Although at present corpora are widely explored in translation research and practice, their use in literary translation is much more restricted. The fact that they are mainly exploited in the context of specialized translation can first be explained by the volume of non-literary texts translated everyday in the world, especially into English, as argues Olohan (2004: 180). This is the reason why Gambier declares himself surprised by the preeminence of literary translation in translation studies nowadays (2007: 206), as also demonstrated by recently conducted research (Gonzalez-Saraeva 2012: 157). Furthermore, literary translation, studied in the context of the literary reception system, shares the anxieties of literature with regard to informatics and technology in general. Although the first informatics application to literature dates back in 1949, with Father Busa's first electronic concordance – at the same time when Warren Weaver published his famous memorandum on machine translation – and several studies have been published on the computer and its potential in literary studies (Bernard 1999, Schreibman & Siemens 2008), there is often skepticism towards this potential.
Literary translation is as important as literature itself and a very crucial feature of translation practice, as well as of the literary system -especially in the current globalized context, where the concept of Weltliteratur and its canon is increasingly at stake. Furthermore, the use of corpora in literary translation has been pointed out early enough, e.g. by Bernardo (1981) or Baker (1995, 2000). Nowadays, as statistical methods are increasingly applied to literary texts and in the context of big data considerations in digital humanities, it is important to reexamine the utility and use of comparable and parallel corpora in literary translation, seeking new points of view in literary, translation and linguistic research, solutions to concrete problems in the translation process and new methodologies in literary translation teaching.
Submissions are invited for a special issue of inTRAlinea, the online journal of translation studies on Corpora and Literary Translation, to be published in 2015.
Topics may include but are not restricted to the following:
- Stylistics
- Stylometry
- Translation authorship attribution
- Corpora and micro- and macro-thematic analysis
- Corpora in comparative examination of major concepts and their evolution through translation
- Comparison of the original and translated literary language, either at linguistic level or concerning particular authors-translators or translators' categories (writers, academics, professionals)
- Identity and alterity as presented through the treatment of linguistic and cultural difference in corpora
- Corpora and genres' study
- Corpora and the study of textuality and intertextuality
- Corpora and literary discourse analysis
- Literary corpora and sociology of translation and literature
- Corpora in Literary translation teaching
- Literary translation documentation
- Literary translation and monolingual corpora.
Contributions can be submitted in English, Italian, French, German and Spanish, and should not exceed 7,500 words, including notes and references. They should include a short abstract and a set of keywords, both in English and in the language of the article (where applicable).
The deadline for article submission is 30 September 2014.
Submissions should be sent as a Word document to:
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Bibliographical references
Baker, Mona (1995). "Corpora in Translation Studies: An Overview and Some Suggestions for Future Research. In Target 7:2, 223-243.
Baker, Mona (2000). "Towards a Methodology for Investigating the Style of a Literary Translator". In Target 12:2 241–266.
Bernard, Michel (1999). Introduction aux études littéraires assistées par ordinateur. Paris: PUF.
Bernardo, Aldo (1981). "Maximizing Computer Assistance in Literary Translation: Petrarch's Familiares". In Marilyn Gaddis Rose (ed.), Translation Spectrum: Essays in Theory and Practice. New York: State University of New York Press, 74-80.
Gambier, Yves (2007). «Y a-t-il place pour une socio-traductologie? ». In Wolf, Michaela and Alexandra Fukari (eds): Constructing a Sociology of Translation. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Susam-Sarajeva, Şebnem, Pérez-González, Luis (eds.) (2012). "Non-Professionals Translating and Interpreting. Participatory and Engaged Perspectives". Special Issue, The Translator, 18:2.
Olohan, Maeve (2004). Introducing corpora to translation studies. London and New York: Routledge
Schreibman Susan & Siemens Ray (2008). A Companion to Digital Literary Studies. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008.
