Trekking further into context: exploring the relation between translators'/interpreters' practice and their discourses (original) (raw)

Research within Translation Studies has become increasingly context oriented. Though norm theory is eminently sociological in its theoretical underpinnings (Pym in Pym, Shlesinger & Jettmarová, 2006: 3), researchers were slow to move beyond textual sources (Toury, 1995:65) in search of evidence of normative translational behaviour, text being understood here as also including oral output in interpreting. The need for a different form of analysis first arose in the field of community interpreting research, but context oriented approaches have also proved fruitful for the study of other forms of translational or interpreting activity. Theoretically, explanatory links have been established between text/utterance on the one hand and context (viz. translation and norms (alia.) on the other hand. Empirical studies have drawn on sources from libraries and archives and more recently on on-line surveys (Katan, Pöchhacker & Zwischenberger, 2009) 9 and (ethnographic) fieldwork , 2005, Angelleli 2004, Koskinen 2008, among many others) in the search for patterns in / explanations for translational practices. The work of all of the scholars mentioned so far demonstrate the interdisciplinary nature of Translation Studies in the way they draw on approaches, research methodologies and assumptions from outside Translation Studies proper. This in turn has raised debate about how much of any given discipline a researcher should be acquainted with, next to translation studies, in order to arrive at productive results in translation research (see, for example, Pym's debate on the sociology of translation in Pym, Shlesinger & Jettmarová, 20006: 4-6). Such interdisciplinary exchanges and debates are essential, if we wish to acquire a fuller picture of translating or interpreting as situated practices and hence further develop and fine-tune our models for describing and analysing translation not just as a language phenomenon alone but also as a social phenomenon. The panel we propose plans to address more specifically the role of stances and positionings found in translators' and interpreters' discourses within the whole of translation/interpreting practices. The fundamental question underlying this is: how are we to understand this relation? We believe that surveys, participant observation and in-depth interviews can allow us to gain insight into and outline (embodied) stances and positionings with regard to translational and interpreting activities and thereby provide a essential complement to the information a comparative analysis of data from translational and interpretive exchanges can provide us information on translational strategies and tactics. Without wishing to deny the importance of studying translations as such, we would like to focus in the main on the translatorial side of the proposition. We argue that this relation between the translational and the translatorial is not of a falsifiable nature to the extent that practices may be shown to contradict positionings and vice versa.