Developing the Supply-Driven Translation Model Beyond a Small Nation Context

在小国背景之外开发供应驱动的翻译模型

• 批准号: ES/V012312/1
• 负责人: Olivia Hellewell
• 金额: $ 11.52万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FV012312%2F1
• 关键词: Developing; Supply; Driven; Translation; Model

The way that literature moves around the world - the way that it's promoted, funded and translated into other languages - has huge potential to influence the books we can read, and with that, the stories and voices that we can engage with as readers. It used to be said that literature in translation made up around 3% of all fiction books published in the English language in the UK and Ireland (Donahaye 2012), but new data indicates that translated fiction in the UK market grew by 5.5 percent between 2001 and 2016 (Publishing Perspectives 2019). Even more significantly, the data shows 20% growth within the "general/literary fiction" subcategory, whilst non-translated English-language fiction in the same category remained flat. These figures point to a growing interest in stories from elsewhere, and as such, it is more important than ever to understand the factors that influence whose stories get to be read.In the discipline of Translation Studies, theories that explain the circulation of literature as a system (see Even Zohar, 1978, 1990) have tended to assume that the power lies with the so-called 'dominant' languages, who 'select' works of literature to suit a particular need, or fill a gap, in their domestic literary market. Yet what about the stories of nations whose literature will likely never be translated as a result of market demand? My PhD research is part of a growing body of work in Translation Studies that challenges this assumption that the literature of small nations is translated only as and when a market demand in a 'major' literary culture emerges; instead, the literature of small nations is being funded and produced in innovative ways that circumnavigate the cultural gatekeepers of more 'dominant' literary nations. It should be noted that the term 'small' nation, as with similar labels such as 'minor' or 'peripheral', is not merely an indication of geographic size of location; whilst there is no single definition of a 'small nation', there is agreement that 'small' points to 'unequal international context in which literatures circulate' (Chitnis et al, 2020).When we acknowledge that the literature of small nations is produced as a result of their drive to supply it, rather than solely as a result of demand from a major language publishing market, the literatures of small nations are no longer footnotes on the periphery of TS research, but are instead sites of innovation and struggle, and the cultural agents of those smaller nations are revealed to have much more agency in their assertion of cultural soft power than was previously assumed. Understanding how and why this happens, and using a combination of research methods to highlight the human agency in this systemic view of translation processes, is key if we are to understand whose voices get to be read, and how translation and publishing professionals should intervene when the voices of certain social groups are absent from our cultural imagination.Increased knowledge and greater transparency about the circulation of literature in translation has the potential to make significant long term social and economic impacts for both readers and publishing industries. When the literary system is brought to life, readers can engage with their consumption of literature in a much more meaningful way, and are empowered to make interventions in their reading (and purchasing) choices, deciding whose voices to seek out, as opposed to being confronted only by those on the top of bestseller lists. Significantly, my work also highlights the powerful potential that translations have to construct images of cultures and societies, and given that this research will enable publishers to circumnavigate structural biases in publishing by observing how small nations drive the supply of their literature, this research wields the potential to increase the number and diversity of voices available through literature in UK society.

文学在世界各地传播的方式——它被推广、资助和翻译成其他语言的方式——具有巨大的潜力，可以影响我们可以阅读的书籍，从而影响我们作为读者可以接触到的故事和声音。过去人们常说，在英国和爱尔兰以英语出版的所有小说中，翻译文学约占3% (Donahaye 2012)，但新的数据表明，2001年至2016年，英国市场的翻译小说增长了5.5% （Publishing Perspectives 2019）。更重要的是，数据显示“普通/文学小说”子类增长了20%，而非翻译的英语小说在同一类别中保持不变。这些数字表明，人们对其他地方的故事越来越感兴趣，因此，了解影响谁的故事被阅读的因素比以往任何时候都更重要。在翻译研究学科中，将文学流通解释为一个系统的理论（参见Even Zohar， 1978, 1990）倾向于假设权力属于所谓的“主导”语言，他们“选择”文学作品以满足特定需求，或填补国内文学市场的空白。然而，由于市场需求，那些文学作品可能永远不会被翻译的国家的故事又如何呢？我的博士研究是越来越多的翻译研究工作的一部分，这些工作挑战了一种假设，即只有当“主要”文学文化的市场需求出现时，小国的文学才会被翻译；相反，小国的文学正在以创新的方式得到资助和创作，这些方式绕过了更“占主导地位”的文学国家的文化看门人。应该指出的是，“小国”一词，与“次要”或“外围”等类似标签一样，不仅仅是地理位置大小的表示；虽然“小国”没有单一的定义，但人们一致认为，“小国”指的是“文献流通的不平等国际背景”（Chitnis et al, 2020）。当我们承认,小国家的文学生产由于其驱动供应它,而不是仅仅由于需求主要语言出版市场,小国家的文学不再是外围的脚注TS研究,而是网站的创新和斗争,这些小国家的文化经纪人透露有了更多的机构在文化软实力比先前认为的断言。如果我们要理解谁的声音会被阅读，以及当某些社会群体的声音在我们的文化想象中缺席时，翻译和出版专业人士应该如何干预，那么理解这种情况是如何发生的，以及为什么会发生，并结合研究方法来突出这种翻译过程的系统性观点中的人的力量，是关键。增加对翻译文学流通的了解和提高透明度，有可能对读者和出版业产生重大的长期社会和经济影响。当文学系统被赋予生命时，读者可以以一种更有意义的方式参与他们的文学消费，并有权干预他们的阅读（和购买）选择，决定寻找谁的声音，而不是只面对那些畅销书排行榜上的人。值得注意的是，我的工作还强调了翻译在构建文化和社会形象方面的强大潜力，并且考虑到这项研究将使出版商能够通过观察小国如何推动其文学供应来绕过出版中的结构性偏见，这项研究有可能增加英国社会文学中可用声音的数量和多样性。