Literary translators in-between: An exploration of their self-imaging discourse and relationship to technology

Ruffo, Paola

doi:10.1075/tris.23015.ruf

Article published In:

Literary translatorship in digital contexts
Edited by Wenqian Zhang, Motoko Akashi and Peter Jonathan Freeth
[Translation in Society 3:1] 2024
► pp. 87–103

Literary translators in-between

An exploration of their self-imaging discourse and relationship to technology

Paola Ruffo | Ghent University

This article reports on a study of literary translators’ self-imaging strategies and their attitudes towards technology in the context of the increasing technologisation of the profession. Literary translators’ self-image emerges as the sum of personal as well as professional characteristics, which is in contrast with the way they believe outsiders perceive them. Participants’ narratives highlight the feeling of being misunderstood by those outside the profession, and inhabiting an in-between space, having to reconcile both contradictions inherent to literary translation and those engendered by differing views of the profession and the role technology plays in it. Results open up a new path for the study of literary translators’ self-imaging strategies by centring their voices as a means to better understand if and how technology can (1) empower translators of creative texts and (2) reduce the gap between their view of the profession and other stakeholders.

Keywords: literary translation, translator studies, translation technology, computer-assisted literary translation, CALT, human-computer interaction, machine translation, computer-aided translation

Article outline

1.Introduction
2.Self-image in the literary translation profession
3.A growing interest in technology for literary translation
4.Methodology
5.Results
- 5.1Respondents’ background
- 5.2The personal is professional
- 5.3Literary translators as misunderstood
- 5.4The interplay between self-image and technology
6.Literary translators in-between
7.Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References

Published online: 29 February 2024

https://doi.org/10.1075/tris.23015.ruf

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