Routledge Studies in Literary Translation – serie

This book explores the ways in which translation deals with sexual and textual undecidability, adopting an interdisciplinary approach bridging translation, transgender studies, and queer studies in analyzing the translations of six texts in English, French, and Spanish labelled as ‘trans.’Rose draws on experimental translation methods, such as the use of the palimpsest, and builds on theory from areas such as philosophy, linguistics, queer studies, and transgender studies and the work of such thinkers as Derrida and Deleuze to encourage critical thinking around how all texts and trans texts specifically work to be queer and how queerness in translation might be celebrated. These texts illustrate the ways in which their authors play language games and how these can be translated between languages that use gender in different ways and the subsequent implications for our understanding of the act of translation and how we present our gender identity or identities.In showing what translation and transgender identity can learn from one another, Rose lays the foundation for future directions for research into the translation of trans identity, making this book key reading for scholars in translation studies, transgender studies, and queer studies.For a video recording of the book's BCLT launch, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-KVzQ8I2PI

This book presents a holistic picture of the practice of an experienced literary translator working in situ, highlighting the value of in-depth process studies for the discipline and offering a model for future similar studies.Bringing together Cognitive Translation Studies (CTS) and literary translation, Borg interrogates existing assumptions in CTS and sheds light on the value of a combined look at both cognitive and social processes in literary translation. The volume extends the scope of existing CTS studies with its comprehensive examination of the work of one translator and exploration of the wide range of materials from draft to finished translation. This unique model allows for a greater understanding of the actions, decisions, motivations and work practices of individual translators as well as of their interactions with other participants in the practice of a literary translation.Making the case for in-depth process research in illuminating the dynamics of translation production and working practices, this innovative book will be of interest to students and scholars in translation and interpreting studies, especially those interested in literary translation and cognitive approaches.

This book presents a holistic picture of the practice of an experienced literary translator working in situ, highlighting the value of in-depth process studies for the discipline and offering a model for future similar studies.Bringing together Cognitive Translation Studies (CTS) and literary translation, Borg interrogates existing assumptions in CTS and sheds light on the value of a combined look at both cognitive and social processes in literary translation. The volume extends the scope of existing CTS studies with its comprehensive examination of the work of one translator and exploration of the wide range of materials from draft to finished translation. This unique model allows for a greater understanding of the actions, decisions, motivations and work practices of individual translators as well as of their interactions with other participants in the practice of a literary translation.Making the case for in-depth process research in illuminating the dynamics of translation production and working practices, this innovative book will be of interest to students and scholars in translation and interpreting studies, especially those interested in literary translation and cognitive approaches.

This book explores the ways in which translation deals with sexual and textual undecidability, adopting an interdisciplinary approach bridging translation, transgender studies, and queer studies in analyzing the translations of six texts in English, French, and Spanish labelled as ‘trans.’Rose draws on experimental translation methods, such as the use of the palimpsest, and builds on theory from areas such as philosophy, linguistics, queer studies, and transgender studies and the work of such thinkers as Derrida and Deleuze to encourage critical thinking around how all texts and trans texts specifically work to be queer and how queerness in translation might be celebrated. These texts illustrate the ways in which their authors play language games and how these can be translated between languages that use gender in different ways and the subsequent implications for our understanding of the act of translation and how we present our gender identity or identities.In showing what translation and transgender identity can learn from one another, Rose lays the foundation for future directions for research into the translation of trans identity, making this book key reading for scholars in translation studies, transgender studies, and queer studies.For a video recording of the book's BCLT launch, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-KVzQ8I2PI

This book offers unique insights into the role of the translator in today’s globalized world, exploring Latin American literature featuring translators and interpreters as protagonists in which prevailing understandings of the act of translation are challenged and upended. The volume looks to the fictional turn as a fruitful source of critical inquiry in translation studies, showcasing the potential for recent Latin American novels and short stories in Spanish to shed light on the complex dynamics and conditions under which translators perform their task. Kripper unpacks how the study of these works reveals translation not as an activity with communication as its end goal but rather as a mediating and mediated process shaped by the unique manipulations and motivations of translators and the historical and cultural contexts in which they work. In exploring the fictional representations of translators, the book also outlines pedagogical approaches and offers discussion questions for the implementation of translators’ narratives in translation, language, and literature courses. Narratives of Mistranslation will be of interest to scholars and educators in translation studies, especially those working in literary translation and translation pedagogy, Latin American literature, world literature, and Latin American studies.

This book offers unique insights into the role of the translator in today’s globalized world, exploring Latin American literature featuring translators and interpreters as protagonists in which prevailing understandings of the act of translation are challenged and upended. The volume looks to the fictional turn as a fruitful source of critical inquiry in translation studies, showcasing the potential for recent Latin American novels and short stories in Spanish to shed light on the complex dynamics and conditions under which translators perform their task. Kripper unpacks how the study of these works reveals translation not as an activity with communication as its end goal but rather as a mediating and mediated process shaped by the unique manipulations and motivations of translators and the historical and cultural contexts in which they work. In exploring the fictional representations of translators, the book also outlines pedagogical approaches and offers discussion questions for the implementation of translators’ narratives in translation, language, and literature courses. Narratives of Mistranslation will be of interest to scholars and educators in translation studies, especially those working in literary translation and translation pedagogy, Latin American literature, world literature, and Latin American studies.

This volume provides the first systematic study of the translation and reception of Dante’s Vita Nova in the Anglophone world, reconstructing for the first time the contexts and genesis of its English-language afterlife from the early nineteenth century to the present day.Dante is one of the foremost authors of the Western canon, and his Vita Nova has been repeatedly translated into English over the past two centuries. However, there exists no comprehensive account of the critical, scholarly, and creative English-language reception of Dante’s work. This collection brings together scholars from Dante studies, translation studies, English studies, and book history to examine the translation and reception of the Vita Nova among modern English-speaking publics, in both academic and non-academic contexts, and thus represents a major contribution to Dante studies.The Afterlife of Dante’s Vita Nova in the Anglophone World will be an essential reference point for scholars and students in English and Italian studies, literary and cultural studies, and translation and reception studies in the UK, Ireland, the USA, and Italy, where Dante is taught and researched.

This volume provides the first systematic study of the translation and reception of Dante’s Vita Nova in the Anglophone world, reconstructing for the first time the contexts and genesis of its English-language afterlife from the early nineteenth century to the present day.Dante is one of the foremost authors of the Western canon, and his Vita Nova has been repeatedly translated into English over the past two centuries. However, there exists no comprehensive account of the critical, scholarly, and creative English-language reception of Dante’s work. This collection brings together scholars from Dante studies, translation studies, English studies, and book history to examine the translation and reception of the Vita Nova among modern English-speaking publics, in both academic and non-academic contexts, and thus represents a major contribution to Dante studies.The Afterlife of Dante’s Vita Nova in the Anglophone World will be an essential reference point for scholars and students in English and Italian studies, literary and cultural studies, and translation and reception studies in the UK, Ireland, the USA, and Italy, where Dante is taught and researched.

This book examines how mysticism can tell us about translation and translation can tell us about mysticism, addressing the ancient but ongoing connections between the art of rendering one text in another language and the art of the ineffable.The volume represents the first sustained act of attention to the interdisciplinary crossover of these two fields, taking a Wittgensteinian approach to language, and investigates how mystics and their translators manage to write about what cannot be written about. Three questions are addressed overall: how mysticism can be used to conceptualise translation; the issues that mysticism raises for translation theory and practice; and how mystical texts have been and might be translated. Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Translator’s Task’ is considered in detail as a controversial example of dialogue. Translation examples are given in a range of languages, and six major case studies are provided, including a close reading of Exodus and an analysis of a recent radical translation of Lucretius.This book will be of interest to students and researchers in translation studies, mysticism studies, theology and literary translation, as well as practising translators.For a video recording of the book's BCLT launch, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFRsXEhR6bQ

This book examines how mysticism can tell us about translation and translation can tell us about mysticism, addressing the ancient but ongoing connections between the art of rendering one text in another language and the art of the ineffable.The volume represents the first sustained act of attention to the interdisciplinary crossover of these two fields, taking a Wittgensteinian approach to language, and investigates how mystics and their translators manage to write about what cannot be written about. Three questions are addressed overall: how mysticism can be used to conceptualise translation; the issues that mysticism raises for translation theory and practice; and how mystical texts have been and might be translated. Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Translator’s Task’ is considered in detail as a controversial example of dialogue. Translation examples are given in a range of languages, and six major case studies are provided, including a close reading of Exodus and an analysis of a recent radical translation of Lucretius.This book will be of interest to students and researchers in translation studies, mysticism studies, theology and literary translation, as well as practising translators.For a video recording of the book's BCLT launch, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFRsXEhR6bQ

Translation and Stylistic Variation: Dialect and Heteroglossia in Northern Irish Poetic Translation considers the ways in which translators use stylistic variation, analysing the works of three Northern Irish poet-translators to look at how, in this variety, the translation process becomes a creative act by which translators can explore their own linguistic and cultural heritage.The volume offers a holistic portrait of the use of linguistic variety – dialect and heteroglossia – in the literary translations of Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, and Tom Paulin, shedding light on the translators’ choices but also readers’ experiences of them. Drawing on work from cognitive stylistics, Gibson reflects on how and why translators choose to add linguistic variety and how these choices can often be traced back to their socio-cultural context. The book not only extends existing scholarship on Irish-English literary translation to examine issues unique to Northern Ireland but also raises broader questions about translation in locations where language choice is fraught and political. The volume makes the case for giving increased consideration to the role of the individual translator, both for insights into personal choices and a more nuanced understanding of contemporary literary translation practices, in Ireland and beyond.This book will be of interest to scholars working in translation studies, literary studies and Irish studies.For a video recording of the book's BCLT launch, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=857wTF8crUM

Translation and Stylistic Variation: Dialect and Heteroglossia in Northern Irish Poetic Translation considers the ways in which translators use stylistic variation, analysing the works of three Northern Irish poet-translators to look at how, in this variety, the translation process becomes a creative act by which translators can explore their own linguistic and cultural heritage.The volume offers a holistic portrait of the use of linguistic variety – dialect and heteroglossia – in the literary translations of Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, and Tom Paulin, shedding light on the translators’ choices but also readers’ experiences of them. Drawing on work from cognitive stylistics, Gibson reflects on how and why translators choose to add linguistic variety and how these choices can often be traced back to their socio-cultural context. The book not only extends existing scholarship on Irish-English literary translation to examine issues unique to Northern Ireland but also raises broader questions about translation in locations where language choice is fraught and political. The volume makes the case for giving increased consideration to the role of the individual translator, both for insights into personal choices and a more nuanced understanding of contemporary literary translation practices, in Ireland and beyond.This book will be of interest to scholars working in translation studies, literary studies and Irish studies.For a video recording of the book's BCLT launch, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=857wTF8crUM

This volume offers a detailed analysis of selected cases in the reception, translation and artistic reinterpretation of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities (1972) around the world.The book traces the many different ways in which Calvino's modern classic has been read, translated and adapted in Brazil, France, the Netherlands and Flanders, Mexico, Romania, Scandinavia, the USSR, China, Poland, Japan and Australia. It also offers analyses of the relation between Calvino's book and, respectively, the East and Africa, as well as reflections on the book's inspiration for, and resonance in, dance, architecture and art. The volume thus traces the diversity in the reception and circulation of Invisible Cities in different countries and continents, offering a much wider framework for the discussion of Calvino’s masterpiece than before, and a more detailed picture of its cultural and linguistic ramifications.This book will be of interest to scholars in Comparative Literature, World Literature, Translation Studies, Italian Studies, Romance Languages, European Studies, Dance, Architecture and Media Studies, as well as to scholars specialised in paratext and reception.

This volume offers a detailed analysis of selected cases in the reception, translation and artistic reinterpretation of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities (1972) around the world.The book traces the many different ways in which Calvino's modern classic has been read, translated and adapted in Brazil, France, the Netherlands and Flanders, Mexico, Romania, Scandinavia, the USSR, China, Poland, Japan and Australia. It also offers analyses of the relation between Calvino's book and, respectively, the East and Africa, as well as reflections on the book's inspiration for, and resonance in, dance, architecture and art. The volume thus traces the diversity in the reception and circulation of Invisible Cities in different countries and continents, offering a much wider framework for the discussion of Calvino’s masterpiece than before, and a more detailed picture of its cultural and linguistic ramifications.This book will be of interest to scholars in Comparative Literature, World Literature, Translation Studies, Italian Studies, Romance Languages, European Studies, Dance, Architecture and Media Studies, as well as to scholars specialised in paratext and reception.

The book is dedicated to Russian translator and scholar Andrei Fedorov (1906–1997), his life, his work, and his impact on translation studies.Starting from his first publication in 1927, Fedorov researched translation throughout his life, leaving a rich oeuvre that encompassed other research interests, including literary criticism, stylistics, and lexicography; however, it remains understudied in Western European and particularly Anglophone literature, which is partly due to the historic lack of translated primary sources. Fedorov’s Introduction to Translation Theory in 1953 was the first comprehensive work in Russian to define translation theory as an autonomous discipline with its own metalanguage, to synthesise theoretical thought on translation, and to establish a conceptual framework for the new discipline. It became known in some Eastern European countries and reached parts of Western Europe at the time, placing him among the most prominent theorists at the start of translation studies as a discipline. This book adds to the knowledge on theoretical works that appeared prior to the starting point of translation studies widely accepted in Western European literature and to the recognition of the scholar whose work was influential for many key contributors to the field across national and linguistic borders.This book is valuable reading for scholars in translation studies, translation theory, literary studies, and Slavic literature.

This book builds on emerging research into the human dimension of literary translators to illuminate how translators can construct and project their brands. Focusing on contemporary Chinese-English literary translators, it examines the evolution and impact of their brand-building within the global literary translation landscape.Zhang deftly integrates research on branding from marketing, management, and publishing studies, and the sociology of translation to develop an innovative framework for understanding the literary translator’s brand. This framework approaches brand-building on three interrelated levels: intra-field (brand input), inter-field (brand investment), and inter-cultural (brand reception) levels. It offers a novel analytical lens that complements and differs from existing tools used to examine literary translators’ presence, such as visibility, translator-function, the translator’s professional status, and celebrity translators. As applied to the case of three prominent figures in the field of contemporary Chinese-English literary translation, Howard Goldblatt, Nicky Harman, and Ken Liu, the approach elucidates the multifaceted role literary translators play beyond the translation process and the power of their brand names in the international literary exchanges.The book highlights the possibilities for new research on literary translators’ brand-building in other contexts and the fruitfulness of an interdisciplinary approach to literary translation more broadly. This volume will be of interest to scholars in literary translation, sociology of translation, publishing studies, and contemporary Chinese literature.

Translating Concepts explores the way translation has contributed to the development of concepts in Western thought and culture. Concepts are understood as complex and dynamic groupings that form complete pieces of knowledge about the world.The book explores the conviction that by bringing together different ways of conceiving of the world, translation creates concepts; that the meeting between two cultures and two conceptual universes produces something new that could not exist without the process of translation. The methodology for this is based on long-established philological and philosophical work carried out by the author in his career as a biblical and translation scholar. This book innovatively marries together philological and philosophical depth and detail with a humane and lucid appreciation of how translation manifests and shapes the human condition. Since the book marries detailed research into translation theory with analyses of Biblical and classical texts, it will appeal to a range of scholars. Its interdisciplinary approach will enable its readers to recognise and explore new connections and expand their respective fields.This volume will be of interest to scholars in translation studies, biblical studies, classical studies, and cultural history.

Through close examination of references to gender identity, female sexuality and corporeality, this book is the first of its kind to shed light on the complexities of translating the recent transgressive turn in contemporary women’s writing in French.Via four case studies, namely, the translations into English of Nelly Arcan’s Putain (2001), Catherine Millet’s La Vie sexuelle de Catherine M. (2001), Nancy Huston’s Infrarouge (2010) and Nina Bouraoui’s Garçon manqué (2000), this book explores how transgressive topoi such as prostitution, anorexia, matrophobia, rape, female desire, and transgenderism are translated. The book considers how (auto)fictional female selves portrayed are dis/placed by translation at both a textual and paratextual level. Combining feminist phenomenological perspectives on female lived experience with feminist translation theory, this interdisciplinary study offers an insight into how the experiential is brought into language, how it journeys via language into new cultural contexts via translation and creates a dialogical space in which the subjectivities of those involved (author, narrator, protagonist, translator) become open to the porosity of encounters with alterity.The volume will appeal to scholars in translation studies, French Studies, and gender and sexuality studies, particularly those interested in feminist translation and literary translation.

Through close examination of references to gender identity, female sexuality and corporeality, this book is the first of its kind to shed light on the complexities of translating the recent transgressive turn in contemporary women’s writing in French.Via four case studies, namely, the translations into English of Nelly Arcan’s Putain (2001), Catherine Millet’s La Vie sexuelle de Catherine M. (2001), Nancy Huston’s Infrarouge (2010) and Nina Bouraoui’s Garçon manqué (2000), this book explores how transgressive topoi such as prostitution, anorexia, matrophobia, rape, female desire, and transgenderism are translated. The book considers how (auto)fictional female selves portrayed are dis/placed by translation at both a textual and paratextual level. Combining feminist phenomenological perspectives on female lived experience with feminist translation theory, this interdisciplinary study offers an insight into how the experiential is brought into language, how it journeys via language into new cultural contexts via translation and creates a dialogical space in which the subjectivities of those involved (author, narrator, protagonist, translator) become open to the porosity of encounters with alterity.The volume will appeal to scholars in translation studies, French Studies, and gender and sexuality studies, particularly those interested in feminist translation and literary translation.

This collection examines how translated books come into being and circulate across languages, cultures, and book markets.Using Dutch as a case study of a source language at the margins of the world literary system, the volume sets out an innovative conceptual framework for understanding the making of translated literature, covering discovery, selection, acquisition, translation, production, marketing, and reception. It brings together fifteen accounts of recent literary works translated from Dutch, spanning five genres and fourteen different target languages. This comparative approach, keeping the focus on the same source language at the periphery of the world literary system across examples, allows for a deeper look into the numerous agents involved in the lifecycle of a translated book, including translators, editors, agents, rights managers, marketing staff, and government representatives. Chapters explore the connections between production-side decisions and how translated books were ultimately received in the market, from success stories and breakthroughs to works that faced delays, setbacks, or limited uptake, thereby illustrating a variety of trajectories within the global translation system. Taken together, the collection provides a comprehensive picture of the circulation of Dutch literature in translation and contributes to broader discussions on the translation of less widely studied languages.This book will appeal to scholars in translation studies and world literature, particularly those interested in literary translation, the sociology of translation, and translation publishing.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This collection brings together leading and emerging scholars across Dante studies and translation studies to chart the English-language translation journey of the Divine Comedy from the 18th century to the present.The book is divided into four sections, each taking in turn a different dimension of the rise in popularity of English-language translations through the 21st century. The first section includes introductory chapters outlining the historical context around Dante’s work in English more broadly and reflections on the unique issues surrounding the translation of the Commedia in English. The second part looks at translations of the work across the centuries, situating them within their respective historical periods via a range of case studies. The third section turns to formal and stylistic choices, analyzing how translators have rendered Dante’s poetry, from terza rima to blank verse, and the decisions guiding their interpretations. A final section ties these different threads together through a conversation between different scholars about future directions for research on English-language translations of this canonical text.This volume will be of interest to scholars in translation studies, comparative literature, Italian literature, and English literature.

This book explores the profound influence that reading translated works had on readers in early twentieth-century China, focusing particularly on the impact translated love stories had on perceptions of love, desires, the self, and the world, shaping real life behaviors of the readers, both historical and fictive ones.The volume charts the rise of Chinese readers’ obsession with translated romantic literature, following the proliferation of foreign literary works translated into Chinese at the turn of the twentieth century. Liu draws on the framework of “Bovaristic reading”, inspired by Bovarysm, understood as an obsessive approach to reading where the boundaries between fiction and reality becomes porous, which allows for a clearer understanding of how readers’ engagement with translated works spurred them to consider and long for lives and selves different from their own. The book analyzes historical evidence of young adults’ reading practices from the time, autobiographical writings of modern Chinese writers, and literary representations and parodies of the phenomenon. Taken together, this book not only allows for further insights into debates on the “counter-enlightenment” in this period in the modern Chinese cultural sphere but also the powerful role of reading in our understanding of ourselves and the world.Combining theoretical, textual, and historical analyses, this monograph will be of interest to scholars from a variety of fields, including Chinese literature and culture, the study of reading and reception, Translation Studies, Comparative Literature, and World Literature.