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Article published In: FORUM
Vol. 21:2 (2023) ► pp.213–235

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A critical review of research on translation and memory

Theories, themes, and prospects

 | KU Leuven
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with KU Leuven.

Published online: 14 November 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.22019.hou
Abstract
This article presents a critical review of a bourgeoning interdisciplinary research trend in the English-language literature that integrates Translation Studies and Memory Studies. After sketching its emergence over the past three decades or so, the article recounts main theoretical contributions in this research trend to explain how scholars promote an idea of translation as memory and expound on political and ethical issues. It then reports on analytical scholarship on specific cases of translation that take on different memory themes, including (1) the Holocaust, genocide and mass killing, (2) war, conflict, and other dark memories, and (3) traditions and sites of memory. Finally, to anticipate a more diversified prospect of the research trend, it is suggested that researchers adopt more concepts and theories from recent transcultural memory studies, and attend more to memory cultures, themes, and practices in different, especially non-Western, contexts.
Résumé
Cet article présente une revue critique d’un courant de recherche interdisciplinaire en plein essor dans la littérature de langue anglaise, qui intègre traductologie et les études mémorielles. Après avoir esquissé son émergence au cours des trois dernières décennies environ, l’article retrace les principales contributions théoriques de ce courant de recherche afin d’expliquer comment les chercheurs promeuvent l’idée de la traduction en tant que mémoire et exposent les questions politiques et éthiques qui en découlent. Il présente ensuite la recherche des cas spécifiques de traduction qui portent sur différents thèmes liés à la mémoire, notamment (1) l’Holocauste, le génocide et les massacres, (2) la guerre, les conflits et autres mémoires sombres, et (3) les traditions et les sites de mémoire. Enfin, pour anticiper une perspective plus diversifiée de ce courant de recherche, il est suggéré que les chercheurs adoptent davantage de concepts et de théories issus des récentes études sur la mémoire transculturelle, et qu’ils s’intéressent davantage aux cultures, aux thèmes et aux pratiques de la mémoire dans des contextes différents, en particulier non-occidentaux.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Research on translation and memory: A chronological sketch
  • 3.Theorizing translation from memory perspectives
    • 3.1Translation as mnemonic practice
    • 3.2Translation, memory, and politics/ethics of the past in the present
  • 4.Translation and memories on the move: Themes and genres
    • 4.1The Holocaust, genocide, and mass killing memories in/as translation
    • 4.2The translation and reception of war, conflict and other dark memories
    • 4.3Translation, tradition, and sites of memory
  • 5.Envisioning future research directions: Two further transcultural considerations
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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2025. Translation, heritage, and traveling memory: remembering Angkor in a thirteenth/fourteenth-century Chinese travel record and its three modern English renditions. Perspectives ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

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