The role of archival and manuscript research in the investigation of translator decision-making

Munday, Jeremy

doi:10.1075/target.25.1.10mun

Article published In: Interdisciplinarity in Translation and Interpreting Process Research
Edited by Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow, Susanne Göpferich and Sharon O'Brien
[Target 25:1] 2013
► pp. 125–139

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The role of archival and manuscript research in the investigation of translator decision-making

Jeremy Munday | University of Leeds, UK

Published online: 4 March 2013

https://doi.org/10.1075/target.25.1.10mun

This paper discusses the application of research methodologies from history and literary studies to the analysis of the translation process. Specifically, this concerns the use of literary archive and manuscript material to investigate the various stages in the construction of the translation product. Such material has been drastically underexploited in translation studies to date. The paper describes the type of material available for researchers and how this has been used. This is followed by a case study involving the detailed textual analysis of a translator’s drafts and revisions. The paper considers the value of such research methods in investigating the translation process and how they might complement and interact with other methodologies.

Keywords: descriptive translation studies, draft translations, literary manuscripts, publishers archives, research methodology, translator papers, translation process, translation product

Article outline

1.Introduction
2.Archive, manuscripts and personal papers
- 2.1Archives, manuscripts and papers in translation studies research
3.Case study—drafts of Bellos’s retranslation of Perec’s Les choses
4.Questions of research methodology
Notes
References

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