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Part of
Towards an Atlas of the History of Interpreting: Voices from around the world
Edited by Lucía Ruiz Rosendo and Jesús Baigorri-Jalón
[Benjamins Translation Library 159] 2023
► pp. 238–267

Chapter 10
The interpreter as “anti-hero”

Interpreters’ memoirs and their contribution to constructing a history of interpreting

 | University of Graz
Research on interpreters as authors of autobiographies has typically focused on the interpreting activity in authoritarian regimes, in trials, or diplomacy. A great number of the author-interpreters portray a hero figure positioned in often close relationship with the person in power. This chapter deals with another kind of interpreter figure who I will call “anti-hero”. The settings explored are the Great War, the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, and Nazi concentration camps, as depicted in the interpreters’ memoirs. The chapter aims to elaborate on the main features of these anti-hero interpreters based on the framework proposed by Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson (2010), who suggest a set of concepts helpful for understanding the dynamic processes of autobiographical subjectivity, including memory, experience, or agency.
Keywords: memoir, World War I, International Brigades, Nazi concentration camps, subjectivity, interpreting history
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Memoirs of interpreters: A new research field?
    • Genre questions and definitions
    • Main features of (hero) interpreters’ memoirs
  • The “dynamic processes of autobiographical subjectivity”
  • The fields of exploring the anti-hero in interpreters’ memoirs
  • The anti-hero under scrutiny: Analysing the interpreters’ self‑representation
    • Memory
    • Experience
    • Space
    • Agency
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 February 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.159.10wol
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