In recent studies on translation the concept of power has become central. In the present paper I ... more In recent studies on translation the concept of power has become central. In the present paper I will present the evolution of the concept in translation theory and I will present the book Translation and Power, focused on the power turn that has taken place in the discipline. I will finally advance some hypotheses on how the concept of power might be pertinent for the study of the translation of medieval texts.
Siri Nergaard In this article I explore the roles of the several agents involved in the process o... more Siri Nergaard In this article I explore the roles of the several agents involved in the process of publishing a translated work. The hypothesis is that these agents participate actively in many and different ways in shaping a translation’s final result and perception: they are all in some way translating the text and could in a wide sense be called translators. Through a theoretical framework taken from Translation Studies and History of Books, and by the use of Genette’s notion paratext, I look at translations of Norwegian Literature into Italian, with a particular attention to the publishing house Iperborea. I conclude with some remarks of a political nature on the translators’ role in the translation-publishing process.
T oday, translation scholarship and practice face a twofold situation. On the one hand translatio... more T oday, translation scholarship and practice face a twofold situation. On the one hand translation studies is enjoying unprecedented success: translation has become a fe-cund and frequent metaphor for our contemporary intercultural world, and scholars from many disciplines, for instance, linguistics, comparative literature, cultural studies, anthropology, psychology, communication and social behavior, and global studies have begun investigating translational phenomena. On the other hand, many scholars in the field recognize an epistemological crisis in the discipline of translation studies, noticing a repetition of theories and a plethora of stagnant approaches. This impasse derives largely from the field' s inability to renew the discipline and its unwillingness to develop approaches that are able to say something original or reflect the complex situations of migration and hybrid cultures and languages we live in today. Translation needs to redefine its role in a context of fragmented texts and languages in a world of crises within national identities and emerging transnational and translocal realities. The fertility of the metaphor of translation is worthy of study, and we probably will find out that it is not merely a metaphor. Since Salman Rushdie' s well-known statement " Having been borne across the world, we are translated men " (1991), translation has become a frequent concept to describe and even explain identity as it surfaces in travelling, migrating, diasporic, and border-crossing individuals and cultures. It has been so frequent that some even state we are experiencing a " translation turn " in the humanities. The anthropologist Talal Asad' s concept of " cultural translation " became central in the seminal Writing Cultures edited by James Clifford and George E. Marcus in 1986. Later Clifford developed this concept and imagined travels and even museums as translations (1997). Even though many scholars today are familiar with such a broad use of the concept of translation, they tend to keep them separated from " real " translation. The step forward we want to make with and through this journal is to consider Rushdie' s translated men and Asad and Clifford' s cultural translations as real acts of translation, as representations of how translations appear in our world. Beyond disciplinary boundaries: post-translation studies W ith this new journal the editors attempt to go beyond disciplinary borders, and specifically beyond the bounds of translation studies. We invite original thinking about what translation is today and where translation occurs. We welcome new concepts that speak about translation and hope to reshape translation discourse within these new terms and ideas. To achieve this goal, we must go beyond the traditional borders of the discipline, and even beyond interdisciplinary studies. We propose the inauguration of a trans-disciplinary research field with translation as an interpretive as well as operative tool. We imagine a sort of new era that could be termed post-translation studies, where translation is viewed as fundamentally transdisciplinary, mobile, and open ended. The " post " here recog
In recent studies on translation the concept of power has become central. In the present paper I ... more In recent studies on translation the concept of power has become central. In the present paper I will present the evolution of the concept in translation theory and I will present the book Translation and Power, focused on the power turn that has taken place in the discipline. I will finally advance some hypotheses on how the concept of power might be pertinent for the study of the translation of medieval texts.
Siri Nergaard In this article I explore the roles of the several agents involved in the process o... more Siri Nergaard In this article I explore the roles of the several agents involved in the process of publishing a translated work. The hypothesis is that these agents participate actively in many and different ways in shaping a translation’s final result and perception: they are all in some way translating the text and could in a wide sense be called translators. Through a theoretical framework taken from Translation Studies and History of Books, and by the use of Genette’s notion paratext, I look at translations of Norwegian Literature into Italian, with a particular attention to the publishing house Iperborea. I conclude with some remarks of a political nature on the translators’ role in the translation-publishing process.
T oday, translation scholarship and practice face a twofold situation. On the one hand translatio... more T oday, translation scholarship and practice face a twofold situation. On the one hand translation studies is enjoying unprecedented success: translation has become a fe-cund and frequent metaphor for our contemporary intercultural world, and scholars from many disciplines, for instance, linguistics, comparative literature, cultural studies, anthropology, psychology, communication and social behavior, and global studies have begun investigating translational phenomena. On the other hand, many scholars in the field recognize an epistemological crisis in the discipline of translation studies, noticing a repetition of theories and a plethora of stagnant approaches. This impasse derives largely from the field' s inability to renew the discipline and its unwillingness to develop approaches that are able to say something original or reflect the complex situations of migration and hybrid cultures and languages we live in today. Translation needs to redefine its role in a context of fragmented texts and languages in a world of crises within national identities and emerging transnational and translocal realities. The fertility of the metaphor of translation is worthy of study, and we probably will find out that it is not merely a metaphor. Since Salman Rushdie' s well-known statement " Having been borne across the world, we are translated men " (1991), translation has become a frequent concept to describe and even explain identity as it surfaces in travelling, migrating, diasporic, and border-crossing individuals and cultures. It has been so frequent that some even state we are experiencing a " translation turn " in the humanities. The anthropologist Talal Asad' s concept of " cultural translation " became central in the seminal Writing Cultures edited by James Clifford and George E. Marcus in 1986. Later Clifford developed this concept and imagined travels and even museums as translations (1997). Even though many scholars today are familiar with such a broad use of the concept of translation, they tend to keep them separated from " real " translation. The step forward we want to make with and through this journal is to consider Rushdie' s translated men and Asad and Clifford' s cultural translations as real acts of translation, as representations of how translations appear in our world. Beyond disciplinary boundaries: post-translation studies W ith this new journal the editors attempt to go beyond disciplinary borders, and specifically beyond the bounds of translation studies. We invite original thinking about what translation is today and where translation occurs. We welcome new concepts that speak about translation and hope to reshape translation discourse within these new terms and ideas. To achieve this goal, we must go beyond the traditional borders of the discipline, and even beyond interdisciplinary studies. We propose the inauguration of a trans-disciplinary research field with translation as an interpretive as well as operative tool. We imagine a sort of new era that could be termed post-translation studies, where translation is viewed as fundamentally transdisciplinary, mobile, and open ended. The " post " here recog
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