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Article published In:
Translation Spaces
Vol. 10:2 (2021) ► pp.231–259

Big translation history

Data science applied to translated literature in the Spanish-speaking world, 1898–1945

ORCID logo | Universitat Oberta de Catalunya | ICREA, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats
ORCID logo | Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

This article proposes the term Big Translation History (BTH) to describe a translation history that can be analysed computationally and that we define as involving: (1) large-scale research (geographical and chronological); (2) massive data understood as big data, accompanied by little data, and drawing on a wide range of often heterogeneous and non-structured sources; and (3) the use of computational techniques as part of the research process, and for the production of knowledge, rather than helping only with visualisation of data. We advance the hypothesis that one of the main possibilities of BTH, as a conceptual framework and a methodology, is to help decentralize translation history and literary and cultural history, in a broad sense. The article goes on to present an analysis of the circulation of literary translations and the agents involved in the Spanish-speaking world between 1898 and 1945 as a case study in BTH.

Keywords: big translation history, literary translation, sociology of translation, digital humanities, social network research, circulation, publishing history, Spain, Spanish-speaking Latin America
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Big translation history as a conceptual framework
  • 3.A BTH case study: Translated literature in the Spanish speaking-world (1898–1945)
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 14 October 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.21012.roi
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