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Article published In:
'Translaboration': Translation as Collaboration
Edited by Alexa Alfer
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 3:3] 2017
► pp. 349–369

Translaboration

Collaborative translation to challenge hegemony

| University of Manchester

Adopting a sociological approach, this article focuses on the interface between fandom and translation. It investigates the structural rules and resources driving and conditioning translation activity in post-revolutionary Iran and the consequences it might engender. The textual and paratextual data is collected from the official and parallel volunteer translations of A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. It is argued that translaboration, a blended concept aligning the notions of translation and collaboration, in cyberspace is a response to the structurally imposed constraints, and an attempt to take control of discourse and to resist the state rules which instrumentalise translation to perpetuate the dominant discourse. This type of translaboration, which is outside the official translational policies of the state, delineates the expectations not being met by the officially published translation, and also demarcates the formal and informal norms. Drawing on their resources, the translaborators not only empower the source text to reach a wider readership without the mediation of the institutional structures of power, but also in turn are empowered by the translation.

Keywords: prosumer translation, collaborative translation, translaboration, structuration theory, hegemonic discourse, counter-discourse
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Constraining rules and enabling resources
  • 3.A game of thrones: A game of structures
    • 3.1Religiously delineated boundaries
    • 3.2Socially projected boundaries
  • 4.A storm of swords: A breeze of change
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 October 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.3.3.05saa
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