After centuries of neglect, the translator is now recognised as a crucial negotiator in the international exchange of ideas. Accessing reliable versions of foreign texts is vital for international dialogue and establishing common grounds for the exchange of culture. Within this process, translators are regularly held accountable for their perceived fidelity to the translated text and for the success of its adaptation to the target culture. Yet we understand very little about how translators negotiate their personal ethics and creativity within the constraints of the publishing industry, or how they adapt to the culture of reception during the writing of a translation, its genesis.
The Genetic Translation Studies project addresses exactly these questions. Firstly, it ventures into the archives of translators to gather, analyse, and classify documentary evidence that reveals how translation processes and strategies evolve during the rewriting of a literary work. Secondly, it contextualizes this genetic evidence, placing it within its historical context. Thirdly, it uses sociological research methods, surveys and interviews, to determine how evidence of translation process is conserved by translators, publishers, libraries and archives, who is more likely to conserve these materials and why.
Furthermore, knowing how expert literary translators decide which strategies to pursue, when they exercise or restrain their creativity, and when it is circumscribed will be a vital resource for teachers of translation.
These insights inform a new methodology for genetic research in translation studies.
