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Article published In:
Translation in Society
Vol. 2:2 (2023) ► pp.213–234

Peripheral vision and challenging invisibilities

Theoretical and methodological reflections on the “digitized turn” and “born-digital” sources in archives of translation and translators

ORCID logo | London Metropolitan University

This article presents a discussion of the theoretical and methodological challenges posed by digitization processes and born-digital sources within translation and translator studies research, particularly in archival contexts. It begins by demonstrating how the digitization of archives and source materials remains an undertheorized issue in translation contexts, as well as the need to understand how digitization allows new forms of “peripheral vision” across our research and publication processes. Subsequently, the article problematizes the archiving and use of born-digital sources to research translation and translators, particularly in terms of issues surrounding data collection, access and ethics. In doing so, this article argues that care must be taken to properly understand and preserve the digital sources that will enable archival research in the future, whilst emphasizing the new opportunities presented by digitized and born-digital sources to challenge the invisibility of translation and translators within many of the world’s archives and histories.

Keywords: translator archives, translation history, digitization, digital turn, translator studies, social history, digital sources, archival research, research ethics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Peripheral vision and the challenges of the “digitized turn” in existing archives
  • 3.Challenging invisibilities with new archives of the born-digital
    • 3.1Born-digital archives of translation
    • 3.2Born-digital archives of translators
  • 4.A digital future for archives of translation and translators?
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 August 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tris.23008.fre
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