Authorizing Translation

This groundbreaking volume re-calibrates how translation studies opens up readings of authority and text and how translation studies as a field affects how translations are enacted and how they are read. Six case study-based essays shed light on some central themes: translation theory and translation criticism; translingualism; the translator’s increasing presence in the text; pseudo-translation; translation and authorship; and the translator’s fictionalization of the translation process. This collection will be of interest to students and researchers in the areas of Translation, Translation Studies, and those studying translation within comparative literature.

Authorizing Translation applies ground-breaking research on literary translation to examine the intersection between Translation Studies and literary criticism, rethinking ways in which analyzing translation and the authority of the translator can provide nuanced micro and macro readings of literary work and the worlds through which it moves. A substantial introduction surveys the field and suggests possible avenues for future research, while six case-study-based chapters by a new generation of Literature and Translation Studies scholars focus on the question of authority by asking:

1. Who authors translations?
2. Who authorizes translations?
3. What authority do translations have in different cultural contexts?
4. What authority does Literary Translation Studies have as a field?

The hermeneutic role of the translator is explored through the literary periods of Romanticism, Modernism, and Postmodernism, and through different cultures and languages. The case studies focus on data-centered analysis of reviews of translated literature, ultimately illustrating how the translator’s authority creates and hybridizes literary cultures.

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