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Article published In:
Babel
Vol. 68:4 (2022) ► pp.498–516

Is transcreation a service or a strategy?

A social study into the perceptions of language professionals

| Pablo de Olavide University

Transcreation is a practice with a status that has to date not been consolidated in the field of Translation Studies. While some authors consider that the term brings little value to the discipline (Bernal Merino 2006; Gambier and Munday 2014), others define transcreation as a service involving the creative adaptation of marketing and advertising content (Pedersen 2014; TAUS 2019) or as a strategy adopted in creative areas like AVT (Malenova 2017; Chaume 2018), localization (Mangirón and O’Hagan 2006; Crosignani and Ravetto 2011) and literary translation (Lal 1996; De Campos 2013). The above definitions reflect the perspectives of the language services industry and academia. However, the points of view of individual language professionals have not usually been considered when conceptualizing transcreation. The purpose of this paper is to address these perceptions by adopting a social qualitative approach by means of an instrument called “The DTP Survey.” The results of this survey seem to point to a dual definition of transcreation as both a service and a strategy, with both approaches being compatible and not mutually exclusive as they have been in previous characterizations of the practice.

Keywords: transcreation, creative translation, advertising translation, social studies, language professional studies
Article outline
  • 1.Transcreation, translation studies, and the language services industry
  • 2.Objectives and methodology
  • 3.Results of the survey and analysis
    • 3.1Representativeness of the sample
    • 3.2Characteristics of transcreation
    • 3.3Nature of transcreation
  • 4.Conclusion: A dual-nature practice
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00277.car
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