Vol. 9:2 (2020) ► pp.314–341
The “technological turn” in translation studies
Are we there yet? A transversal cross-disciplinary approach
For over two decades, Translation Studies (TS) scholars have argued that the discipline is going through a ‘technological turn’. This paper critically questions whether TS has already completed this “paradigmatic” or “disciplinary turn,” “a clearly visible and striking” change of direction that can “perhaps even [amount] to a redefinition of the subject concerned” (Snell-Hornby 2010, 366). After a revision of the notion of ‘turn’ in TS, it will be argued that the ‘technological’ one has been completed and it can, in fact, be assessed “after it is already complete” (ibid). It will be shown how the emergence and consolidation of this turn were “driven not by theoretical developments in cognate areas of inquiry,” but are an “emergent property from new forms of translation practice” (Cronin 2010, 1). As a consequence, it has permeated TS across its different subdisciplines, both in their theoretical apparatus and/or in their research methodologies. In this examination, the picture that emerges is that translation, across TS, has in fact been redefined in one way or another as an instance of “human-computer interaction,” even in contexts such as literary translation.
Article outline
- Introduction
- What is in a turn?
- A key feature of the ‘technological turn’: Its emergence
- Translation and technology: The fuzzy borders between a sub-discipline, interdiscipline or independent discipline
- So, are we there yet?
- How can we know if we have arrived? A transversal cross-disciplinary approach
- Technology as a transversal link between sub-disciplines?
- Translation technology and other intersection of interest
- Conclusions
- Notes
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References
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.19012.jim