A significant share of translation research in recent years has called attention to the failure o... more A significant share of translation research in recent years has called attention to the failure of polysystems theory to account for the social aspect in translation and has turned instead to Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of cultural production to develop new perspectives on the practice of translation. Acknowledging that a fair number of scholars have successfully articulated the potential of Bourdieu’s work to translation studies, Sameh Hanna enters the discourse on the sociological approach by putting Bourdieu’s conceptual tools and methodology to the test. Hanna demonstrates the importance of an interdisciplinary, social approach to the translation practice by considering specific translation phenomena, namely drama translation into Arabic, to determine the contributions a sociology of translation might make to understanding a social history, in this case the one of the “Arabic Shakespeare” (n.p.). By considering the social struggles present at the time of translation, Hanna examines patterns of production, dissemination, and consumption and thereby not only demonstrates the merit of linking theory to real phenomena, but also successfully illustrates the potential of Bourdieu’s sociology to translation studies.
The recent shift from ‘translation studies’ to ‘translator studies’ marks the increasing interest... more The recent shift from ‘translation studies’ to ‘translator studies’ marks the increasing interest in the field in understanding the modes of translator’s agency and the different theoretical and practical issues these modes raise. The Bourdieusian concept of habitus and the explanatory power it wields have been instrumental in developing new conceptualisations of agency in translation. This article seeks to achieve a double purpose: first, siting the concept of habitus as used in translation studies, shedding light on the (dis)continuities between it and the concept of ‘translation norms’; second, siting the meta-language we use in defining the concept and delineating its impact on both the epistemology and methodology of translation studies. As such, the article critically engages with the project of ‘remapping’ which motivates this volume with the aim of highlighting its potentials and limitations. The case of the Arabic translations of Shakespeare’s drama, especially the early Arabic translation of Hamlet by Tanyus Abdu, is used to illustrate the implications of habitus for understanding the agency of both translators and translation scholars.
A significant share of translation research in recent years has called attention to the failure o... more A significant share of translation research in recent years has called attention to the failure of polysystems theory to account for the social aspect in translation and has turned instead to Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of cultural production to develop new perspectives on the practice of translation. Acknowledging that a fair number of scholars have successfully articulated the potential of Bourdieu’s work to translation studies, Sameh Hanna enters the discourse on the sociological approach by putting Bourdieu’s conceptual tools and methodology to the test. Hanna demonstrates the importance of an interdisciplinary, social approach to the translation practice by considering specific translation phenomena, namely drama translation into Arabic, to determine the contributions a sociology of translation might make to understanding a social history, in this case the one of the “Arabic Shakespeare” (n.p.). By considering the social struggles present at the time of translation, Hanna examines patterns of production, dissemination, and consumption and thereby not only demonstrates the merit of linking theory to real phenomena, but also successfully illustrates the potential of Bourdieu’s sociology to translation studies.
The recent shift from ‘translation studies’ to ‘translator studies’ marks the increasing interest... more The recent shift from ‘translation studies’ to ‘translator studies’ marks the increasing interest in the field in understanding the modes of translator’s agency and the different theoretical and practical issues these modes raise. The Bourdieusian concept of habitus and the explanatory power it wields have been instrumental in developing new conceptualisations of agency in translation. This article seeks to achieve a double purpose: first, siting the concept of habitus as used in translation studies, shedding light on the (dis)continuities between it and the concept of ‘translation norms’; second, siting the meta-language we use in defining the concept and delineating its impact on both the epistemology and methodology of translation studies. As such, the article critically engages with the project of ‘remapping’ which motivates this volume with the aim of highlighting its potentials and limitations. The case of the Arabic translations of Shakespeare’s drama, especially the early Arabic translation of Hamlet by Tanyus Abdu, is used to illustrate the implications of habitus for understanding the agency of both translators and translation scholars.
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