Maitland, Sarah. 2024. The judgement of the translator. In: Susan Bassnett and David Johnston, eds. Debates in Translation Studies. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 155-167. ISBN 9780367612351 [Book Section]

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Abstract or Description

Judging a translation is a purposeful act. In translation prizegiving, for example, the purpose of judgement is to identify and reward merit, and to attribute this merit to the person in whom we recognise ownership over the actions undertaken in the translation – the translator. In contexts of critical reception, meanwhile, the purpose of judgement may also be to identify and reward merit, but, as has been the case with recent receptions of prizewinning literary translations, it is also a form of judgement that apportions responsibility – or culpability. Judgements as to the ‘what’ of translation, cannot bypass the ‘who’ – the author of the translation – and, significantly, this authorial ‘who’ is also a judge – of the text-for-translation, of the needs and expectations of the translation’s audience-to-be, and what the translation-to-come should look like in response – to the extent that the translation they produce is itself the product of a series of judgement calls. Taking in specific cases of literary translation prizegiving and literary translation criticism, this chapter offers a meta-reflection on the notion of the ‘judge’ in translation and the polemics of responsibility and intentionality that surround the act of literary judgement.

Item Type:	Book Section
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003104773
Additional Information:	Please note that this article has been submitted for publication in Bassnett, S. and Johnston, D. (eds.) Debates on Translation Studies, and, as such, has not yet been accepted for publication.
Keywords:	Judgement, hermeneutics, authorial intention, appropriation, recognition
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	English and Comparative Literature
Dates:	Date Event 4 February 2022 Submitted 23 December 2024 Published
Item ID:	31382
Date Deposited:	07 Feb 2022 10:55
Last Modified:	14 Jan 2025 00:34
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/31382

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