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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. 388–406

Translation as a metaphoric traveller across disciplines

Wanted: Translaboration!

| University of Vienna

Translation, as a concept, may be regarded as a prototype of a ‘travelling concept’ as it has travelled to numerous disciplines in recent years. Therefore, a ‘translational turn’ was proclaimed for the humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences (cf. Bachmann-Medick 2007, 2009).

Outside of translation studies, the use of the translation concept is not bound to “translation proper” (Jakobson 1959, 232) or to the way in which the concept is used and defined in translation studies. Consequently, ‘translation’ is usually used as a very broad metaphor in translation studies’ neighbouring disciplines and fields of research. This mobility shows the potential and high polysemantic value of the translation concept. What we are missing, however, is a ‘translaboration’ between translation studies and the various other disciplines that employ translation studies’ master concept.

The paper will illustrate the background of the translational turn and the rise of the notion of ‘cultural translation’ as well as the deployment of the translation category in organisation studies and sociology. It will thus limit itself to examples from cultural studies and the social sciences. The paper’s aim is to revise and dispel some of the misconceptions held against translation proper and the discipline of translation studies, thereby showing that translation studies has the conceptual and theoretical grounding to be the leading discipline for the unfolding of a translational turn outside its disciplinary borders. Furthermore, the paper will show the common ground for a translaboration from which both translation studies and its neighbouring disciplines could ultimately benefit.

Keywords: translation, cultural translation, travel, transdisciplinarity, translaboration
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Travelling concepts: Their power and pitfalls
    • 2.1The travel metaphor and its ‘taintedness’
  • 3.The ‘translational turn’
    • 3.1A turn: Premises and background
    • 3.2Cultural translation
      • 3.2.1Roots of cultural translation
  • 4.Relationship of distance
    • 4.1Attributions to translation proper and translation studies
  • 5.Further uses of the translation concept beyond cultural translation
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 October 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.3.3.07zwi
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