New Voices in Translation Studies is a refereed electronic journal co-sponsored by IATIS and Chalermprakiat Center of Translation and Interpretation, Faculty of Arts at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. The aim of the journal is to disseminate high quality original work by new researchers in Translation Studies to a wide audience. Articles are published as soon as they have completed the peer-review and copy-editing process. From 2026, the journal will be published in three issues per year: two regular issues bi-annually and one special issue annually.
International Association for Translation and Interpreting Studies
Reviving Humanities Through Translation: Translating the Other, Translating the Self
Translation Studies, alongside modern languages and many other disciplines in humanities, is declining. As a journal dedicated to early-career scholars and the voices of new researchers, we, the editorial board of New Voices in Translation Studies, ask what the fresh intellectual energy in our discipline might contribute against this trend. Central to this discussion is the threat posed by the rise of an acultural ideology, a logic found in current society that commodifies knowledge while flattening cultural specificity. While emerging public narratives suggest a move toward uniformity, our personal, lived reality remains superdiversified. This contradiction runs the risk of silencing the marginalised and turning individuals into social nonsubjects. In this editorial, we argue that translation, understood as both an act of ethical hospitality and a somatic practice of self-knowledge, holds the promise of reviving the humanities in an age of alienation.
Copyright (c) 2026 New Voices in Translation Studies
The Sociocultural Dynamics of Fansubbing Skam France into English: A Bourdieusian Perspective
This thesis analyses the interplay of social forces bound up in the fansubbing into English of Skam France (Hourregue et al. 2018-2023), a French TV and web series handling socially significant themes such as racial inequality, sexual discrimination, and queer romance in a high-school setting. Fansubbing—the production of subtitles by fans, for fans—is a contemporary translational practice involving online communities of users-turned-coproducers collaborating to achieve a shared social goal. Drawing on Bourdieusian theory, I map the social dynamics that characterise the Skam France fansubbing community and highlight how these inflect the subtitles produced. Complementing a textual analysis of the group’s fansubs, I analyse participant-based qualitative data from questionnaires and interviews with its members. The first analytical chapter is a textual analysis of the strategies, features, and levels of quality that characterise the fansubs themselves. These subtitles typically demonstrate creative, interventionist strategies that are tailored to meet the specific needs and expectations of their audience, foregrounding the presence of the translator. In the chapter on Field, I conceptualise Skam France fansubbing as a socially regulated activity taking place in a subfield of cultural production. This subfield’s members exist along an ever-shifting spectrum of participation from passive viewers to engaged fans and practising fansubbers. In the chapters on Capital and Habitus, I demonstrate that the Skam France fansubbers are motivated and characterised primarily by collaboration, resistance to dominant sociocultural and translational norms, and a communal social cause. This thesis contributes to translation studies by engaging critically with debates around translator visibility, translation quality, and audience participation. Moreover, it demonstrates the underexplored applicability of Bourdieusian sociology to collaborative settings. Finally, the research contributes to our understanding of current fansubbing practices and to novel conceptualisations of translation in relation to modern technologies, empowered Web 2.0 users, and social media.
Videogame Localisation: Quality Assessment from a Storytelling Perspective
This thesis explores the assessment of videogame localisation quality and argues that understanding videogames as a storytelling medium can contribute to effective quality assessment practice. The value of a storytelling approach to videogame localisation quality assessment is demonstrated through comprehensive analyses of localised games primarily from English into Chinese, since early days of the videogame industry to titles published within the past five years. Drawing on scholarly works in the fields of videogame localisation, translation quality assessment, videogame studies, and narrative theory, practical insights are offered into practical localisation quality assessment. The methodology applied in this thesis combines comparative analysis with data from interviews with a wide range of practitioners in the videogame industry, including videogame players, localisers, videogame testers, and narrative designers. The games analysed were collected from various sources, including players’ online discussions and my personal work experience as a localisation quality assessor for both independent game developers and for international videogame companies. Complementing comparative analyses are interview data. They provide a comprehensive understanding of the current industrial practice in videogame storytelling, localisation and localisation quality assessment, which better situates the discussion of this thesis in a professional context. The proposed storytelling approach responds to the lack of a systematic localisation quality assessment methodology noted in previous scholarly works and observed in my own work. It aims to address this lack by exploring three key questions: 1) How do videogames enable the telling of stories? 2) In what ways does videogame storytelling manifest through localisation? and 3) How can understanding videogames as a storytelling medium inform the development of criteria for assessing localisation quality? The discussion of these three research questions leads to the proposal of a quality assessment model comprised of two main criteria: Clarity, with the sub-criteria of Terminological Consistency, Paratextual Clarity and Text Presentation; and Coherence, with the sub-criteria of Character Coherence, Object Coherence, Intertextual Coherence and Assemblage Coherence. Ultimately, this research contributes to the field of videogame localisation by offering viable methodology to assess localisation quality. The theoretical lens of videogame storytelling provides a viable perspective to metricise the hitherto hazily defined concept of “gameplay experience”. The proposed quality assessment model, with comprehensive criteria, further offers viable guidance to enhance future localisation practice, indicating aspects to consider for localisers to cater to players’ needs to enjoy videogame stories.
Translation and Reception of Contemporary Chinese Crime Fiction in the English-speaking World
This thesis examines how contemporary Chinese crime fiction in English translation is positioned by publishers and received by lay readers in the US and UK markets through analysis of fourteen Chinese crime novels published between 2008 and 2023. Despite increasing global interest and the emerging prominence of Chinese crime fiction in international markets, there remains limited scholarship on how they accumulate symbolic capital and are received by the target readership. The study addresses this gap by investigating the interactions between publishers’ paratextual strategies, lay reader responses, and the evolving image of China in translation. Drawing on the sociology of translation, the study employs a mixed-methods approach combining paratextual analysis, thematic analysis of 1,085 online reviews from Amazon and Goodreads, questionnaire responses from 126 participants, and insights from 6 focus group discussions with 26 readers in the UK. This data enables an examination of how translated Chinese crime fiction is positioned, received, and interpreted in the Anglophone world, while considering the impact of state policies and institutional support on literature and literary circulation. The findings reveal how UK and US publishers adopted paratextual strategies as mediators to package and market Chinese crime fiction in the target readership. The digital platforms like Goodreads and Amazon play a part in accessing readers’ responses and focus groups bring about more nuanced insights into how lay readers understand and interpret translated Chinese crime fiction. This interaction between texts, paratexts, and readers indicates an evolving image of China in translation. The research makes contributions to translation studies and reader reception research by providing empirical evidence of how lay readers respond to Chinese fiction in English translation. It advances the sociology of translation by examining how capital is accumulated and influences the reception of translated genre fiction. Its practical implications for positioning non-dominant literatures in English-speaking markets.
New Voices in Translation Studies is delighted to present Volume 30, Issue Number 2, an issue containing key scholarly interventions, all of which contribute innovative knowledge to various inter-disciplinary fields of translation, interpreting and intercultural studies. This issue features contributions from twenty-four scholars working across 14 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Farsi, French, German, Galician, (Irish) English, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish. The authors of six articles and four book reviews are from academic institutions in Australia, China, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. Presented are multi-lingual abstracts from eight PhD theses defended in Canada, China, Germany, Morocco, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.
Copyright (c) 2025 New Voices in Translation Studies
The Metalanguage of Translation Studies in Brazil Based on Theses and Dissertations (2005–2020): A Proposal for a Controlled Vocabulary
The epistemic and communicational consolidation of Translation Studies in some ways depends on the systematisation of its metalanguage, which remains marked by theoretical, methodological, and terminological dispersion. This fragmentation appears in the keywords of theses and dissertations, where the lack of a unified disciplinary lexicon limits dialogue among researchers and hinders the organisation and retrieval of scientific information. To address this issue, the thesis aims to propose a controlled vocabulary that represents the emerging metalinguistic configuration of Translation Studies research in Brazil, based on theses and dissertations defended between 2005 and 2020 in the graduate programmes in Translation Studies at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (PGET-UFSC), the University of Brasília (POSTRAD-UnB), the University of São Paulo (TRADUSP-USP), and the Federal University of Ceará (POET-UFC). To guide this research and achieve its goal, the study asks how to present the emerging metalanguage of Translation Studies in the Brazilian academic context while respecting the diversity of discourses on translation theories and practices. It adopts an interdisciplinary framework that connects Translation Studies and Information Science, focusing on knowledge organisation and the construction of specialised systems for metadata representation and indexing. This interface integrates the technical rigour of Information Science standards with the epistemological diversity of Translation Studies. The study employs a multimethod approach that combines bibliographic and documentary research, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and the application of normative principles of syntactic and semantic standardisation for processing keywords. It begins with a review of existing maps and mappings of the disciplinary field to identify its boundaries and advances. The corpus comprises 3,340 keywords collected from 774 theses and dissertations, which were processed and converted into terms according to normative guidelines for syntactic and semantic standardisation specific to the construction of controlled vocabularies. These terms were then compared with the main theoretical mappings in the field. From this cross-analysis, the study identifies conceptual convergences, divergences, and terminological gaps that guide the construction of a controlled vocabulary designed to reflect the field’s conceptual complexity. Developed in Brazilian Portuguese using the TemaTres platform, the controlled vocabulary includes preferred and non-preferred terms, hierarchical, associative, and equivalence relations, as well as scope, bibliographic, and cataloguing notes. Its structure comprises a macrostructure with 22 thematic branches and a relational microstructure that organises the terms subordinated to each branch. The results reveal the metalinguistic configuration of research in Translation Studies, showing the coexistence of consolidated branches—such as literary translation, audiovisual translation, and sign language interpreting—with emerging critical, feminist, and postcolonial approaches. These findings support the creation of a controlled vocabulary that integrates conceptual representativeness, methodological rigour, and practical applicability. The proposed vocabulary serves as a tool for terminological standardisation and scientific communication in the field, assisting in the selection of precise keywords and contributing to the strengthening of the metalanguage of Translation Studies.
theoretical and methodological affiliations
Book Review: Translation and Neoliberalism
Translation studies are actively searching for new topics and methodological tools, entering domains and debating themes that many would have considered improbable some decades ago. Neoliberalism is one of these areas. Neoliberalism connects ideas of freedom, privacy, and deregulation, providing a socioeconomic framework that contributes to the in-depth re-evaluation of translation praxis – its history and criticism. The editors, though, focus on the significance of neoliberalism for teaching translation and interpreting, community interpreting, technology and similar topics. In an incredibly substantial preface, the editors include an explanation of the essence of the theoretical debate, key terms, a description of the investigation in the present volume, and an extensive topical bibliography.
Book Review: Interpreting, Communication and Animal Welfare: An Ecosemiotic Analysis of Interspecies Translation
This thesis investigates how Frankenstein and its afterlives have been repeatedly rewritten and how these processes reshape both the text and the image of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley as a woman author. The central research question asks: how do different forms of rewriting – authorial revision, intertextual reworking, and translation – construct or transform authorial and textual images, and what role does gender play in these transformations? The study draws on André Lefevere’s theory of rewriting, feminist critical discourse analysis, and Gérard Genette’s paratextual framework to conceptualize rewriting as both an appropriative practice and a mode of image construction. The first chapter establishes the theoretical and methodological framework. It traces debates around rewriting across literary studies and Translation Studies, distinguishing between intertextual and manipulative approaches, and positions translation as a significant form of rewriting. It also defines the notion of “appropriative rewriting” to describe how texts are adapted to fit ideological and cultural norms, and explains the adoption of feminist critical discourse analysis to uncover the gendered dimensions of these processes. The second chapter analyzes Mary Shelley’s own rewriting of Frankenstein for the 1831 edition. A comparative reading of the 1818 and 1831 texts shows marked shifts in the representation of family, gender roles, and the philosophical balance between free will and determinism. While the 1831 version has often been read as more conservative, this study argues that it simultaneously reconstructs Shelley’s authorial persona and embeds a veiled critique of patriarchal constraints. Her famous description of the novel as a “hideous progeny” reveals the ambivalent relationship between female authorship and cultural legitimacy. The third chapter turns to Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein (2019), which reimagines both Mary Shelley and her novel in feminist and queer terms. Winterson rewrites history by splitting Shelley into two figures – nineteenth-century Mary Shelley and Ry Shelley, a transgender doctor in the present – thereby highlighting continuities and tensions in gendered exclusion. At the same time, she rewrites fiction by updating Frankenstein’s ethical concerns to contemporary debates on artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and embodiment. Through metafictional strategies and intertextual allusions, Frankissstein presents Shelley as an explicitly feminist and radical thinker for the digital age. The fourth chapter examines Turkish retranslations of Frankenstein, with particular focus on the editions by Serpil Çağlayan (İletişim, 2019) and Gülsüm Canlı (Ötüken, 2021). Through textual and paratextual analysis, the chapter demonstrates how editorial framing, prefaces, footnotes, and the visibility or invisibility of the translator produce divergent images of Mary Shelley. The İletişim edition, while enriched with intertextual footnotes, is accompanied by a preface that diminishes Shelley’s authority, whereas the Ötüken edition foregrounds the translator’s own preface and positions Shelley as a respectable literary figure. These case studies reveal how translation, as rewriting, functions as an ideological and cultural negotiation, reinforcing or contesting dominant gender norms. The conclusion argues that each rewriting of Frankenstein not only reshapes the novel but also continually rewrites the cultural memory of Mary Shelley. From Shelley’s self-revision to Winterson’s feminist reinvention and to Turkish retranslations shaped by local ideologies, rewriting emerges as a dynamic site where gender, authorship, and power intersect. By conceptualizing rewriting as appropriative and image-constructive, the thesis contributes to Translation Studies and feminist literary scholarship, showing how texts and authors achieve canonical status through continuous acts of rewriting.
This paper adopts a descriptive approach to analyze cognitive aspects of English-to-Japanese literary translation from a cognitive perspective, with a focus on metaphors. The goal is to explore practices and processes from a non-Western perspective, a still underrepresented field of research. ST-TT contrastive analysis of selected excerpts taken from Stephen King’s dark fantasy epic It is flanked by critical examination of ST metaphoric lexical units within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) to highlight shifts and similarities in the conceptualization and expression of ideas in the TT. The research also includes the analysis of non-standard Japanese reading glosses deployed in translation and the potential of CMT as key to the understanding of cognitive aspects involved in a practice that leverages translinguistic approaches to make the ST culture accessible to target readers, becoming, as a result, a powerful meaning-creating device.
Book Review: Translation on Display: Multilingual Texts in Multimodal Museum Spaces
Investigating the Simplification Hypothesis in Persian Translated, Authored, and Pseudotranslated Texts:
Laviosa’s simplification hypothesis is a subcategory of translation universals, suggesting that translated texts are of lower lexical variety. The current study investigated Laviosa’s simplification hypothesis in Persian translated, authored, and pseudotranslated texts. To that end, three books by Zabiollah Mansouri were selected; a three-fold comparative analysis was conducted, containing 15,507 words of translated texts, 15,396 of authored texts, and 15,607 words of pseudotranslated texts. The corpus analysis tool AntConc 3.5.7 was leveraged to count types, tokens, and lexical density. Then ANOVA and Dunnett Post Hoc tests were conducted to analyze the data, and results revealed that in terms of type/token ratio, there was no significant difference between translated, authored, and pseudotranslated texts. The lexical density of authored texts was significantly higher than that of translated and pseudotranslated texts, but there was no significant difference between the lexical density of translated and pseudotranslated texts. Regarding mean sentence length, authored texts presented a significantly higher mean sentence length than translated and pseudotranslated texts; besides, the mean sentence length of pseudotranslated texts was significantly higher than that of translated texts. The results of the study revealed that Mansouri succeeded in convincing readers to accept his work as a translated text.
Subtitling Cinema for Intercultural Translation:
This research investigates the subtitling of a Moroccan film into Italian with the aim of promoting intercultural communication through audiovisual translation. The case study focuses on the feature film Khnifist R'mad by Sanaa Akroud, which is subtitled in Italian with the intention not only of conveying elements of Moroccan culture, but also of challenging deep-seated prejudices and stereotypes still present in the collective imagination of many Italians. In this context, the translated audiovisual medium becomes a powerful tool to support mutual understanding, cultural exchange, and peaceful coexistence between Morocco and Italy. The study begins by establishing a solid theoretical foundation, examining key concepts such as translation theory, interculturality, intercultural communication, and subtitling, thus enabling a critical approach to the subtitling process in an intercultural framework. It then explores the socio-cultural and cinematic background of Morocco, reflecting on the marginal presence of Moroccan cinema in Italy and analyzing the motivations behind the choice of this specific film, taking into account the author’s intent and the film’s potential to serve as a medium for intercultural dialogue. The final part of the research focuses on the subtitling process itself, offering an in-depth analysis of the translation strategies employed to maintain cultural nuance and authenticity while respecting the technical constraints of subtitle production. Through concrete examples, the study demonstrates how these strategies contribute to making Moroccan culture more accessible and appreciated by an Italian audience. Ultimately, the findings underscore the potential of translated cinema as a vehicle for intercultural engagement and highlight the importance of thoughtful, culturally aware translation practices. This work lays the groundwork for further reflection and action in the fields of translation studies and intercultural communication, with the broader objective of contributing to a more inclusive and empathetic global society.
Challenges in Interpretation Services for Syrian Refugees in Halle, Germany
According to the UNHCR, more than one million Syrian war refugees have come to Europe since 2011, with around 770,000 living in Germany as of January 2019. As a result, the demand for interpretation, including by nonprofessional interpreters, has risen. This situation brings with it some challenges. This work takes a focused view by offering a qualitative examination of the conditions and challenges of interpreting in the context of the Syrian refugees living in the German city of Halle. It does so by using interviews carried out with refugees and interpreters to identify existing issues and potential options for solving them. To this end, the researcher conducted interviews with twenty Syrian refugees in the city of Halle, whose ages ranged from 25 to 58 years. The participants were all native speakers of Arabic and had encountered problems as a result of interpretation services they had accessed in Germany. In addition, twelve interviews were conducted with professional and nonprofessional interpreters in Halle, revealing additional perspectives on these challenges. Professionals reported difficulties with accents, specialized vocabulary, and responsibility in critical situations. Nonprofessional interpreters had greater difficulty dealing with technical or sensitive information, often resulting in partial translation due to their limited capabilities. The researcher chose the city of Halle to conduct the research for several reasons, including the fact that there is no previous research on this subject in this city. The large number of Syrian refugees living in Halle and the city’s proximity to Leipzig, where the researcher attends university, further presented ideal conditions. In examining these experiences in detail, this research intends to answer the following essential questions: What problems has this group experienced because of allegedly or quantifiably poor-quality interpreting? What are the reasons for mistakes being made when interpreting in the asylum-seeking process? How do refugees themselves see the role of interpreters? What qualifies a person to work as an interpreter in a refugee context, and why or how might they be unsuitable for this task? The present work is thereby intended to contribute toward gaining a better understanding of this phenomenon, as well as to offer starting points for further investigation. The results revealed that asylum seekers not only face legal problems due to poor interpretation services, but also health, educational, social, and financial problems. When asked why they believed the interpreter had made these supposed errors, the refugees provided many potential reasons, including ethnic differences, political differences, or even differences in nationality. While some refugees did believe the poor-quality interpreting that they had received was unintentional, they attributed this to a lack of professionalism of the part of the interpreters and their failure to specialize in a specific field. This study contributes toward expanding the existing body of knowledge surrounding the complexities of interpreting in refugee contexts, and supports the need to improve training and certification standards tailored to the linguistic and cultural needs of Syrian refugees. By addressing these challenges, the study aims to improve the quality and reliability of interpretation services overall, particularly those that are essential for the integration of refugees into German society. وفقًا لتقرير المفوضية السامية للأمم المتحدة لشؤون اللاجئين (UNHCR)، تجاوز عدد اللاجئين السوريين الذين فروا من الصراع في سوريا إلى أوروبا منذ عام 2011 حاجز المليون، حيث يعيش حوالي 770,000 منهم في ألمانيا اعتبارًا من يناير 2019. ومع تزايد أعداد اللاجئين، ارتفع الطلب على خدمات الترجمة الفورية، بما في ذلك الاعتماد على مترجمين غير محترفين، الأمر الذي أفضى إلى ظهور تحديات متعددة في هذا المجال. تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى تقديم تحليل نوعي للظروف والتحديات المرتبطة بخدمات الترجمة الفورية في سياق اللاجئين السوريين الذين يقيمون في مدينة هاله الألمانية. لتحقيق ذلك، اعتمدت الدراسة على إجراء مقابلات مع كل من اللاجئين والمترجمين بهدف تحديد المشكلات القائمة والخيارات الممكنة لحلها. قام الباحث بمقابلة عشرين لاجئًا سوريًا في مدينة هاله، تتراوح أعمارهم بين 25 و58 عامًا، وكان جميعهم ناطقين أصليين باللغة العربية. أشار المشاركون في المقابلات إلى مواجهتهم لمشكلات ناتجة عن خدمات الترجمة الفورية التي تم توفيرها لهم في ألمانيا. بالإضافة إلى ذلك، تم إجراء مقابلات مع اثني عشر مترجمًا محترفًا وغير محترف في المدينة نفسها، وقد أظهرت هذه المقابلات رؤى إضافية حول التحديات التي يواجهها المترجمون في تقديم هذه الخدمات. كشف المترجمون المحترفون عن صعوبات تتعلق بالتعامل مع اللهجات المختلفة والمفردات المتخصصة، فضلاً عن المسؤولية الملقاة على عاتقهم في المواقف الحساسة. في المقابل، أشار المترجمون غير المحترفين إلى تحديات أكبر في التعامل مع المعلومات القانونية أو الطبية، مما أدى إلى تقديم ترجمات جزئية نتيجة لمحدودية خبراتهم. اختيار الباحث لمدينة هاله كموقع للدراسة كان مبنيًا على عدة عوامل، منها عدم وجود دراسات سابقة تناولت هذا الموضوع في المدينة، إضافةً إلى وجود عدد كبير من اللاجئين السوريين المقيمين فيها. كما أن قرب هاله من مدينة لايبزيغ، حيث يدرس الباحث، ساهم في تهيئة الظروف الملائمة لإجراء الدراسة. تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى الإجابة عن مجموعة من الأسئلة الأساسية: ما هي المشكلات التي يواجهها اللاجئون نتيجة لخدمات الترجمة الفورية التي تُعتبر ذات جودة رديئة؟ ما هي الأسباب التي تؤدي إلى حدوث أخطاء في الترجمة الفورية أثناء عملية طلب اللجوء؟ كيف يُقيِّم اللاجئون دور المترجمين الفوريين؟ ما المؤهلات المطلوبة للعمل كمترجم في سياق اللاجئين، ولماذا قد يكون البعض غير مناسب لهذه المهمة؟ أظهرت نتائج الدراسة أن طالبي اللجوء يواجهون مشكلات قانونية، بالإضافة إلى تحديات صحية وتعليمية واجتماعية ومالية، نتيجة لخدمات الترجمة الفورية غير الجيدة. وعند سؤالهم عن الأسباب المحتملة لهذه الأخطاء، قدم اللاجئون تفسيرات متعددة، شملت الفروقات العرقية والسياسية وحتى الجنسية. في حين اعتقد بعض اللاجئين أن الأخطاء كانت غير متعمدة، إلا أنهم عزوا ذلك إلى قلة احترافية المترجمين وعدم تخصصهم في مجالات معينة. تُسهم هذه الدراسة في توسيع الفهم الحالي لتعقيدات الترجمة الفورية في سياقات اللاجئين، وتؤكد على الحاجة إلى تحسين معايير التدريب والشهادات لضمان توافقها مع الاحتياجات اللغوية والثقافية للاجئين السوريين. ومن خلال معالجة هذه التحديات، تهدف الدراسة إلى تعزيز جودة وموثوقية خدمات الترجمة الفورية، مما يسهم في تحسين اندماج اللاجئين في المجتمع الألماني.
Translators in the age of globalization and increased automation risk becoming reduced to mere end-stage editors of machine translation. While translator training courses strive to prepare students for notional specialization and continuously expiring technical skills, they also recognize the enduring need for cultural competence and understanding. The aim of this article is to argue the case for a stronger presence of humanities learning in translation training as the foundation and medium for a more open, flexible, emotionally aware, culturally sensitive and intellectually curious mentality and skill set. The analysis examines three examples from the language combination Galician and (Irish-)English of translators who use their humanistic knowledge to overcome translation challenges and find an equivalent flavour in their own language to that of the original text. The analysis is complemented by the translators’ reflections on their own work and the task of translation obtained through email interviews.
The thesis aims to integrate discourse and narrative analysis to establish a robust visualization-based triangulation framework tailored to the digital media landscape. This framework triangulates online translation through two distinct lenses: a macro discursive level that transitions from authority to texts, and a microscopic narrative level focused on framing techniques and reader perceptions. Visualization serves as the foundation for this triangulation, aiming to depict the centralization of discourse and construction of narratives through a concept termed “Cluster and Flow,” where the clustering of discourses, facilitated by topic modeling, guides the discourse analysis, while network co-occurrence graphs shed light on the underlying narratives. The framework’s efficacy is evaluated through translations by state-run media on Twitter, marked by a loosely defined mobile reading context with strong ideology, contrasted with translations on centralized and collaborative platforms like Wikipedia. The analysis starts with the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in China’s Twitter, focusing on the Russo-Ukraine war, and expands to Wikipedia, unveiling the complexities of translation within the digital realm. By integrating discourse and narrative theories with “Cluster & Flow” visualization techniques, this model’s validation across platforms achieves wide-ranging triangulation. This visualization-based triangulation model maps the digital media translation landscape and advances the integration of qualitative and quantitative analysis in translation research.
A Study on the Professional Identity Crisis of Contemporary Interpreters in China
The interpreting professionalization faces a variety of challenges in China, such as the increasing number of interpreters, rising societal English proficiency, and advancements in artificial intelligence, leading to crises in interpreters’ professional identity. Existing studies predominantly focus on interpreter’s roles in interpreting activities from a third-party perspective. Research on interpreters’ professional identity from their own perspective remain insufficient. This study aims to understand the impact of challenges to the interpreting profession on the professional identity of interpreters. Employing ethnographic methods, the research studies 50 practicing professional interpreters in the Chinese interpreting market during 2023–2024. Interviews totaling 62,3181 Chinese characters are coded under constructivist grounded theory. A narrative analysis is conducted followed by a multimodal analysis of interpreters’ social media activities. Surverys are processed using statistical tools to explore correlations between challenges in the industry and interpreters’ perceptions of professional identity crisis. The data were interpreted with reference to identity theory and symbolic interactionism. Three research questions were addressed: (1) How do interpreters acquire their professional identity? (2) What identity crises interpreters face throughout their career? (3) How can interpreters cope with these crises and uphold their professional identity? The study finds that students are heavily motivated by their imagination of the profession, which is co-constructed by media, family and friends, professional education and role models. The acquirement of professional identity requires interpreters to go through three stages, including academic advancement, rigorous practice, and profession entry. The arduous path to identity affirmation is also the first identity crisis interpreters face. Overcoming psychological setbacks and frustration, and affirming their interpreting and interpreter competence signify resolution of this stage’s crisis. Along the line of individual development, interpreters face the crisis of a lack of belonging. It undermines interpreters’ commitment to their professional community, affecting their long-term identity affirmation and sustainment. The third crisis is achieving a stable professional identity. In the social field, interpreters first face the crisis of declining professional returns. Second, interpreters face the crisis brought by rising societal English proficiency and advancements in Artificial Intelligence. Third, interpreters face the crisis of changes in public perception, which deems that they are going to be replaced by technology. This study proposes solutions tailored to three phases of interpreters’ professional identity development. Media outlets should accurately portray interpreting to foster a correct public understanding, while interpreter education programs should cultivate realistic career expectations among students. Professional associations should play a stronger role in regulating the industry, protecting interpreters’ rights, promoting public awareness, and providing dispute arbitration. Associations should also offer community-building opportunities and professional certification to enhance interpreters’ identity affirmation, sense of belonging, and identity stability. This study represents the first attempt to examine the professional identity crisis of contemporary interpreters in China. Theoretically, it introduces identity theory and symbolic interactionism and constructs a framework for interpreters’ professional identity, identifying interpreting and interpreter competence as its core. Practically, it unveils interpreter’s professional identity crises and offers solutions to address these issues, providing recommendations to both regulator and educators in interpreting profession.
The Concept of “Distance” (Between Languages-Cultures) in Translation and Translation Studies:
Although the notion of “distance”, especially linguistic, cultural, and temporal, dots the discourse of Translation Studies (TS), it has never been given due consideration and it thus remains under the radar. In this context, the present thesis explores the concept of “distance”, particularly between languages and cultures, from a firmly translational and translatological perspective. The starting postulate is that it is possible to express the complex nexus of divergences and convergences between two linguistic-cultural systems through a simplified representation, that is a “distance”. Thus, the main question posed in this thesis can be summed up as follows: what influence does distance between languages-cultures exert on translation, and what relevance does the concept have for TS? Excluding the introduction (chap. 1) and conclusion (chap. 8), this paper-based thesis consists of six chapters. The first five of these six chapters are articles that have been published or submitted for publication in various scholarly journals with double-blind peer review. In the thesis, we conduct an empirical research to examine the notion of “distance”. This research begins with a pilot study (chap. 3, in French), which then leads to a more thorough study (chap. 6, in English). Both studies investigate how cultural references found in French-language Québec films are subtitled in Japanese (as a “remote” language-culture) and English (as a “close” language-culture). We also carry out a mapping of the idea of “distance” in itself and as it exists in TS, while discussing the methodological challenges of such an endeavor (chap. 5, in French). This mapping is preceded by a methodologically similar study of a key concept of the thesis, namely that of “culture” (chap. 2, in French). In addition, we develop a rationale for a narrow (re)definition of the concept of “translation” and for a discipline to match (chap. 4, in English). This general stance on TS and its object forms the basis of the last chapter in which we present a number of critical reflections on the concept of “distance” in translation and outline a translatological research program centered on the formulation of translation laws based on distance between languages-cultures (chap. 7, in French). Taken together, these chapters provide a better understanding of the explicit and implicit links that tie the concept of “distance”, particularly between languages-cultures, to translation and TS. In sum, in this thesis, we problematize and conceptualize the notion of “distance” (between languages-cultures) from a theoretical perspective, and we operationalize and test it from an empirical perspective. Furthermore, we legitimize and promote the concept in the discipline, and we develop it through a proposal for a research program. In other words, we strive to bring the concept of “distance” closer to translation and TS.
The Case of the Missing ‘C-U-T’ and the Enduring ‘P’ Problem: Untranslatable Humour in a Micro Scene in Twelfth Night
This paper is mainly based on translations of a micro-scene in Twelfth Night, focusing on Malvolio’s reading of Olivia’s forged letter in Act 2, Scene 5, lines 87-90. The significance of this scene relies on the absence of the obscene connotations implied in the letter sequence ‘C-U-T’ and the phrase “her great P’s”. Through examining the scene in Arabic, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish translations, the paper shows that although these letters are often kept in most translations, their connotations have generally been rendered ineffective. This pattern reflects a dependence on orthographic fidelity at the expense of theatrical function. Drawing on contemporary humour-centred models, theatre-translation theory, and the politics of non-translation, the paper argues that the loss of humour in such texts is not a matter of untranslatability, but rather a consequence of institutional constraints that discourage dramaturgical authorship in canonical drama.
Book Review: Translation and Participation
English Translation of Hongloumeng and the Establishment of Early British Knowledge of China in the Nineteenth Century
This thesis investigates the construction of Chinese knowledge through the translation practices of British sinologists in the nineteenth century. It centers on two such significant sinologists, John Francis Davis (1795-1890) and Edward Charles MacIntosh Bowra (1841-1874), and their translations of Hongloumeng 红楼梦 (Dream of the Red Chamber, or The Story of the Stone, 1791-2), a renowned Chinese classical novel repeatedly translated by British sinologists of the time to learn the Chinese language and culture. The sinologists, who were both the pioneers in establishing British sinology and diplomacy in China, were also deeply engaged in advancing the British colonial and imperial agenda in the country throughout the century. Therefore, through the two case studies, the thesis aims to reflect how the early British sinologists acquired knowledge of China, including its language and culture, under the special historical context of the nineteenth century when the global expansion of British colonialism and imperialism brought Britain into a direct and conflictual contact with China. Drawing on critics of Said’s Orientalism, it presents a theoretical framework for understanding cultural translation between China and Britain that diverges from the universalizing tendencies of the anti-Orientalist paradigm, instead emphasizing the particularities of the translation activities. By examining the specific translation choices and the context in which Davis and Bowra worked, the case studies highlight the complexities of cross-cultural interactions, revealing how translation actively constructs equivalent relations between languages and facilitates linguistic and cultural communication under specific historical conditions. The thesis concludes by pointing out a domestication strategy employed by both translators to manage and control the complete foreignness of the cultural other, which not only leads to the distortion of the meaning of the original text but also the fanciful representation of the cultural “reality” of China. Rather than attributing the distortion and misrepresentation to an orientalist discourse, the research perceives both translation practices as a manifestation of the British fantasy of China which cannot be simply explained as resulting from linguistic and cultural inequalities between China and Britain, as anti-orientalists following the Saidian approach most often seek to expose. Instead, it contends that the fantasy disclosed here is an inherent part of the human cognitive mechanism and thus an inevitable phenomenon in cultural translation.
Translating Indigenous Languages in Multilingual Fiction Feature Films: 'Ixcanul' and 'Embrace of the Serpent'
This article aims to uncover current translation practices of Indigenous languages in multilingual feature fiction films, by conducting a comparative case study of two 2015 movies: Ixcanul [Volcano] (dir. Jayro Bustamante, 2015) and El abrazo de la serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent, dir. Ciro Guerra, 2015). This study will address script translation, on-set and in diegesis, as well as audiovisual translation (AVT). Studying the translation of Indigenous languages in film is crucial to our understanding of the hegemonic and enduring linguistic dynamics disseminated by the media. This article will address which target audience the AVT was produced for, and the reception of the films following their distribution. The understanding of these aspects of translation of Indigenous languages for cinema will advocate for reflective, more inclusive, and creative AVT practices aiming to ensure the agency of Indigenous peoples and their languages in cinema.
Authorship in Exile: The Translation and Renarration of Mercè Rodoreda
Authorship in Exile: The Translation and Renarration of Mercè Rodoreda Daisy Isabelle Towers University of Leeds mldit@leeds.ac.uk ABSTRACT - in attached word Doc
The editorial does not have an abstract.
Visitors’ Virtual Museum Experiences as Cross-Cultural Meaning-Making Processes:
Adopting an interdisciplinary approach from museum studies, translation studies, and post-phenomenological understanding of technology, this thesis explores the virtual museum experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse visitors, a growing yet under-researched audience in virtual museum settings. It examines how diverse visitors navigate a virtual museum and engage in cross-cultural meaning making during the visit, highlighting the roles of technological, cultural, and linguistic factors in shaping their experiences. Focusing on the case of visitors to the virtual Museum Siam, an institution physically located in Thailand, the study employed a process-oriented qualitative approach in which data were collected through real-time video recordings, with the researcher present and performing the role of a museum guide. This newly-developed method was then triangulated with surveys and follow-up interviews. A multimodal interaction framework was employed for analysis, incorporating the concept of multistability, which emphasizes the coexistence of multiple interpretations, to capture the complexity and fluidity of the experiences. Key themes of four embodied practices were elicited: Walking, Looking, Viewing, and Reading, each complementing one another and contributing to visitors’ technological navigation and cross-cultural engagement during their virtual visits. The thesis argues that these practices are experienced and expressed differently among Thai and non-Thai visitors. From a comparative view, the virtual museum experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse visitors are dynamic and multi-perceptival. The findings suggest that while visitors’ interactions with technological affordances, mostly driven by their technological literacy, play a significant role in shaping these unique and authentic experiences that differ from physical visits, visitors’ cultural backgrounds, knowledge, experiences, and linguistic competences critically underpin their technological interactions and cross-cultural meaning-making processes. To cater to the diverse needs of visitors from different backgrounds, a more dynamic, personalized approach is needed. The findings of this thesis ultimately contribute to the New Museology discourse on promoting accessibility and inclusivity in museums.
Translatability of Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese with Insights from Constrained Language
Poetry has long been considered untranslatable. However, Walsh (2018) proposes a theory of “essentially translatable poetry”. To test the feasibility of Walsh’s framework, this paper applies it to Rabindranath Tagore’s (1861-1941) poem Stray Birds. Based on an examination of all 325 poems of Stray Birds and their Chinese translations, there are four features greatly relevant to the translatability of poetry: dominance of imagery, absence of culture-specific items, free verse, and simple lexical and syntactic structures, in line with Walsh’s (2018) proposal. As Stray Birds comprises Tagore’s self-translations from Bengali into English and poems originally written in English, this study discusses the reasons for translatability from the perspective of constrained language, which refers to the language produced under prominent constraints. Readers’ reception is also examined to investigate the effects of Tagore’s strategies, which are found to contribute to ease of cross-cultural understanding and the circulation of Stray Birds as world literature.
Navigating Trust in Translation: “Lin Shu, Inc.” in Early 20th Century Chinese Literature
In the context of the history of Chinese translation, “Lin Shu, Inc.” is a term popularized by Hill (2013). The term alludes to the large “enterprise” that translator Lin Shu had built and represents his distinct paradigm and multifaceted practices. This study employs the analytical framework of trust theory to situate the success of “Lin Shu, Inc.” within the historical and cultural milieu of late Qing and early Republican China, exploring the underlying dynamics of trust that shaped Lin Shu's translation approach and professional collaborations. By analyzing his cooperative networks, institutional support, and broader cultural impact, the research highlights the pivotal role of trust in configuring translation practices. This case study sheds light on the complex interplay between trust, translation, and cultural exchange, offering new perspectives on how trust functions as a critical force in navigating literary and cross-cultural interactions.
Distributed Agency in Networks of Translation: From Journalism to Treaties
Today’s translation processes and production environments involve multiple actors and instruments that form increasingly complex networks. In this paper, I examine such networks and the distribution of influence in them. I illustrate the networks of translation and the distribution of agency therein through two example cases: (1) translation of journalistic texts by a freelance translator through an LSP; (2) government translators’ work on treaties. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that in order to understand the nature of a translator’s work and its outcomes, one needs to look far beyond the immediate participants of the translation assignment. The distribution of agency should be acknowledged whenever studying phenomena related to translation, and also when dealing with translation products. Understanding the multitude of influential background factors gives a better understanding of why the target texts are what they are, and it also sheds light on the position of translators.
Book Review: Of Peninsulas and Archipelagos: The Landscape of Translation in Southeast Asia
This article presents a book review of "Of Peninsulas and Archipelagos - The Landscape of Translation in Southeast Asia" edited by Chittiphalangsri and Rafael. The review highlights the strengths of the book, particularly its focus on Southeast Asian, and addresses areas for improvement. The word count of this article is 1,630.
Book Review: Audio Description for the Arts: A Linguistic Perspective
In the 21st century, the mediums of cinema, television, and short videos have played a pivotal role in facilitating cultural exchange, giving rise to the field of Audiovisual Translation (AVT), which has attracted significant attention within translation studies. Audio Description (AD), then, serves as a crucial component, offering language services tailored for the visually impaired and enriching the breadth and depth of research in AVT. Associate Professor, Elisa Perego, from the University of Pavia in Italy, specializes in English Language and Translation, and has co-directed numerous audiovisual projects as a trailblazer in the field. Her seminal work, Audio Description of Artworks: A Linguistic Perspective, delves into the linguistic representation and translation of AD in static artworks such as paintings and sculptures. Perego’s exploration encompasses three distinct methods of AD for presenting artworks in museum and gallery settings: live narration, pre-recorded AD, and tactile guided tours. The primary objective is to offer a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis based on a corpus of descriptive data, unveiling prevalent linguistic patterns in specific types of art texts found in museums or art galleries. Furthermore, Perego’s aim is to assess guidelines for oral scripts, propose viable solutions and innovative methods for static art tailored for visually impaired individuals.