Kaisa Koskinen | Tampere University (original) (raw)
Retranslation by Kaisa Koskinen
This monograph (in Finnish) offers an analytical overview and explanation of retranslation as a r... more This monograph (in Finnish) offers an analytical overview and explanation of retranslation as a regular activity in any literary system. The book discusses the qualities and constraints of this activity by taking stock of previous international research and by looking at extensive empirical evidence from Finnish literature. Numerous case studies also function as practical illustrations of the various research questions one can pose to retranslation data, and the book can be used as a text book for university courses on literature and translation.
A defining feature of retranslation is that a previous translation exists, and this earlier tex... more A defining feature of retranslation is that a previous translation exists, and this earlier text has a first translator. In this article we argue that the figure of the first translator exerts an influence in the retranslation process, and all retranslators are forced to develop a stance towards the predecessor. Taking Harold Bloom’s notion of anxiety of influence in poetry as a starting point, we look at two cases of retranslation that share the same famous first translator, Pentti Saarikoski, analysing how and where the voice of this first translation can be heard in the retranslations. According to Bloom’s taxonomy, there are six modes available to poets. Applying the same taxonomy to our two retranslators, we find that they have resorted to different modes. What remains constant is that the figure of the first translator is an unavoidable function of the retranslation process and needs to be taken into account both by the retranslator and by researchers studying retranslations.
Keywords: retranslator, first translator, anxiety of influence, Pentti Saarikoski, dependency/abhängigkeit, translator roles
Outi Paloposki and Kaisa Koskinen: ‘Reprocessing texts. The fine line between retranslating and r... more Outi Paloposki and Kaisa Koskinen: ‘Reprocessing texts. The fine line between retranslating and revising.’ Across Languages and Cultures 11(1), 2010, 29–49.
Retranslations are a frequent object of study in Translation Studies. They can be used as data for a number of research problems, or retranslation can be studied as a phenomenon of its own. There are no large-scale surveys on retranslation, however, let alone surveys that would be coupled with in-depth case studies; no doubt due to the laboriousness and complexity of such task. Our own interest in the issue started from a small-scale project testing the so-called Retranslation Hypothesis, but gradually our research expanded to focus on the phenomenon as a whole. We have addressed three main areas: the extent and proportion of retranslation in Finland (including lists and timelines of retranslated literature); the motives for and reception of retranslations (publishers, readers); and finally, what happens to a text when it is retranslated (textual analysis). For this purpose, we have compiled three different sets of data in Finnish translated literature. These sets consist of synchronic data (retranslations and their reviews from the year 2000), diachronic data (retranslations of classics lists compiled in 1999 and 1887) and case studies (works by e. g. Victor Hugo, Nikolai Gogol, Astrid Lindgren and Juan Valera translated into Finnish). This paper presents an overview of the results of our own study, argues for a need for a comprehensive treatment of retranslation as a phenomenon, and discusses the implications of textual analysis to the understanding of what retranslation is. of The cases presented include Hugo's Les Miserables, Gogol’s Dead souls and Lagerlöf's Gösta Berling.
This is the original entry to the Handbook of Translation Studies Vol 1 from 2010; a revised vers... more This is the original entry to the Handbook of Translation Studies Vol 1 from 2010; a revised version will be published shortly.
Kaisa Koskinen and Outi Paloposki: ‘Retranslations in the Age of Digital Reproduction’, Cadernos ... more Kaisa Koskinen and Outi Paloposki: ‘Retranslations in the Age of Digital Reproduction’, Cadernos de Tradução, special issue on retranslation, 11 – 2003/1, 18–38.
Abstract
In the present article, we continue our earlier discussion on retranslations,
started at the EST (European Society for Translation Studies) 2001 Congress in Copenhagen (Paloposki and Koskinen, 2004). This present
article builds on the conclusions of the earlier one, which, in brief, are as
follows: contrary to what the so called Retranslation Hypothesis claims, the textual profiles of translations are not determined simply by their chronological order of appearance, but respond to a number of different reasons and settings. In Section II, we will develop this point more, giving an overview of the Retranslation Hypothesis, of the study of retranslations, and historical data examining some of the earlier ideas on retranslation. We then approach retranslation from the present-day perspective, pointing out the relevance of retranslation and different modes of reproduction in the digital age of new technologies.
Keywords: Retranslation, Reprints, Publishing industry, Technological
advances.
Training by Kaisa Koskinen
User-centred translation (UCT) aims at providing translators with tools that can be used to enhan... more User-centred translation (UCT) aims at providing translators with tools that can be used to enhance translations with the aid of usability research methods. This article reports an experimental case of UCT. The aim was to test the feasibility of usability testing for a team translation project involving web-based course material. Two different tests were designed: one followed a task-based model, where the participants were asked to perform a clearly defined task, while the other was an attempt to create an empirical test measuring the usability of a text intended to be read and understood by its users. The test participants were recruited from among potential representative users, who resemble the intended target audience. The results from the two test sessions indicate that the usability tests were indeed meaningful for the translation team, and while the methods themselves require refinement, UCT offers promising new avenues for research and practical applications.
PICT “Promoting Intercultural Competence in Translators” is the name of a project of the European... more PICT “Promoting Intercultural Competence in Translators” is the name of a project of the European Union, which ran from 2011-2013.
The core aim of the PICT project was to produce a comprehensive toolkit making it easy for HE institutions within the EU to introduce Intercultural Communication into their postgraduate programmes in Translation. A set of ready-made lesson plans and assessment materials is now freely available on-line in several languages. I have got a number of requests to upload the document. Please note that all materials are available on-line if you follow the attached link.
Interpreter and Translator Trainer (ITT) 6:1, 2012
This article describes a case study, where students of an MA level research methods course for tr... more This article describes a case study, where students of an MA level research methods course for translation studies were invited to engage in a participatory learning experience in the spirit of critical pedagogy. During the course, the matrix originally designed by Michael Burawoy to describe the four fields of sociology (professional, critical, policy and public sociology) was presented and adapted to translation studies. The notion of public translation studies was then used to enhance the students’ awareness of the dialogic possibilities of research to engage with different publics. This engagement was then put into practice in a small-scale assignment designed both to introduce fieldwork methods and to bring the students’ lived experiences into the classroom for discussion and debate. We found that the framework of critical pedagogy and public translation studies offered many opportunities to resist the marketization and commodification forces currently shaping contemporary university education. They also offer an empowering opportunity to create a more democratic and dialogic learning environment.
Institutional translation by Kaisa Koskinen
The article aims to identify the sources of disunity between different usages of ‘institutional t... more The article aims to identify the sources of disunity between different usages of ‘institutional translation’ and to propose a clarifying foundation for the concept. It argues that the core function of institutions as regulatory organizational systems is to govern, and in a multilingual environment they can and often do employ translation in performing their governing function. In that case, they govern by translation. To better understand the nature of government by translation, the concepts of governance, governing and governmentability are discussed; Meylaerts’ model of translational options in multilingual governance is applied to governing, and a tentative model of the translation regimes (maintenance, regulation, implementation and identity work) is designed.
Published: Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, DOI: 10.1080/0907676X.2014.948887
50 eprints freely available from the link.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2013
Fifteen years ago, the illusions of equality and equivalence were identified as cornerstones of E... more Fifteen years ago, the illusions of equality and equivalence were identified as cornerstones of EU translation. This paper revisits these concepts from a contemporary point of view. Several new official languages have been introduced, a new communication policy has been adopted, and social media tools have entered the field of EU communication. Particular emphasis is placed on virtual linguistic landscapes in the EU blogosphere and social media networks, and on the emerging language policy identifiable from the language practices in them. The analysis of language choices in Commissioners' blogs, the European Commission's Facebook profile, EUtube and EuroparlTV indicates that, to further the aim of creating a European public sphere, communication practices are shifting from the policy of multilingualism towards a hegemonic language policy where English dominates.
Handbook of Translation Studies, Vol 2 (Benjamins), 2011
Hermes, 2009
This paper explores how and whether the different institutional and organisational contexts affec... more This paper explores how and whether the different institutional and organisational contexts affect translators' professional activities and professional identities. The site researched is the European Commission, where the changing political impetus has recently instigated a new role for some of the translators. For them, the institutional framework has thus changed substantially. This presents an opportunity to research how institutionally expressed status affects the status as experienced by the translators themselves. The data consists of institutional documents as well as interview and observation data from two different settings, a traditional translation unit in Luxembourg (2004) and the local representation of the European Commission in Helsinki .
‘Kansalaiset keskustelevat – kuuleeko EU?’ Lukija- ja käyttäjälähtöinen viestintä/ Reader- and Us... more ‘Kansalaiset keskustelevat – kuuleeko EU?’ Lukija- ja käyttäjälähtöinen viestintä/ Reader- and User-Oriented Commmunication. Viestinnäntutkimuksen päivät 2007. Vaasan yliopiston selvityksiä ja raportteja, eds. Heli Katajamäki et al., Vaasa 2008, 138–144.
The European Union institutions have recently paid a lot of attention to their communication strategies. In this article, EU communication is examined with respect to active and, in particular, affective citizenship. With the help of a case example (public debate on the so called “Article 141 aid” for Finnish farmers, thoughout the autumn 2007) it is argued that increasing the affectivity of the dialogue between the distant and bureaucratic institution and the citizens would require the EU institutions to adopt an even more localized and dialogic communication strategy.
The Translator, Vol 6, N:o 1, 2000., 2000
Sociology of translation by Kaisa Koskinen
Kulttuurien kohtaaminen on aikamme suuria haasteita. Monikulttuurisuus tuottaa käytännössä myös m... more Kulttuurien kohtaaminen on aikamme suuria haasteita. Monikulttuurisuus tuottaa käytännössä myös monikielisyyttä. Kielten kohtaaminen synnyttää myös kääntämisen tiloja tai paikkoja. Tulkattu Tampere esittelee tällaisia pysyviä tai hetkellisiä tiloja: oikeussalia, koulua, monikulttuurista työyhteisöä ja seurakuntaa samoin kuin julkisen tilan kielimaisemaa. Tampere toimii kirjaa yhdistävänä teemana, mutta vastaavia tiloja syntyy kaikkialle, missä erikieliset ihmiset kohtaavat.
Editorial (by Łucja Biel) With its issue n° 25, The Journal of Specialised Translation pays tribu... more Editorial (by Łucja Biel)
With its issue n° 25, The Journal of Specialised Translation pays tribute to translators, putting their emerging and evolving profession in the spotlight. The special issue on The translation profession: centres and peripheries, guestedited by Helle V. Dam and Kaisa Koskinen, continues to explore a theme already touched on in n° 19 (Machine translation and the working methods of
translators) and n° 21 (Professional aspects of translation). It features 12 papers, an introduction and a concluding article by the guest editors, 8 reviews and 2 interviews. It offers a comprehensive overview of research into the translation profession, illustrated with evidence from varied mature markets, such as Denmark, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Israel, and supported by data obtained through methodologically rich approaches, including sociology of translation, observational workplace studies, surveys, retrospective verbal protocols, and social network analysis.
The prevalent theme of the issue is the topology of the translation profession — its centre/prototype and fuzzy boundaries — from both diachronic (Paloposki) and synchronic perspectives. The guest editors lay the conceptual foundations in their introduction and concluding paper and discuss boundary work by researchers, trainers and professionals (Dam and Koskinen). Two papers focus
on an important determinant of the topology — the translator status, analysing how it is perceived by seasoned translators (Dam and Zethsen) and translation students (Ruokonen). Another crucial aspect of the topology is the centrality of actors in varied settings: in small and medium-sized enterprises (Kuznik) and among freelancers, in-house translators and amateur translators (Risku, Rogl and Pein-Weber). Finally, the core group of papers address internal and external threats to the translation profession. Threats from within include the antiprofessionalisation ethos fostered by literary translators (Sela-Sheffy), and internal hierarchisation (Hunziker Heeb). External threats are posed by: crowdsourcing
(Flanagan), market disorder and temporary de-professionalisation
related to the recent plague of identity thefts (Pym, Orrego-Carmona, TorresSimón), and last but not least, threats from technology — computer-aided translation (Christensen and Schjoldager; Bundgaard, Christensen and Schjoldager) and machine translation (Koponen).
This issue also offers two interviews related to its theme: one of a translation company director, the other of a freelance translation professional. With its richness of perspectives and methodological eclectism, research into the translation profession emerges as a strong and much needed sub-field within Translation Studies.
This article concludes a special issue on the translating profession. Taking all contributions as... more This article concludes a special issue on the translating profession. Taking all contributions as its data set, it provides an overview of how academic articles on translation practice participate in boundary work in the field of translation. Boundary work, i.e. creating and policing boundaries, is analysed from three angles: we look at definitions of professional translation (i.e., who are considered insiders), internal differentiations and border disputes inside the field, and border disputes between insiders and outsiders. The results emphasise the necessity to recognise the researchers’ and trainers’ role in boundary work and to pay attention to assumed boundaries researchers may unintentionally reinforce. The findings also highlight that researchers and
practitioners may have different views and conflicting interests.
This monograph (in Finnish) offers an analytical overview and explanation of retranslation as a r... more This monograph (in Finnish) offers an analytical overview and explanation of retranslation as a regular activity in any literary system. The book discusses the qualities and constraints of this activity by taking stock of previous international research and by looking at extensive empirical evidence from Finnish literature. Numerous case studies also function as practical illustrations of the various research questions one can pose to retranslation data, and the book can be used as a text book for university courses on literature and translation.
A defining feature of retranslation is that a previous translation exists, and this earlier tex... more A defining feature of retranslation is that a previous translation exists, and this earlier text has a first translator. In this article we argue that the figure of the first translator exerts an influence in the retranslation process, and all retranslators are forced to develop a stance towards the predecessor. Taking Harold Bloom’s notion of anxiety of influence in poetry as a starting point, we look at two cases of retranslation that share the same famous first translator, Pentti Saarikoski, analysing how and where the voice of this first translation can be heard in the retranslations. According to Bloom’s taxonomy, there are six modes available to poets. Applying the same taxonomy to our two retranslators, we find that they have resorted to different modes. What remains constant is that the figure of the first translator is an unavoidable function of the retranslation process and needs to be taken into account both by the retranslator and by researchers studying retranslations.
Keywords: retranslator, first translator, anxiety of influence, Pentti Saarikoski, dependency/abhängigkeit, translator roles
Outi Paloposki and Kaisa Koskinen: ‘Reprocessing texts. The fine line between retranslating and r... more Outi Paloposki and Kaisa Koskinen: ‘Reprocessing texts. The fine line between retranslating and revising.’ Across Languages and Cultures 11(1), 2010, 29–49.
Retranslations are a frequent object of study in Translation Studies. They can be used as data for a number of research problems, or retranslation can be studied as a phenomenon of its own. There are no large-scale surveys on retranslation, however, let alone surveys that would be coupled with in-depth case studies; no doubt due to the laboriousness and complexity of such task. Our own interest in the issue started from a small-scale project testing the so-called Retranslation Hypothesis, but gradually our research expanded to focus on the phenomenon as a whole. We have addressed three main areas: the extent and proportion of retranslation in Finland (including lists and timelines of retranslated literature); the motives for and reception of retranslations (publishers, readers); and finally, what happens to a text when it is retranslated (textual analysis). For this purpose, we have compiled three different sets of data in Finnish translated literature. These sets consist of synchronic data (retranslations and their reviews from the year 2000), diachronic data (retranslations of classics lists compiled in 1999 and 1887) and case studies (works by e. g. Victor Hugo, Nikolai Gogol, Astrid Lindgren and Juan Valera translated into Finnish). This paper presents an overview of the results of our own study, argues for a need for a comprehensive treatment of retranslation as a phenomenon, and discusses the implications of textual analysis to the understanding of what retranslation is. of The cases presented include Hugo's Les Miserables, Gogol’s Dead souls and Lagerlöf's Gösta Berling.
This is the original entry to the Handbook of Translation Studies Vol 1 from 2010; a revised vers... more This is the original entry to the Handbook of Translation Studies Vol 1 from 2010; a revised version will be published shortly.
Kaisa Koskinen and Outi Paloposki: ‘Retranslations in the Age of Digital Reproduction’, Cadernos ... more Kaisa Koskinen and Outi Paloposki: ‘Retranslations in the Age of Digital Reproduction’, Cadernos de Tradução, special issue on retranslation, 11 – 2003/1, 18–38.
Abstract
In the present article, we continue our earlier discussion on retranslations,
started at the EST (European Society for Translation Studies) 2001 Congress in Copenhagen (Paloposki and Koskinen, 2004). This present
article builds on the conclusions of the earlier one, which, in brief, are as
follows: contrary to what the so called Retranslation Hypothesis claims, the textual profiles of translations are not determined simply by their chronological order of appearance, but respond to a number of different reasons and settings. In Section II, we will develop this point more, giving an overview of the Retranslation Hypothesis, of the study of retranslations, and historical data examining some of the earlier ideas on retranslation. We then approach retranslation from the present-day perspective, pointing out the relevance of retranslation and different modes of reproduction in the digital age of new technologies.
Keywords: Retranslation, Reprints, Publishing industry, Technological
advances.
User-centred translation (UCT) aims at providing translators with tools that can be used to enhan... more User-centred translation (UCT) aims at providing translators with tools that can be used to enhance translations with the aid of usability research methods. This article reports an experimental case of UCT. The aim was to test the feasibility of usability testing for a team translation project involving web-based course material. Two different tests were designed: one followed a task-based model, where the participants were asked to perform a clearly defined task, while the other was an attempt to create an empirical test measuring the usability of a text intended to be read and understood by its users. The test participants were recruited from among potential representative users, who resemble the intended target audience. The results from the two test sessions indicate that the usability tests were indeed meaningful for the translation team, and while the methods themselves require refinement, UCT offers promising new avenues for research and practical applications.
PICT “Promoting Intercultural Competence in Translators” is the name of a project of the European... more PICT “Promoting Intercultural Competence in Translators” is the name of a project of the European Union, which ran from 2011-2013.
The core aim of the PICT project was to produce a comprehensive toolkit making it easy for HE institutions within the EU to introduce Intercultural Communication into their postgraduate programmes in Translation. A set of ready-made lesson plans and assessment materials is now freely available on-line in several languages. I have got a number of requests to upload the document. Please note that all materials are available on-line if you follow the attached link.
Interpreter and Translator Trainer (ITT) 6:1, 2012
This article describes a case study, where students of an MA level research methods course for tr... more This article describes a case study, where students of an MA level research methods course for translation studies were invited to engage in a participatory learning experience in the spirit of critical pedagogy. During the course, the matrix originally designed by Michael Burawoy to describe the four fields of sociology (professional, critical, policy and public sociology) was presented and adapted to translation studies. The notion of public translation studies was then used to enhance the students’ awareness of the dialogic possibilities of research to engage with different publics. This engagement was then put into practice in a small-scale assignment designed both to introduce fieldwork methods and to bring the students’ lived experiences into the classroom for discussion and debate. We found that the framework of critical pedagogy and public translation studies offered many opportunities to resist the marketization and commodification forces currently shaping contemporary university education. They also offer an empowering opportunity to create a more democratic and dialogic learning environment.
The article aims to identify the sources of disunity between different usages of ‘institutional t... more The article aims to identify the sources of disunity between different usages of ‘institutional translation’ and to propose a clarifying foundation for the concept. It argues that the core function of institutions as regulatory organizational systems is to govern, and in a multilingual environment they can and often do employ translation in performing their governing function. In that case, they govern by translation. To better understand the nature of government by translation, the concepts of governance, governing and governmentability are discussed; Meylaerts’ model of translational options in multilingual governance is applied to governing, and a tentative model of the translation regimes (maintenance, regulation, implementation and identity work) is designed.
Published: Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, DOI: 10.1080/0907676X.2014.948887
50 eprints freely available from the link.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2013
Fifteen years ago, the illusions of equality and equivalence were identified as cornerstones of E... more Fifteen years ago, the illusions of equality and equivalence were identified as cornerstones of EU translation. This paper revisits these concepts from a contemporary point of view. Several new official languages have been introduced, a new communication policy has been adopted, and social media tools have entered the field of EU communication. Particular emphasis is placed on virtual linguistic landscapes in the EU blogosphere and social media networks, and on the emerging language policy identifiable from the language practices in them. The analysis of language choices in Commissioners' blogs, the European Commission's Facebook profile, EUtube and EuroparlTV indicates that, to further the aim of creating a European public sphere, communication practices are shifting from the policy of multilingualism towards a hegemonic language policy where English dominates.
Handbook of Translation Studies, Vol 2 (Benjamins), 2011
Hermes, 2009
This paper explores how and whether the different institutional and organisational contexts affec... more This paper explores how and whether the different institutional and organisational contexts affect translators' professional activities and professional identities. The site researched is the European Commission, where the changing political impetus has recently instigated a new role for some of the translators. For them, the institutional framework has thus changed substantially. This presents an opportunity to research how institutionally expressed status affects the status as experienced by the translators themselves. The data consists of institutional documents as well as interview and observation data from two different settings, a traditional translation unit in Luxembourg (2004) and the local representation of the European Commission in Helsinki .
‘Kansalaiset keskustelevat – kuuleeko EU?’ Lukija- ja käyttäjälähtöinen viestintä/ Reader- and Us... more ‘Kansalaiset keskustelevat – kuuleeko EU?’ Lukija- ja käyttäjälähtöinen viestintä/ Reader- and User-Oriented Commmunication. Viestinnäntutkimuksen päivät 2007. Vaasan yliopiston selvityksiä ja raportteja, eds. Heli Katajamäki et al., Vaasa 2008, 138–144.
The European Union institutions have recently paid a lot of attention to their communication strategies. In this article, EU communication is examined with respect to active and, in particular, affective citizenship. With the help of a case example (public debate on the so called “Article 141 aid” for Finnish farmers, thoughout the autumn 2007) it is argued that increasing the affectivity of the dialogue between the distant and bureaucratic institution and the citizens would require the EU institutions to adopt an even more localized and dialogic communication strategy.
The Translator, Vol 6, N:o 1, 2000., 2000
Kulttuurien kohtaaminen on aikamme suuria haasteita. Monikulttuurisuus tuottaa käytännössä myös m... more Kulttuurien kohtaaminen on aikamme suuria haasteita. Monikulttuurisuus tuottaa käytännössä myös monikielisyyttä. Kielten kohtaaminen synnyttää myös kääntämisen tiloja tai paikkoja. Tulkattu Tampere esittelee tällaisia pysyviä tai hetkellisiä tiloja: oikeussalia, koulua, monikulttuurista työyhteisöä ja seurakuntaa samoin kuin julkisen tilan kielimaisemaa. Tampere toimii kirjaa yhdistävänä teemana, mutta vastaavia tiloja syntyy kaikkialle, missä erikieliset ihmiset kohtaavat.
Editorial (by Łucja Biel) With its issue n° 25, The Journal of Specialised Translation pays tribu... more Editorial (by Łucja Biel)
With its issue n° 25, The Journal of Specialised Translation pays tribute to translators, putting their emerging and evolving profession in the spotlight. The special issue on The translation profession: centres and peripheries, guestedited by Helle V. Dam and Kaisa Koskinen, continues to explore a theme already touched on in n° 19 (Machine translation and the working methods of
translators) and n° 21 (Professional aspects of translation). It features 12 papers, an introduction and a concluding article by the guest editors, 8 reviews and 2 interviews. It offers a comprehensive overview of research into the translation profession, illustrated with evidence from varied mature markets, such as Denmark, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Israel, and supported by data obtained through methodologically rich approaches, including sociology of translation, observational workplace studies, surveys, retrospective verbal protocols, and social network analysis.
The prevalent theme of the issue is the topology of the translation profession — its centre/prototype and fuzzy boundaries — from both diachronic (Paloposki) and synchronic perspectives. The guest editors lay the conceptual foundations in their introduction and concluding paper and discuss boundary work by researchers, trainers and professionals (Dam and Koskinen). Two papers focus
on an important determinant of the topology — the translator status, analysing how it is perceived by seasoned translators (Dam and Zethsen) and translation students (Ruokonen). Another crucial aspect of the topology is the centrality of actors in varied settings: in small and medium-sized enterprises (Kuznik) and among freelancers, in-house translators and amateur translators (Risku, Rogl and Pein-Weber). Finally, the core group of papers address internal and external threats to the translation profession. Threats from within include the antiprofessionalisation ethos fostered by literary translators (Sela-Sheffy), and internal hierarchisation (Hunziker Heeb). External threats are posed by: crowdsourcing
(Flanagan), market disorder and temporary de-professionalisation
related to the recent plague of identity thefts (Pym, Orrego-Carmona, TorresSimón), and last but not least, threats from technology — computer-aided translation (Christensen and Schjoldager; Bundgaard, Christensen and Schjoldager) and machine translation (Koponen).
This issue also offers two interviews related to its theme: one of a translation company director, the other of a freelance translation professional. With its richness of perspectives and methodological eclectism, research into the translation profession emerges as a strong and much needed sub-field within Translation Studies.
This article concludes a special issue on the translating profession. Taking all contributions as... more This article concludes a special issue on the translating profession. Taking all contributions as its data set, it provides an overview of how academic articles on translation practice participate in boundary work in the field of translation. Boundary work, i.e. creating and policing boundaries, is analysed from three angles: we look at definitions of professional translation (i.e., who are considered insiders), internal differentiations and border disputes inside the field, and border disputes between insiders and outsiders. The results emphasise the necessity to recognise the researchers’ and trainers’ role in boundary work and to pay attention to assumed boundaries researchers may unintentionally reinforce. The findings also highlight that researchers and
practitioners may have different views and conflicting interests.
This article appeared in the journal Translation Studies in 2014. It looks at the municipality of... more This article appeared in the journal Translation Studies in 2014. It looks at the municipality of Tampere (Swedish: Tammerfors), an industrial inland city in southern Finland. The patterns of multilingual interaction within this geographic space are traced, paying special attention to the historical trajectories of translationality. This rereading of the history of Tampere (with particular emphasis on the period 1809-1917) focuses on translational events, that is, moments of overcoming linguistic and cultural barriers in written or spoken communicative situations in which more than one language is involved. Translational actions are found to take many forms, ranging from highly prominent and visible interpreting to everyday self-translation. What remains constant during the period under study is a sense of parallel existence of languages and mutual accommodation to the linguistic needs of a multilingual community, even in the face of conflicting interests and changing power relations.
Keywords: translation space, translational action, translationality, multilingualism, urban space, history of translationality
Language, Space and Power: Urban Entanglements, Jani Vuolteenaho, Andrew Newby, Lieven Ameel, and Maggie Scott eds. COLLeGIUM n:o 13, 2012, 73–92., 2012
In this article, the linguistic landscape of the suburb of Hervanta in Tampere, Finland is studie... more In this article, the linguistic landscape of the suburb of Hervanta in Tampere, Finland is studied from the perspective of translation studies. The data, collected in 2011, consists of 22 cases of translated signage. This data was analysed by using categorisations previously developed by and Edelman Additionally, numerous translation studies viewpoints and concepts are introduced, including covert and overt translations, target-and source-orientedness, domestication and foreignisation, pragmatic adaptations, and the concepts of translational assimilation and accommodation. I argue that an adequate understanding of translated signage requires paying attention not only to what is translated but also to how translations are produced, and that translation studies can offer tools for this kind of analysis.
Abstract This article reports on a research project that elicited translators’ emotional narra... more Abstract
This article reports on a research project that elicited translators’ emotional narratives of their work with the aim of better understanding the contemporary scene of professional translation. The respondents (n = 102) represent EU translators, Finnish professional translators and translation students from two countries (Ireland and Finland). The method of data collection
was “love letter/hate letter”, an exploratory tool borrowed from user experience research (Hanington & Martin 2012: 114). A total of 148 letters drafted by the respondents has beenanalysed, and the findings are contrasted with the notion of habitus put forward by Daniel Simeoni in his classic essay from 1998. A content and discourse analysis of translators’ predominantly positive emotions, their spatial discourses, preference for efficiency and yearning for freedom largely supports Simeoni’s hypothesis of translators’ voluntary subservience, but the results also suggest that his model is too simplified to fully capture the variability of
empirical data.
Keywords: habitus, emotions, love letter/hate letter method, space, efficiency, freedom
Avainsanat: habitus, tunteet, rakkauskirje/erokirje-menetelmä, tila, tehokkuus, vapaus
Domestication and Foreignization in Translation Studies, eds. Hannu Kemppanen, Marja Jänis, Alexandra Belikova, Frank& Timme, Berlin., 2012
This article offers a critical overview of Venuti’s concepts of domestication and foreignization,... more This article offers a critical overview of Venuti’s concepts of domestication and foreignization, arguing that instead of, or at least in addition to, viewing those two strategies as inhabiting opposing poles on the axis of cultural distance, they should be seen from the point of view of emotional affinity. The concept of affect is used to highlight the affective aspects of translated communication, and I argue for a heightened awareness of the role of affects in various research paradigms in translation studies. In the context of Venuti’s legacy, the notion of affect also implies a need to return to literary theories, in particular those dealing with aesthetic effect, to understand better the role of affects in writing, translating and reading, and the possibilities of modulating these affects at all stages of the process.
Text and Context. Essays on Translation and Interpreting in honour of Ian Mason. Eds. Mona Baker, Maeve Olohan and María Calzada Perez, St.Jerome, Manchester, 2010
In recent years the European Union institutions have put considerable emphasis on communicating t... more In recent years the European Union institutions have put considerable emphasis on communicating their message to their European constituencies. To achieve the aim of creating affective European citizenship they have introduced new methods and tools for improved interaction. This article offers an overview of these new communication methods, focusing on the use of social media tools (blogs, EUtube) and other web-based communication. These methods are analyzed within a framework provided by audience design, and their impact on institutional translation practices in the European Commission is discussed.
In this article, the field of Translation Studies is mapped with the help of a matrix developed b... more In this article, the field of Translation Studies is mapped with the help of a matrix developed by Michael Burawoy for sociology. His four fields of professional, critical, policy and public sociology are used to chart similar trends in TS. Burawoy argues for a more visible engagement in public sociology. This paper argues for a similar focus on public Translation Studies.
International Business Review, Oct 1, 2022
The field of International Business (IB) has traditionally focused on the crossing of national bo... more The field of International Business (IB) has traditionally focused on the crossing of national boundaries. In this Perspective, we argue that organizational, knowledge domain, and language boundaries are equally important for understanding translation activities in cross-border business. We integrate three kinds of translation (organizational translation and knowledge translation from Organization Studies and interlingual translation from Translation Studies) to deepen our understanding of core IB phenomena and pose new research questions. We introduce the framework of a translation ecosystem for integrating the micro perspective of translating agents, the meso perspective of organizational units, and the macro perspective of the larger social and linguistic contexts that influence translation. This framework allows IB scholars to identify important but invisible boundaries in cross-border business. The translation ecosystem requires the kind of multi-level research that has been recognized as crucial for taking the field forward and offers the potential for making contributions both to IB and to translation research beyond the disciplinary boundaries of IB.
Kieli, koulutus ja yhteiskunta, 2021
Pohdimme kirjoituksessamme, mitkä ajatukset kääntämisestä olisivat tärkeitä kieltenopettajille ja... more Pohdimme kirjoituksessamme, mitkä ajatukset kääntämisestä olisivat tärkeitä kieltenopettajille ja kielenoppijoille. Tarkastelemme käännöstieteen näkökulmasta, miksi mediaatio on tärkeä osa eurooppalaista viitekehystä (Council of Europe 2020), miksi kääntämisen ja translatorisuuden ymmärtäminen on avain inklusiivisuuteen ja monikulttuurisuuden kohtaamiseen sekä teknologisen kehityksen hallitsemiseen. Kerromme lyhyesti, miten kääntäminen nähdään käännöstieteessä, miten sitä opetetaan ja mitä siitä olisi yleisesti tärkeää tietää. Valotamme myös, miksi laaja kääntämiskäsitys ja ymmärrys mediaation monista muodoista on tullut tutkimuskohteeksi aikaisemman ammattimaisen kääntämisen tutkimuksen ja opettamisen rinnalle (ks. esim. Koskinen 2020). Tarkoituksemme on edistää ajatusta kääntämisestä kansalaistaitona ja painotamme viitekehyksen sosiaalista näkökulmaa.nonPeerReviewe
Translator, May 8, 2017
Notes on contributors Minna Ruokonen is a Senior Lecturer in English Language and Translation at ... more Notes on contributors Minna Ruokonen is a Senior Lecturer in English Language and Translation at the University of Eastern Finland. In her dissertation (Cultural and Textual Properties in the Translation and Interpretation of Allusions 2010, available online), she explored the translation of literary allusions in Finland of the 1940s and the 1980s, challenging the widely accepted idea that unfamiliar allusions mostly become confusing culture bumps. Her post-doctoral research focuses on the status of translators in society and the factors and strategies affecting it; since 2013, she has completed two extensive surveys in Finland, among translation students (277 respondents) and among professional translators (450 respondents) and published three articles on the subject. She is also one of the developers of the Finnish universities' Database for Teaching Methods in Translation and Interpreting (est. 2014) and is passionate about coming up with new ways of teaching translation and of supporting translation teachers in developing their teaching skills. As of August 2016, Kaisa Koskinen is Professor of Translation Studies at the University of Tampere. She has authored several articles and monographs, e.g., Beyond Ambivalence. Postmodernity and the Ethics of Translation (2000, PhD), Translating Institutions. An Ethnographic Study of EU Translation (St.Jerome/Routledge 2008) and the text book User-Centered Translation (Routledge 2015; co-authored with Tytti Suojanen and Tiina Tuominen). Her current research interests include the concept of translatorial action in contemporary and historical perspectives, translatorial professions, as well as translation, user experience and affect.
Organization Studies, Dec 19, 2019
Organizational scholars refer to translation as a metaphor in order to describe the transformatio... more Organizational scholars refer to translation as a metaphor in order to describe the transformation and movement of organizational practices across institutional contexts. However, they have paid relatively little attention to the challenges of moving organizational practices across language boundaries. In this conceptual paper, we theorize that when organizational practices move across contexts that differ not only in terms of institutions and cultures but also in terms of languages, translation becomes more than a metaphor; it turns into reverbalization of meaning in another language. We argue that the meeting of languages opens up a whole new arena for translator agency to unfold. Interlingual and metaphorical translation are two distinct but interrelated forms of translation that are mutually constitutive. We identify possible constellations between interlingual and metaphorical translation and illustrate agentic translation with published case examples. We also propose that interlingual translation is a key resource in the discursive constitution of multilingual organizations. This paper contributes to the stream of research in organization studies that has made translation a core aspect of its inquiry.
Routledge eBooks, Jun 11, 2020
International Business Review
The field of International Business (IB) has traditionally focused on the crossing of national bo... more The field of International Business (IB) has traditionally focused on the crossing of national boundaries. In this Perspective, we argue that organizational, knowledge domain, and language boundaries are equally important for understanding translation activities in cross-border business. We integrate three kinds of translation (organizational translation and knowledge translation from Organization Studies and interlingual translation from Translation Studies) to deepen our understanding of core IB phenomena and pose new research questions. We introduce the framework of a translation ecosystem for integrating the micro perspective of translating agents, the meso perspective of organizational units, and the macro perspective of the larger social and linguistic contexts that influence translation. This framework allows IB scholars to identify important but invisible boundaries in cross-border business. The translation ecosystem requires the kind of multi-level research that has been recognized as crucial for taking the field forward and offers the potential for making contributions both to IB and to translation research beyond the disciplinary boundaries of IB.
The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Ethics, 2020
Stridon, Jun 28, 2022
In this conceptual paper we look at the concept of mediation in foreign language learning from a ... more In this conceptual paper we look at the concept of mediation in foreign language learning from a translation studies perspective. Through an analysis of the most important European language teaching policy document, namely the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), we will study the conceptualizations of mediation and translation in the CEFR and identify elements that are important with respect to understanding translatoriality and its role in the framework. We argue that a narrow concept of translation goes against CEFR's explicit aims of mediation. We therefore propose that the concept of translatoriality might be used instead to help teachers and learners orient to a wide variety of translatorial mediation practices while still also benefitting from well-established and widely studied strategies of professional translation and interpreting. Further collaboration between translation and interpreting trainers and foreign language teachers will be needed, as well as fieldwork research on best classroom practices, and a solid and shared conceptual basis will enhance the possibilities of combining the accumulating findings collected through fieldwork.
Handbook of Translation Studies, 2010
As professional communication needs are increasingly multilingual, the merging of translator and ... more As professional communication needs are increasingly multilingual, the merging of translator and technical communicator roles has been predicted. However, it may be more advantageous for these two professional groups to increase cooperation. This means learning to identify and appreciate their distinct but mutually complementary core competencies. Since both professions share the ideology of being the user's advocate, usability is a common denominator that can function as a focal point of collaboration. While many translation theories focus on the reader and the target context, usability methods have not traditionally been a part of translator training. An innovation called User-Centered Translation (UCT), which is a model based on usability and user-centered design, is intended to help translators speak the same language as technical communicators, and it offers concrete usability tools which have been missing from translation theories. In this teaching case study, we discuss the teaching of four UCT methods: personas, the implied reader, heuristic evaluation, and usability testing. We describe our teaching experiences, analyze student feedback on all four, and report on the implementation of a student assignment on heuristics. This case study suggests ways in which UCT can form an important nexus of professional skills and multiprofessional collaboration.
User-Centered Translation, 2014
1. Introduction: A Proposal for a User-Centered Model of Translation 2. Usability and User Experi... more 1. Introduction: A Proposal for a User-Centered Model of Translation 2. Usability and User Experience 3. Users and Using Texts 4 Textual Elements of Usability 5. Mental Models of the User 6. Usability Heuristics and Translation 7. Empirical Usability Methods 8. Reception Research in Translation Studies 9. User-Centered Translation in the Translation Industry 10. Conclusion
Przekładaniec
Many Voices in Retranslation. A Review of Retranslating Joyce for the 21st Century This article i... more Many Voices in Retranslation. A Review of Retranslating Joyce for the 21st Century This article is a review of Jolanta Wawrzycka and Erika Mihálycsa’s edited volume Retranslating Joyce for the 21st Century (European Joyce Studies 30, Brill/ Rodopi, 2021). It discusses a number of core issues raised in the book, starting from the observation that 21st century translations of Joyce’s work are by necessity retranslations, and that this necessarily makes them qualitatively different from first translations. The chapters discuss many features of retranslation in the context of Ulysses in particular, ranging from the notion of retranslation hypothesis and comparisons between versions to issues of dealing with many voices and the creativity this requires; the necessity of contextualising the different versions; and the roles of the retranslator, reviser and editor. The review also makes some suggestions for future research on retranslating Joyce.
This article concludes a special issue on the translating profession. Taking all contributions as... more This article concludes a special issue on the translating profession. Taking all contributions as its data set, it provides an overview of how academic articles on translation practice participate in boundary work in the field of translation. Boundary work, i.e. creating and policing boundaries, is analysed from three angles: we look at definitions of professional translation (i.e., who are considered insiders), internal differentiations and border disputes inside the field, and border disputes between insiders and outsiders. The results emphasise the necessity to recognise the researchers’ and trainers’ role in boundary work and to pay attention to assumed boundaries researchers may unintentionally reinforce. The findings also highlight that researchers and practitioners may have different views and conflicting interests.
New Horizons in Translation Research and Education 4, 2016
This volume is the result of the fourth Translation Studies Doctoral and Teacher Training Summer ... more This volume is the result of the fourth Translation Studies Doctoral and Teacher Training Summer School held in Turku, Finland in June 2015. The six articles in the edited volume are the following:
Meinianneli Demasi, PROFESSIONAL L2 TRANSLATION: PERCEPTION AND PRACTICE
Elin Svahn, FEELING LIKE A TRANSLATOR: EXPLORING TRANSLATOR STUDENTS’ SELF-CONCEPTS THROUGH FOCUS GROUPS
Juho Suokas, USABILITY METHODS IN TRANSLATION EVALUATION: HEURISTIC EVALUATION AND USABILITY TESTING
Mary Nurminen, MACHINE TRANSLATION-MEDIATED INTERVIEWING AS A METHOD FOR GATHERING DATA IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: A PILOT PROJECT
Ida Hove Solberg, FINDING THE X FACTOR: SUPPORT TRANSLATION AND THE CASE OF LE DEUXIÈME SEXE IN SCANDINAVIA
Iris F. Muñiz, TRACKING SOURCES IN INDIRECT TRANSLATION ARCHAEOLOGY – A CASE STUDY ON A 1917 SPANISH TRANSLATION OF IBSEN’S ET DUKKEHJEM (1879)