Voices of Translation: Rewriting Literary Texts in a Scandinavian Context

This project identifies and foregrounds the "voices" of Scandinavian literary translations: both the rewritten textual voices (e.g. implied author, narrators and characters) and the voices that can be found in contextual materials (i.e. the voices of the interactive network of translators, copy editors, general managers, committee members, critics, authors, etc., who are directly or indirectly responsible for the translations as they appear in contextual material). Unlike existing TS research, we combine text and agent analysis. We bring to light alterations (shifts) that are not linguistically imposed and hypothesize both their motivation and their effect on the reader. We furthermore map the agent interactions responsible for the alterations, examine reviews and reader blogs, and invite practitioners to reflect on their choices and confront them with our hypotheses. Our mode of analyzing is replicable, allowing future researchers to map interactions between agents (power mechanisms), to interpret the discursive traces of these interactions, and to understand if/how readers may perceive/interpret these discursive traces. Among the new concept we have developed are "multiple translatorship", "the translation pact" and "manifest/non manifest voice".

Though translation is vital in a globalized world, it remains poorly understood in Scandinavia. Most readers still read translations as texts produced solely by the author, although Translation Studies (TS) has shown that translators are creative co-write rs. In ten related case studies and two conceptual essays, this project will begin to identify and foreground the "voices" of Scandinavian literary translations: both the rewritten intra-textual voices (e.g. implied author, narrators and characters) and t he rewriting extra-textual voices (i.e., the interactive network of translators, copy editors, general managers, committee members, critics, authors, etc., who are directly or indirectly responsible for the translations). Unlike existing TS research, we w ill combine text and agent analysis. By comparing translations in different Scandinavian languages, we will bring to light alterations (shifts) that are not linguistically imposed and hypothesize both their motivation and their effect on the reader. We wi ll furthermore map the agent interactions responsible for the alterations, examine reviews and reader blogs, and invite practitioners to reflect on their choices and confront them with our hypotheses. Our mode of analyzing will be replicable, allowing fut ure researchers to map interactions between agents (power mechanisms), to interpret the discursive traces of these interactions, and to understand if/how readers may perceive/interpret these discursive traces.