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Article published In:
'Translaboration': Translation as Collaboration
Edited by Alexa Alfer
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 3:3] 2017
► pp. 304–322

Reformulating the problem of translatability

A case of literary translaboration with the poetry of Francisco Brines

 | University of Westminster
 | Independent translator, London, UK
Forms of collaboration are particularly prevalent in translation of literature, especially of poetry, where the synergy of different perspectives of co-participants may be among the essential ingredients for creative success. In this study, we explore the dynamics of a collaborative translation into English of the contemporary Spanish poet Francisco Brines, addressing how certain key questions of translational practice, including the translation of gender values, can be fruitfully problematised and resolved in a theoretically grounded collaborative approach. In elucidating these dynamics, including those which destabilise and generate knowledge, we use the notion of translaboration, synthesising concepts drawn from activity theory and communities of practice theory. We illustrate and review this notion through a critical narrative of selected aspects of the translational work.
Keywords: literary translation, collaboration, translaboration, Francisco Brines, activity theory, community of practice
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Rethinking collaborative translation
  • 2.Translation as collaboration: Translaboration
  • 3.A translaboration community of practice
    • 3.1Roles and decision making
    • 3.2Core and periphery
  • 4.Pre-publication: Paratext and destabilisation
  • 5.Translation drafting: The example of “Causa del amor”
    • 5.1(In)visible genders
    • 5.2Problematising gender in translation
    • 5.3Ambiguity and authorial control
  • 6.Translaboration: Reformulating the problem of translatability
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 October 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.3.3.03cra
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