental health, sociobiology, the sociology of science and technology, the sociology of violence, environmental justice, and the sociology of food), the sociology of the self, the sociology of the life course, culture and behavior, sociology's impact on society, and related fields (e.g. criminology, criminal justice studies, social work, social psychology, sociology of translation and translation studies, and women and gender studies). Each essay includes a discussion of how the respective subfield contributes to the overall discipline and to society. Written by some of the most respected scholars, teachers, and public sociologists in the world, the essays are highly readable and authoritative.
Vaikka kääntämisen sosiologian tutkimus on viime vuosina saanut kansainvälisesti runsaastikin huomiota, Suomessa nimenomaan kirjallisuuden kääntäjiä ei ole vielä juurikaan tutkittu tästä näkökulmasta. Tässä artikkelissa tarkastellaan kirjallisuuden kääntäjien symbolista pääomaa sekä sitä minkälaista pääomaa kirjallisuuden kääntämisen kentällä tarvitaan, kuinka kääntäjät ovat sen hankkineet ja minkälaisia toimin-tamahdollisuuksia pääoma heille kentällä antaa. Lisäksi artikkelissa sivutaan tutkimukseen osallistuneiden kääntäjien habitusta. Aineisto kerättiin marraskuussa 2016 Suomen kääntäjien ja tulkkien liiton kirjalli-suuden kääntäjien jaoston ja Kääntäjien ammattiosasto KAOS ry:n kautta lähetetyn verkkokyselyn avulla, johon saatiin 87 vastausta. Kyselyllä selvitettiin kirjallisuuden kääntäjien taustoja, koulutusta, alalle pää-tymistä ja tämän hetkistä työtilannetta. Johtopäätöksenä voidaan sanoa, että kyselyyn vastanneiden am-mattikääntäjien habitus ja toimiminen kentällä rakentuu vahvasti akateemisen koulutuksen ja sekä pääosin sen kautta saavutetun kielitaidon sekä ajan myötä työkokemuksen kautta saavutetulle kulttuuriselle ja so-siaaliselle pääomalle.
This paper identifies several stages of international management scholarship as multilingual in character as the conception and execution of research projects, whether empirical or theoretical, frequently require the use of several languages. These multilingual practices are contrasted with the monolingual nature of management research at the stage of disseminating newly generated knowledge: a stage that is dominated by the exclusive and taken-for-granted use of the English language. The paper challenges the ontological and epistemological assumption such monolingual practice is based upon and opens the ‘black box’ of international management research by asking questions about its language-based processes, which remain muted and ignored. In concluding, a turn to translation is proposed in order to harness the creativity inherent in multilingual research, while preserving the role of English as a shared language of knowledge.
This article illuminates the role that translation can play in the study of the history of publishing and culture. It analyses Einaudi’s strategies for publishing contemporary foreign poetry in 1960s Italy. Interpreting unpublished archival data from a Bourdieusian perspective, the article reassesses the role played by Einaudi in the political and poetic movements of the day, arguing that poetry translation was instrumental in modifying the publishing, literary and political field, and in redefining, transnationally, the intellectual identity of the Einaudi editors. The study of the history of publishing from the perspective of translation, in conjunction with a sociological methodology, not only discloses the position taken by the Italian publisher within the field, but ultimately provides an alternative historical account of how culture was shaped in post-Second World War Italy.
Current literature on translation sociology often attributes the competitive disposition among freelance literary translators to a drive for symbolic capital. At the same time, co-operation has mostly been researched within the context of non-literary translation. This article aims to contribute to debates on the transposability of competitive and co-operative dispositions among freelance literary translators by examining a case study from Turkey. In an unprecedented collaborative project, 83 translators came together to render Sei Shōnagon’s classic The Pillow Book into Turkish as Yastıkname. The translation process coincided with the establishment of ÇEVBİR, the Professional Association of Translators in Turkey, which champions translators’ rights, promoting professionalization and co-operation. The study concludes that in a reputation-based industry, literary translators strive to garner more status for themselves while simultaneously engaging in co-operative networks to access and share a variety of resources and to enhance solidarity.
For decades, Translation Studies has been perceived not merely as a discipline but rather as an interdiscipline, a trans-disciplinary field operating across a number of boundaries. This has implied and still implies a considerable amount of interaction with other disciplines. There is often much more awareness of and attention to translation and Translation Studies than many translation scholars are aware of. This volume crosses the boundaries to other disciplines and explicitly sets up dialogic formats: every chapter is co-authored both by a specialist from Translation Studies and a scholar from another discipline with a special interest in translation. Sixteen disciplinary dialogues about and around translation are the result, sometimes with expected partners, such as scholars from Computational Linguistics, History and Comparative Literature, but sometimes also with less expected interlocutors, such as scholars from Biosemiotics, Game Localization Research and Gender Studies. The volume not only challenges the boundaries of Translation Studies but also raises issues such as the institutional division of disciplines, the cross-fertilization of a given field, the trends and turns within an interdiscipline.
In 1967, Prentice Hall publishers released the first edition of Marketing Management by Philip Kotler. Since then and through more than four decades, this title has established itself as a bestseller with an exceptional history of transformations. As a canonical graduate-level textbook in a popular discipline in which textbooks are myriad, Marketing Management can be taken as an archetype for the study of translation practices in higher education publishing - an influential sector of the book industry which heavily relies on translation (both in its restricted and extended definitions) but has thus far received scant attention in translation studies. The present article focuses on interlingual translations of Kotler’s volume in three languages (Spanish, French and Italian), which are considered in relation to other forms of rewritings such as new editions and English-language adaptations. The authors analyse and compare the formal characteristics of these interlingual translations; they explore by whom and for what purposes they were initially produced, as well as how they evolved over time. While highlighting the specific trajectory of Marketing Management in each language, the study also reveals common features and questions to what extent these reflect the agency of those who produced the translations as well as ongoing transformations in higher education publishing.
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