Cover not available

Article published In: 'Translaboration': Translation as Collaboration
Edited by Alexa Alfer
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 3:3] 2017
► pp. 388–406

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Translation as a metaphoric traveller across disciplines

Wanted: Translaboration!

 | University of Vienna
Published online: 16 October 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.3.3.07zwi
Abstract
Translation, as a concept, may be regarded as a prototype of a ‘travelling concept’ as it has travelled to numerous disciplines in recent years. Therefore, a ‘translational turn’ was proclaimed for the humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences (cf. Bachmann-Medick. 2007. Cultural Turns: Neuorientierungen in den Kulturwissenschaften. 2nd edn. Reinbeck bei Hamburg: Rowohlt.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, Bachmann-Medick. 2009. “Introduction: The Translational Turn.” In The Translational Turn, ed. by Doris Bachmann-Medick. Special issue of Translation Studies 2 (1): 2–16. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Outside of translation studies, the use of the translation concept is not bound to “translation proper” (Jakobson, Roman. 1959. “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation.” In On Translation, ed. by Andrew Reuben, 232–239. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 232) or to the way in which the concept is used and defined in translation studies. Consequently, ‘translation’ is usually used as a very broad metaphor in translation studies’ neighbouring disciplines and fields of research. This mobility shows the potential and high polysemantic value of the translation concept. What we are missing, however, is a ‘translaboration’ between translation studies and the various other disciplines that employ translation studies’ master concept.
The paper will illustrate the background of the translational turn and the rise of the notion of ‘cultural translation’ as well as the deployment of the translation category in organisation studies and sociology. It will thus limit itself to examples from cultural studies and the social sciences. The paper’s aim is to revise and dispel some of the misconceptions held against translation proper and the discipline of translation studies, thereby showing that translation studies has the conceptual and theoretical grounding to be the leading discipline for the unfolding of a translational turn outside its disciplinary borders. Furthermore, the paper will show the common ground for a translaboration from which both translation studies and its neighbouring disciplines could ultimately benefit.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Travelling concepts: Their power and pitfalls
    • 2.1The travel metaphor and its ‘taintedness’
  • 3.The ‘translational turn’
    • 3.1A turn: Premises and background
    • 3.2Cultural translation
      • 3.2.1Roots of cultural translation
  • 4.Relationship of distance
    • 4.1Attributions to translation proper and translation studies
  • 5.Further uses of the translation concept beyond cultural translation
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (58)
References
Alfer, Alexa. 2015. “Transcending Boundaries.” The Linguist 54 (5): 26–27.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Angelelli, Claudia V., ed. 2012. The Sociological Turn in Translation and Interpreting Studies. Special Issue of Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS) 7 (2). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asad, Talal. 1986. “The Concept of Cultural Translation in British Social Anthropology.” In Writing Culture: The Poetics and Policy of Ethnography, ed. by James Clifford and George E. Marcus, 141–164. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bachmann-Medick. 2007. Cultural Turns: Neuorientierungen in den Kulturwissenschaften. 2nd edn. Reinbeck bei Hamburg: Rowohlt.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bachmann-Medick, Doris. 2008. “Kulturwissenschaften – eine Übersetzungsperspektive? Doris Bachmann-Medick im Gespräch mit Boris Buden.“ In Übersetzung: Das Versprechen eines Begriffs, ed. by Boris Buden and Stefan Nowotny, 29–42. Wien: Turia + Kant.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bachmann-Medick. 2009. “Introduction: The Translational Turn.” In The Translational Turn, ed. by Doris Bachmann-Medick. Special issue of Translation Studies 2 (1): 2–16. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bal, Mieke. 2009. “Working with Concepts.” European Journal of English Studies 13 (1): 13–23. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bassnett, Susan, and Andre Lefevere, eds. 1990. Translation, History, and Culture. London: Pinter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bio. 2016. Matthew Henson Biography. Accessed October 7, 2016. [URL]
Blumczynski, Piotr. 2016. Ubiquitous Translation. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buden, Boris, and Stefan Nowotny. 2009. “Cultural Translation: An Introduction to the Problem.” Translation Studies 2 (2): 196–208. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buden, Boris. 2008. “Kulturelle Übersetzung. Einige Worte zur Einführung in das Problem.” In Übersetzung: Das Versprechen eines Begriffs, ed. by Boris Buden and Stefan Nowotny, 9–28. Wien: Turia + Kant.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buzelin, Helene. 2007. “Translation Studies, Ethnography and the Production of Knowledge.” In In Translation – Reflections, Refractions, Transformations, ed. by Paul St. Pierre and Prafulla C. Kar, 39–56. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carlile, Paul R. 2004. “Transferring, Translating, and Transforming: An Integrative Framework for Managing Knowledge Across Boundaries.” Organization Science 15 (5): 555–568. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clifford, James. 1986. “Introduction: Partial Truths.” In Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, ed. by James Clifford and George E. Marcus, 1–26. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clifford, James. 1989. “Notes on Travel and Theory.” Inscriptions 51. [URL]
Clifford, James. 1997. Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Czarniawska, Barbara, and Bernward Joerges. 1996. “Travels of Ideas.” In Translating Organizational Change, ed. by Barbara Czarniawska and Guje Sevón, 13–48. Berlin: de Gruyter. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Czarniawska, Barbara, and Guje Sévon, eds. 2005. Global Ideas: How Ideas, Objects, and Practices Travel in a Global Economy. Copenhagen: Liber & Copenhagen Business School Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dizdar, Dilek. 2009. “Translational Transitions: ‘Translation proper’ and Translation Studies in the Humanities.” In The Translational Turn, ed. by Doris Bachmann-Medick. Special issue of Translation Studies 2 (1): 89–102. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fauconnier, Gilles, and Mark Turner. 1998. “Conceptual Integration Networks.” Cognitive Science 22 (2): 133–187. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frank, Michael C. 2009. “Imaginative Geography as a Travelling Concept.” European Journal of English Studies 13 (1): 61–77. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fuchs, Martin. 1997. “Übersetzen und Übersetzt-Werden: Plädoyer für eine interaktionsanalytische Reflexion.“ In Übersetzung als Repräsentation fremder Kulturen, ed. by Doris Bachmann-Medick, 308–328. Berlin: Erich Schmidt.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gambier, Yves, and Luc van Doorslaer, eds. 2016. Border Crossings: Translation Studies and Other Disciplines. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1961. Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hermans, Theo, ed. 1985. The Manipulation of Literature: Studies in Literary Translation. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holmes, James S. 1988. Translated! Papers on Literary Translation and Translation Studies. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holz-Mänttäri, Justa. 1984. Translatorisches Handeln: Theorie und Methode. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia (Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae B 226).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman. 1959. “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation.” In On Translation, ed. by Andrew Reuben, 232–239. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas S. 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lienhardt, Godfrey. 1954. “Modes of Thought.” In The Institutions of Primitive Society, ed. by E. E. Evans Pritchard, 95–107. London: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mead, George H. 1934. Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mignolo, Walter D., and Freya Schiwy. 2003. “Double Translation.” In Translation and Ethnography: The Anthropological Challenge of Intercultural Understanding, ed. by Tullio Maranhao and Bernhard Streck, 3–29. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Munday, Jeremy. 2012. Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. 3rd ed. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Neumann, Birgit, and Ansgar Nünning. 2012. “Travelling Concepts as a Model for the Study of Culture.” In Travelling Concepts for the Study of Culture, ed. by Birgit Neumann and Ansgar Nünning, 1–22. Berlin: de Gruyter. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Niranjana, Tejaswini. 1992. Siting Translation: History, Post-Structuralism, and the Colonial Context. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nünning, Ansgar. 2014. “Towards Transnational Approaches to the Study of Culture: From Cultural Studies and Kulturwissenschaften to a Transnational Study of Culture.” In The Trans/National Study of Culture: A Translational Perspective, ed. by Doris Bachmann-Medick, 23–50. Berlin: de Gruyter. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Odrekhivska, Iryna. 2016. “In the Realm of Translation Studies in Ukraine: Re-visiting Viktor Koptilov’s Translation Concept.” In Going East: Discovering New and Alternative Traditions in Translation Studies, ed. by Larisa Schippel and Cornelia Zwischenberger, 513–535, Berlin: Frank & Timme.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pöchhacker, Franz. 2004. Introducing Interpreting Studies. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prunč, Erich. 2012. Entwicklungslinien der Translationswissenschaft: Von den Asymmetrien der Sprachen zu den Asymmetrien der Macht. 3rd ed. Berlin: Frank & Timme.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reiß, Katharina, and Hans J. Vermeer. 1984. Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie. Tübingen: Niemeyer. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Renn, Joachim. 1998. “Übersetzungskultur. Grenzüberschreitung durch Übersetzung als ein Charakteristikum der Moderne.” *Sociologia Internationalis* 38 (2): 141–169.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Renn, Joachim. 2006. Übersetzungsverhältnisse: Perspektiven einer Pragmatistischen Gesellschaftstheorie. Weilerswist: Velbrück.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rottenburg, Richard. 2003. “Crossing Gaps of Indeterminacy: Some Theoretical Remarks.” In Translation and Ethnography: The Anthropological Challenge of Intercultural Understanding, ed. by Tullio Maranhao and Bernhard Streck, 30–43. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Said, Edward. 1983. The World, the Text, and the Critic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Snell-Hornby, Mary. 2002. “Übersetzen als interdisziplinäres Handeln: Über neue Formen des kulturellen Transfers.” In Übersetzung als Medium des Kulturverstehens und sozialer Integration, ed. by Joachim Renn, Jürgen Straub, and Shingo Shimada, 125–143, Frankfurt: Campus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trivedi, Harish. 2007. “Cultural Translation vs Translating Culture.” In In Translation – Reflections, Refractions, Transformations, ed. by Paul St. Pierre and Prafulla C. Kar, 251–260. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vermeer, Hans J. 2002. “Erst die Unmöglichkeit des Übersetzens macht das Übersetzen möglich.” In Übersetzung als Medium des Kulturverstehens und sozialer Integration, ed. by Joachim Renn, Jürgen Straub, and Shingo Shimada, 125–143. Frankfurt: Campus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wadensjö, Cecilia. 1992. Interpreting as Interaction: On Dialogue-Interpreting in Immigration Hearings and Medical Encounters. Linköping: Linköping Studies in Arts and Science.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wagner, Birgit. 2009. “Kulturelle Übersetzung: Erkundungen über ein wanderndes Konzept.“ Accessed October 7, 2016. [URL]
Williams, Raymond. 1981. The Sociology of Culture. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilss, Wolfram. 1988. Kognition und Übersetzen: Zu Theorie und Praxis der menschlichen und maschinellen Übersetzung. Tübingen: Niemeyer. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolf, Michaela, and Alexandra Fukari, eds. 2007. Constructing a Sociology of Translation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolf, Michaela. 2010. “‘Kulturelle Übersetzung’ – Spielwiese für übersetzerische Befindlichkeiten oder Spielarten von Übersetzung ‘nach Babel’?” In Übersetzung – Transformation. Umformungsprozesse in/von Texten, Medien, Kulturen, ed. by Christine Ivanovic, 44–55. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwischenberger, Cornelia. 2015. “Bridging Quality and Role in Conference Interpreting: Norms as Mediating Constructs.” In Interpreting Quality: A Look Around and Ahead, ed. by Cornelia Zwischenberger and Martina Behr, 231–267. Berlin: Frank & Timme.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwischenberger, Cornelia. 2016a. “The Policy Maker in Conference Interpreting and its Hegemonic Power.” Translation Spaces 5 (2): 200–221. doi:  Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwischenberger, Cornelia. 2016b. “Translationsethiken und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Zukunft der translatorischen Berufe.” In (Neu-)Kompositionen: Aspekte transkultureller Translationswissenschaft, ed. by Julia Richter, Cornelia Zwischenberger, Stefanie Kremmel, and Karlheinz Spitzl, 37–57. Berlin: Frank & Timme.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (15)

Cited by 15 other publications

Schedlitzki, Doris, Sylwia Ciuk, Gareth Edwards, Hugo Gaggiotti & Harriet Shortt
2025. Drawing on translation studies to advance cross-language research in organisation studies. Translation in Society 4:1 ► pp. 58 ff. DOI logo
Bielsa, Esperança
2024. Translation and the climate emergency: A new sociological imagination. The Sociological Review DOI logo
He, Lin
2023. Rethinking knowledge in the making of modernism through the translingual practice of Qiyun shengdong. Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies 10:3 ► pp. 206 ff. DOI logo
Pöchhacker, Franz
2023. Re-interpreting interpreting. Translation Studies 16:2 ► pp. 277 ff. DOI logo
Pöchhacker, Franz
2024. Is machine interpreting interpreting?. Translation Spaces DOI logo
Yang, Jun, Dragoș Ciobanu & Alina Secară
2023. On Whose Shoulders?. In Translaboration in Analogue and Digital Practice [Transkulturalität – Translation – Transfer, 57], ► pp. 185 ff. DOI logo
Desblache, Lucile
2022. Translation and the ‘soft’ bridges of communication. Slovo.ru: Baltic accent 13:1 ► pp. 82 ff. DOI logo
Hsiung, Ann-Marie
2022. Mulan’s travel from ballad to movie: A case study of inter-modal translation. Translation Studies 15:1 ► pp. 69 ff. DOI logo
Dai, Yun-fang
2021. Power imbalance in translaboration: a perspective from Chinese translation history. Neohelicon 48:2 ► pp. 599 ff. DOI logo
Dai, Yun-fang
2022.  Yinbian yanyu in twentieth-century China. Translation and Interpreting Studies 17:2 ► pp. 199 ff. DOI logo
Alfer, Alexa
2020. The translaborative case for a translational hermeneutics. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 32:2 ► pp. 261 ff. DOI logo
Footitt, Hilary, Angela M. Crack & Wine Tesseur
2020. Learning from the Listening Zones. In Development NGOs and Languages, ► pp. 205 ff. DOI logo
Mersmann, Birgit
2020. Photo-translation. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 32:2 ► pp. 191 ff. DOI logo
Zwischenberger, Cornelia
2020. Translaboration. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 32:2 ► pp. 173 ff. DOI logo
Zwischenberger, Cornelia
2022. Online collaborative translation: its ethical, social, and conceptual conditions and consequences. Perspectives 30:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue