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Part of
Field Research on Translation and Interpreting
Edited by Regina Rogl, Daniela Schlager and Hanna Risku
[Benjamins Translation Library 165] 2025
► pp. 98–116

Chapter 4
Affective labor in the simultaneous interpreting of prayer

An autoethnographic re-analysis

ORCID logo | Tampere University
This chapter provides a re-analysis of the fieldnotes I gathered in an autoethnographic study of simultaneous church interpreting (Hokkanen 2016). I re-analyzed descriptions of interpreted prayers in the fieldnotes from the perspective of affective labor, understood as the manipulation of one’s emotions to achieve organizational goals (Koskinen 2020; Hochschild [1983] 2012). In this paper I also discuss the implications of changes in researcher positionality when re-analyzing past fieldnotes, highlighting the importance of reflexivity. The different social positions I had during fieldwork and during the current re-analysis result in two readings of the affective labor involved in the simultaneous interpreting of prayer. This demonstrates the nature of ethnographic research accounts as constructed representations and the role of the researcher in knowledge production.
Keywords: affective labor, emotions, autoethnography, reflexivity, researcher positionality, church interpreting, faith-based interpreting
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework
    • 2.1Affective labor
    • 2.2Affective labor in interpreting
  • 3.Pentecostal experientiality and prayer
  • 4.Autoethnography and the changing researcher positionality
  • 5.Affective labor in simultaneously interpreted prayer
    • 5.1Functions of prayer in a church interpreter’s work
    • 5.2Interpreting prayer through blended roles
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
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