Beyond the Translators Invisibility: Critical Reflections and New Perspectives

The value of nuanced approaches to the concept of translator invisibility

The question of whether to disclose that a text is a translation and thereby give visibility to the translator has dominated discussions on translation throughout history. Despite becoming one of the most ubiquitous terms in translation studies, however, the concept of translator (in)visibility is often criticized for being vague, overly adaptable, and grounded in literary contexts. This interdisciplinary volume therefore draws on concepts from fields such as sociology, the digital humanities, and interpreting studies to develop and operationalize theoretical understandings of translator visibility beyond these existing criticisms and limitations. Through empirical case studies spanning areas including social media research, reception studies, institutional translation, and literary translation, this volume demonstrates the value of understanding the visibilities of translators and translation in the plural and adds much-needed nuance to one of translation studies most pervasive, polarizing, and imprecise concepts.

Contributors: Klaus Kaindl (University of Vienna), Renée Desjardins (Université de Saint-Boniface), Helle V. Dam (Aarhus University), Minna Ruokonen (University of Eastern Finland), Deborah Giustini (Hamad Bin Khalifa University / KU Leuven), Motoko Akashi (Trinity College Dublin), Peter J. Freeth (London Metropolitan University), Seyhan Bozkurt Jobanputra (Yeditepe University), Gys-Walt van Egdom (Utrecht University), Haidee Kotze (Utrecht University), Pardaad Chamsaz (British Library), Rachel Foss (British Library), Will René (National Poetry Library), Esa Penttilä (University of Eastern Finland), Juha Lång (University of Eastern Finland), Juho Suokas (University of Eastern Finland), Erja Vottonen (University of Eastern Finland), and Helka Riionheimo (University of Eastern Finland).

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Introduction by Peter J. Freeth is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY NC ND 4.0 International license. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Introduction © 2024 by P.J. Freeth.