Can music inspire translators?
Using background music as a trigger for narrative engagement in literary translation
This article examines the role of musically-triggered narrative engagement in translation performance. An
experimental study was conducted to investigate the potential of music to induce narrative engagement (NE), based on findings
that suggest the influence of NE-relevant dimensions such as visualization and emotional involvement in translation.
Participants translated two literary texts with opposing emotional content (happy and sad) in two different sound conditions (with
and without music). Three hypotheses were formulated predicting a beneficial effect of music for narrative engagement as well as
positive correlations between narrative engagement and translation quality and creativity. Results suggest an increase of
visualization in the music condition and a correlation between visualization levels and accuracy scores. Retrospective
questionnaires indicate a positive appraisal of the experience of translating with music at both the cognitive and emotional
level, although further investigations is needed to validate the scale and confirm its reliability.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Literature review
- Methods
- Participants
- Procedures
- Measures
- Analysis
- Results
- Results for hypothesis 1
- Within-group comparisons
- Between-groups comparisons
- Results for hypothesis 2
- Results for hypothesis 3
- Results on the retrospective questionnaire
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- Notes
-
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Cited by
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Naranjo, Beatriz & Ana María Rojo López
2021.
In and out of tune.
Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 33:1
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Rojo López, Ana María & Beatriz Naranjo
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Translating in times of crisis: A study about the emotional effects of the COVID19 pandemic on the translation of evaluative language.
Journal of Pragmatics 176
► pp. 29 ff.
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