Kathryn Batchelor – författare

This book provides an innovative look at the reception of Frantz Fanon’s texts, investigating how, when, where and why these—especially his seminal Les Damnés de la Terre (1961) —were first translated and read. Building on renewed interest in the author’s works in both postcolonial studies and revolutionary movements in recent years, as well as travelling theory, micro-history and histoire croisée interests in Translation Studies, the volume tells the stories of translations of Fanon’s texts into twelve different languages – Arabic, Danish, English, German, Italian, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Swahili and Swedish – bringing both a historical and multilingual perspective to the ways in which Fanon is cited today. With contributions from an international, interdisciplinary group of scholars, the stories told combine themes of movement and place, personal networks and agency, politics and activism, archival research and textual analysis, creating a book that is a fresh and comprehensive volume on the translated works of Frantz Fanon and essential reading for scholars in translation studies, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, critical race studies, and African and African diaspora literature.

The recent rapid growth in China’s involvement in Africa is being promoted by both Chinese and African leaders as being conducted in a spirit of cooperation, friendship and equality. In the media and informally, however, a different, less harmonious picture emerges. This book explores how China and Africa really regard each other, how official images are manufactured, and how informal images are nevertheless shaped and put forward. The book covers a wide range of areas where China-Africa exchange exists, including diplomacy, technological cooperation, sport, culture and arts exchange. The book also discusses the historical development of the relationship and how it is likely to develop going forward.

As the 'thresholds' through which readers and viewers access texts, paratexts have already sparked important scholarship in literary theory, digital studies and media studies. Translation and Paratexts explores the relevance of paratexts for translation studies and provides a framework for further research. Writing in three parts, Kathryn Batchelor first offers a critical overview of recent scholarship, and in the second part introduces three original case studies to demonstrate the importance of paratextual theory. Batchelor interrogates English versions of Nietzsche, Chinese editions of Western translation theory, and examples of subtitled drama in the UK, before concluding with a final part outlining a theory of paratextuality for translation research, addressing questions of terminology and methodology. Translation and Paratexts is essential reading for students and researchers in translation studies, interpreting studies and literary translation.

For decades, Translation Studies has struggled to engage with Jacques Derrida, whose radical questioning of language seemed to undermine translation theory's foundations. This book reveals a hidden dimension: Derrida's obsessive engagement with translation throughout his career. The text uncovers his "translation reflex" of constant pausing to question how concepts might be translated, demonstrating how this overlooked practice shaped his philosophical thinking.Examining translation alongside key themes from Derrida's later work including inheritance, mourning, and the messianic, Kathryn Batchelor reconceptualises translation as a philosophical tool, a response to intellectual heritage, and a means of confronting mortality. At the same time, through close readings of Derrida’s Husserl’s The Origin of Geometry, “Plato’s Pharmacy”, and other early texts, she highlights Derrida’s surprisingly conventional translation practices.As the first comprehensive study of Derrida as translator and the first book on Derrida and translation in two decades, this work challenges misconceptions about "anything goes" interpretations while offering insights into translation as a driving force in his development. Essential for scholars and advanced students in Translation Studies, Philosophy, Literary Theory, and Continental Philosophy.

For decades, Translation Studies has struggled to engage with Jacques Derrida, whose radical questioning of language seemed to undermine translation theory's foundations. This book reveals a hidden dimension: Derrida's obsessive engagement with translation throughout his career. The text uncovers his "translation reflex" of constant pausing to question how concepts might be translated, demonstrating how this overlooked practice shaped his philosophical thinking.Examining translation alongside key themes from Derrida's later work including inheritance, mourning, and the messianic, Kathryn Batchelor reconceptualises translation as a philosophical tool, a response to intellectual heritage, and a means of confronting mortality. At the same time, through close readings of Derrida’s Husserl’s The Origin of Geometry, “Plato’s Pharmacy”, and other early texts, she highlights Derrida’s surprisingly conventional translation practices.As the first comprehensive study of Derrida as translator and the first book on Derrida and translation in two decades, this work challenges misconceptions about "anything goes" interpretations while offering insights into translation as a driving force in his development. Essential for scholars and advanced students in Translation Studies, Philosophy, Literary Theory, and Continental Philosophy.

The linguistically innovative aspect of Francophone African literature has been recognized and studied from a variety of angles over recent decades, yet little attention has been paid to what happens to such literature when it is translated into another language. Taking as its corpus all sub-Saharan Francophone African texts that have ever been published in English, this book explores the ways in which translators approach innovative features such as African-language borrowings, neologisms and other deliberate manipulations of French, depictions of sociolinguistic variation, and a variety of types of wordplay. The implications of their translation decisions are drawn out with reference to the broader significances that are often accorded to postcolonial literature, and earlier critics' calls for a decolonized translation practice are explored from both a practical and theoretical angle. These findings are used to push towards a detailed investigation of the postcolonial turn in translation studies, drawing on the work of key postcolonial theorists such has Homi K. Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak.This is a timely and incisive critical assessment of contemporary discourses on the ethics and politics of translation.

As the 'thresholds' through which readers and viewers access texts, paratexts have already sparked important scholarship in literary theory, digital studies and media studies. Translation and Paratexts explores the relevance of paratexts for translation studies and provides a framework for further research. Writing in three parts, Kathryn Batchelor first offers a critical overview of recent scholarship, and in the second part introduces three original case studies to demonstrate the importance of paratextual theory. Batchelor interrogates English versions of Nietzsche, Chinese editions of Western translation theory, and examples of subtitled drama in the UK, before concluding with a final part outlining a theory of paratextuality for translation research, addressing questions of terminology and methodology. Translation and Paratexts is essential reading for students and researchers in translation studies, interpreting studies and literary translation.

This book provides an innovative look at the reception of Frantz Fanon’s texts, investigating how, when, where and why these—especially his seminal Les Damnés de la Terre (1961) —were first translated and read. Building on renewed interest in the author’s works in both postcolonial studies and revolutionary movements in recent years, as well as travelling theory, micro-history and histoire croisée interests in Translation Studies, the volume tells the stories of translations of Fanon’s texts into twelve different languages – Arabic, Danish, English, German, Italian, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Swahili and Swedish – bringing both a historical and multilingual perspective to the ways in which Fanon is cited today. With contributions from an international, interdisciplinary group of scholars, the stories told combine themes of movement and place, personal networks and agency, politics and activism, archival research and textual analysis, creating a book that is a fresh and comprehensive volume on the translated works of Frantz Fanon and essential reading for scholars in translation studies, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, critical race studies, and African and African diaspora literature.

The recent rapid growth in China’s involvement in Africa is being promoted by both Chinese and African leaders as being conducted in a spirit of cooperation, friendship and equality. In the media and informally, however, a different, less harmonious picture emerges. This book explores how China and Africa really regard each other, how official images are manufactured, and how informal images are nevertheless shaped and put forward. The book covers a wide range of areas where China-Africa exchange exists, including diplomacy, technological cooperation, sport, culture and arts exchange. The book also discusses the historical development of the relationship and how it is likely to develop going forward.

This book explores the work of interpreters and translators at the First Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial of 22 former SS Auschwitz personnel in the mid-1960s, when the voices of dozens of witnesses, speaking 10 different languages, had a profound impact on public understanding of the Holocaust in Germany and beyond. The book asks vital questions about how victims of genocide can make their voices heard in legal systems, and the processes by which the testimony of Holocaust survivors has entered the public record. The author discusses interpreters’ professional practice and ethical self-understanding in the unequal linguistic and institutional structures of the courtroom, and shows how translation and interpreting affected the way victims’ voices were heard.The survivors came from many different national, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and their testimonies are often multilingual or hybrid, providing illuminating insights into the significance of the language(s) in which testimony is given, but presenting interpreters with linguistic and ethical challenges.The preserved audio recordings of courtroom testimony show that interpreters and translators played a key role not only in attaining justice but also in helping to shape the ways in which victim testimony was given, heard, understood and valued within and beyond the courtroom. The author considers how trust is established, developed, challenged and lost, and how this affects the ability of Auschwitz survivors to give testimony in a complex and emotionally demanding situation. In doing so, he also explores the contribution of interpreting and translation to the developing memory of the Holocaust in the 1960s and to the public image of the survivor-witness.

The concept of translation has become central to postcolonial theory in recent decades, offering as it does a useful metaphor or metonym for many of the processes explored within the framework of postcolonial studies. Translation proper, however, remains relatively underexplored and, in many postcolonial multilingual contexts, underexploited. Texts are often read in translation without much attention being paid to the inevitable differences that open up between an original and its translation(s), the figure of the translator remains shadowy, if not invisible, and the particular languages involved in translation in postcolonial societies often still reflect colonial power dynamics.This volume draws together reflections by translators, authors and academics working across three broad geographical areas where the linguistic legacies of French colonial operations are long-lasting and complex, namely Africa, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. The perspectives that emerge move beyond traditional views of translation as loss or betrayal and towards a more positive outlook, highlighting the potential for translation to enrich the lives of readers, translators and authors alike, to counter some of the destructive effects of globalisation, and to promote linguistic diversity. In addition, translation is shown to be a most valuable tool in revealing the dynamics and pressures that are relevant to the political and economic contexts in which books are written, read and sold.