The metaphor of the ‘lone wolf’ (cited and criticized by Hanne Jansen’s contribution to this volume) may still be part of the public image of translators and interpreters, but this edited collection of essays sets out to demonstrate the opposite: translators and interpreters are members of various intersecting communities. As Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov points out in the introduction (“Introducing communities in translation and interpreting”), this observation not only applies to recent developments in online collaborative translation, but also reflects an “age-old phenomenon” (6) as documented in translation studies history (e.g., Montgomery 2000). She opens a dialogue between references from social theory and translation studies to justify the importance of communities in translation and interpreting from ancient Bible translations to fansubbing. She provides a sound discussion of the concept of community, and more specifically of “communities of practice” (Wenger 1998), which she interestingly links to Even-Zohar’s polysystem theory (1978) through the concept of ‘repertoire.’

References

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Delanty, Gerard

2010 Community. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.

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1978 “The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem.” In Literature and Translation: New Perspectives in Literary Studies, edited by James S. Holmes, José Lambert, and Raymond van den Broeck, 117–127. Leuven: Acco.

Holz-Mänttäri, Justa

1984 Translatorisches Handeln: Theorie und Methode [Translational Action: Theory and Method]. Helsinki: Suomalainen tiedeakatemia.

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2013 “Multiple Translatorship.” In Authorial and Editorial Voices in Translation 1: Collaborative Relationships between Authors, Translators, and Performers, edited by Hanne Jansen and Anna Wegener, 1–39. Montréal: Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre.

McMillan, David W., and David M. Chavis

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Montgomery, Scott L.

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Scollon, Ron, and Suzie Wong Scollon

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Taivalkoski-Shilov, Kristiina

2013 “Voice in the Field of Translation Studies.” In Intertextual Voices in Translation, edited by Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov and Myriam Suchet, 1–9. Montréal: Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre.

Wenger, Etienne

1998 Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.