Michaela Wolf

Mapping the field: Sociological perspectives on translation

Abstract In recent years, translating as a social practice has been increasingly determining daily routines in a globalizing world. Traditional approaches in Translation Studies have shown a certain awareness of these implications on translation and have progressively focused on socially oriented questions in translation. However, they have not coherently synthesized the various issues raised, and, consequently, most of these issues are still under-theorized. This paper aims to highlight sociological perspectives on translation, coming from both inside and outside the discipline over the last few years. Additionally, I will try to trace the conjunctions of Translation Studies and sociology in terms of their methodological contributions to the construction of a “sociology of translation”. The view of translation as a social practice entails specific questions which relate to the ethical and sociopolitical responsibility of the agents involved in the translation process. If these questions are taken further, it is paramount to take account of the shifting meanings attributed to the concept of translation as adopted within Translation Studies but also in other disciplines.

The female state of the art: Women in the “translation field”

Feminist translation is playing an increasing role in German-language countries. A large empirical research project on this development indicates changes in the social contexts of translation. The contexts are analyzed by focusing on the (mostly female) social agents involved and the relations between them. The empirical data are discussed against the background of the theory of symbolic forms developed by Pierre Bourdieu. Socially regulated and regulating factors are found to be operative at the different stages of the translation process, engaged in a continuous struggle. In such a context, the attempt to reconstruct the translational field with mostly women as protagonists shows that translation is framed by cultural, political, economic and other values that constantly need to be negotiated by the agents involved.

The Habsburg monarchy's many-languaged soul : translating and interpreting, 1848-1918

In the years between 1848 and 1918, the Habsburg Empire was an intensely pluricultural space that brought together numerous “nationalities” under constantly changing – and contested – linguistic regimes. The multifaceted forms of translation and interpreting, marked by national struggles and extensive multilingualism, played a crucial role in constructing cultures within the Habsburg space. This book traces translation and interpreting practices in the Empire’s administration, courts and diplomatic service, and takes account of the “habitualized” translation carried out in everyday life. It then details the flows of translation among the Habsburg crownlands and between these and other European languages, with a special focus on Italian–German exchange. Applying a broad concept of “cultural translation” and working with sociological tools, the book addresses the mechanisms by which translation and interpreting constructs cultures, and delineates a model of the Habsburg Monarchy’s “pluricultural space of communication” that is also applicable to other multilingual settings. Published with the support of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). The e-book edition of this title is available as Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND license .

Die vielsprachige Seele Kakaniens

In the last few decades, the discipline of Translation Studies has been characterized by a considerable increase of interdisciplinary approaches which both helped to sharpen its profiling and to promote its multilayered epistemological discussions. The contribution of this book to these developments is located on various levels. I claim that in view of its multifaceted forms, translation as practiced in the late Habsburg Empire to a high degree contributed to the construction of cultures in the pluri-cultural space of the Habsburg Monarchy: on the one hand, I have revealed the various layers of translation’s constructive character and then – on the basis of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological framework – shed light on the various construction processes on behalf of detailed analyses which focus on the agents involved in these processes. These considerations are then reflected in the delineation of a model which I call the “pluri-cultural communication space of the Habsburg Monarchy”. In terms of methodology, I have drawn on post-colonial theoretical frameworks. On such a basis, I have sketched a concept of culture which aims to correspond to the hybrid constellations characteristic to vast parts of the Monarchy and which claims to detect the symbolic forms of ethnically articulated dominance. The metaphorically inspired translation concept developed in the wake of these reflections (“cultural translation”) results in conceptualizing a typology of various translation forms which claim to do justice to the complexity of the Monarchy’s translatorial practices in the continuum between “communication” and “translation”. Primarily on the basis of archival sources, the analysis covers the translatorial practice in the various ministries (“Commission of Terminology “,“Bureau of Redaction of the Imperial Law Gazette”, “Section of Ciphering and Translatorial Work”), in court (sworn interpreters), and in the diplomatic service, among others. On the other hand, I have worked on extensive corpora analyzing the translation flows both between various languages of the crown lands and with countries outside the Monarchy by adopting numerous parameters (focus: translations into German). Finally, the focus is laid on the translations from Italian, with a particular emphasis on laying bare the construction processes operating in the selection, production, distribution and reception of these translations. The features which make up the construction of culture in the Habsburg context can be particularly detected in two instances: first, in the tensions related to national conflicts which are inscribed in all translation types dealt with in the period under investigation. Secondly, in the phenomenon of bi- and multilingualism which – according to the territory and the legal situation respectively – represented a basic prerequisite for the translation and interpreting activity and as such in many cases made a professional and qualitatively differentiated formation in translation at least at first sight avoidable. Nevertheless, it has been able to reconstruct a gradual institutionalization of the translatorial activity. English version of the book: http://e-book.fwf.ac.at/o:786

„Dem Publikum neue Werte aufdrängen …“. Macht und Ohnmacht von literarischen ÜbersetzerInnen in übersetzungssoziologischer Sicht

Peter de Mendelsohn setzt das scharfzüngige Motto „Dem Publikum neue Werte aufzudrängen, die es nicht will, ist die wichtigste und schönste Mission des Verlegers“ (Mendelssohn 1970:5) an den Eingang seiner 1970 erschienenen Studie S . Fischer und sein Verlag und gibt damit eine Aussage des Verlegers Samuel Fischer wieder, der auf diese Weise seine im Zuge der Erneuerung des Fischer-Verlages konzipierte Verlagspolitik kundtut. Solch ein Zitat wirft aus literaturund auch übersetzungswissenschaftlicher Sicht diverse Fragen auf: Geht es bei der Veröffentlichung von Büchern nicht eher darum, dem „Geschmack“ des Publikums zu entsprechen und nicht, wie es hier der Fall ist, dem Verleger oder der Verlegerin alle Macht in die Hand zu geben? Welche Einflussnahmen machen sich für die Herausbildung und auch Feststellung dieses – wie immer zu definierenden – „Geschmacks“ geltend? Geht es im Zusammenhang der angesprochenen Werte im vorliegenden Kontext nicht eher um den zumindest ökonomisch nachvollziehbaren Wunsch, kommerziell erfolgreich zu sein und somit Gewinne durch Verbreitung von Büchern einzufahren? In jedem Fall scheint Samuel Fischer damit über ökonomische Kategorien hinaus zu denken und einen gesellschaftsgebundenen kulturpolitischen Auftrag wahrnehmen zu wollen, in dem er selbst als Hauptakteur auftritt. Dass in einen solchen Auftrag zahlreiche andere AkteurInnen involviert sind, steht außer Zweifel. Im Folgenden wird vor dem Hintergrund des mehr oder weniger engen Beziehungsgeflechts der an dem (literarischen) Translationsprozess involvierten Personen der Frage nachgegangen, welche Kräfte aus übersetzungssoziologischer Sicht für das Zustandekommen von Übersetzungen verantwortlich sind, wobei der Versuch unternommen wird, diese Kräfte zueinander in schlüssige Beziehung zu setzen. Dazu wird das Analyse-Instrumentarium von Pierre Bourdieus Feldtheorie herangezogen, dessen Beiträge zur Aufschlüsselung und zum Verständnis gesellschaftlicher Prozesse auch für die Analyse übersetzerischen Handelns und seiner Veränderungspotenziale erkenntnisreich eingesetzt werden können. Einer Darstellung des institutionellen Gefüges von Übersetzung folgt eine detaillierte Untersuchung der Position der ÜbersetzerInnen im Übersetzungsfeld. Dabei wird Imagefragen ebenso nachgegangen wie den Problemen der Machtverhältnisse, in denen TranslatorInnen im literarischen Kontext operieren. Ein letzter Abschnitt wirft demgemäß die Frage auf, welche Lösungsansätze erarbeitet werden können, um diese asymmetrischen Machtkonstellationen aufbrechen zu können.

Auf dem Weg zu einer Soziologie der literarischen Übersetzung im deutschsprachigen Raum

Der einleitende Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die vorliegenden Vorarbeiten zu einer Soziologie der literarischen Übersetzung und entwirft ein Programm zur Erforschung dieses Gebietes. Besonderes Augenmerk gilt den Verhältnissen auf dem globalen Übersetzungsfeld, der Translation als soziales Handeln, den an der Entstehung von Übersetzungen beteiligten Instanzen und AkteurInnen (Verlage, LektorInnen und AgentInnen, Förderinstitutionen, ÜbersetzerInnen) sowie den gesetzlichen Rahmenbedingungen. This introductory article provides an overview of the contributions to this volume which pave the way for the sociology of literary translation and it outlines a programme for the research of this issue. Special emphasis is given to the relationships on the global translation field, the phenomenon of translation viewed as a social activity, the agencies and agents involved in the production of translation (publishing houses, proof readers and literary agents, promotional institutions, translators) as well as to the legal parameters.

A “Performative Turn” in Translation Studies? Reflections from a sociological perspective

The increasing interest in the analysis of the link between and interaction of performance and translation has been brought about not least in the wake of the emergence of a sociology of translation. This is particularly due to the emphasis in research on the figure of the translator and other agents involved in the translation process and more precisely to the exploration of the role and function of the translator as a co-subject of the translation performance. The following reflections will focus on the potential epistemological force of the concept of performance with reference both to the social occurrence of translation and to the term’s contribution to conceptualizing a wider, perhaps more metaphorically nourished perception of translation.

Übersetztes Albanien: von selbstgewählter Isolation zu internationaler Wiederentdeckung?

Fluctuating numbers of translations from and into specific languages tend to reflect changes in political, economic and cultural relations. Taking the international translation database Index Translationum as a starting point, this article explores tendencies in the amount of works translated from and into Albanian between 1975 and 2010. It shows how Albanian history, specifically the shift from a dictatorial system to democracy, coincides with changes in the country’s translational field. Besides analysing overall developments, the article focuses on translations between Albanian and German, and also considers some of the most influential actors of this specific field. Schlagwörter: Übersetzungsströme, Albanien, Ismail Kadare, Kulturpolitik, Pierre Bourdieu