Introduction: voice, ethics and translation

ABSTRACT

Although previous research on ethics demonstrates growing awareness that many agents or subjectivities besides translators and interpreters are involved in translation and interpreting processes, the consequences of this multiplicity for thinking about ethics in translation still lacks focused attention. In this introduction, we show how this special issue, titled Voice, Ethics and Translation, reduces this gap by highlighting the concept of voice and the idea that the world of translating and interpreting consists of many voices ‘having a say’. This carries with it the potential for negotiation, conflict and dissent regarding what constitutes good and bad translation and interpreting practice. The nine contributions discuss questions such as whose voices are involved in ethical negotiations, what is the nature of these negotiations, who has more power to have their voices heard, and whether translators and interpreters should be given more trust and responsibility. As evinced by these various contributions, a consensus seems to be emerging to the effect that rather than blindly following outside authorities in ethical matters, translators and interpreters need to be encouraged to independently reflect on a variety of voices on ethics and be actively conscientious and responsible in actual translation and interpreting situations.

KEYWORDS:

• Translation
• interpreting
• voice
• ethics
• clashing voices
• power

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Annjo Klungervik Greenallis Professor of English Language at the Department of Language and Literature at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. She has published within the fields of sociolinguistics and translation studies on e.g. the role of English in Norway, language mixing in popular culture, and expectancy norms in subtitling. She is co-editor of the recent books Cultural Mélange in Aesthetic Practices (2015), with Domhnall Mitchell (NTNU), and Textual and Contextual Voices of Translation (2017), with Cecilia Alvstad, Hanne Jansen, and Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov. She has published a number of articles within the field of popular song translation and is a song translator and a jazz singer.

Cecilia Alvstad is Professor of Translation Studies at Stockholm University. Alvstad's PhD-degree is in Spanish from the University of Gothenburg, 2003. Main research interests are sociological, narratological and ethical perspectives on voice in translation as well as translation of Latin American literature, children's literature and travel writing. Recent publications include the chapter about children's literature in The Routledge Handbook of Literary Translation edited by Kelly Washbourne and Ben Van Wyke (2018, Routledge) and `The Proliferating Paths of Jorge Luis Borges' Work in Translation and the Resistance to an Innovative Trait' in Susan Bassnett's Translation and World Literature (2018, Routledge).

Hanne Jansen has a Ph.D. from the University of Copenhagen and is Associate Professor at the Dept. of English, Germanic and Romance Studies at the same university. She teaches translation theory and practice and coordinates the graduate program in Translation Studies. Her present focus is on collaborative practices in literary translation (see “Are Literary Translators (Still) Lone Wolves? A Scandinavian Survey on Collaboration among Fellow Translators.” Éditions québécoises de l'oeuvre, 2017), and on the selection, distribution and reception of translated literature (see “‘Bel Paese’ or ‘Spaghetti noir’? The image of Italy in contemporary Italian narrative translated into Danish”. John Benjamins, 2016).

Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov is Professor of Multilingual Translation Studies at the University of Turku, Finland. Her research interests include literary translation, translation history, multimedia translation, translation theory and translation ethics. She has published books and several articles on the concept of voice in translation, for example in the journal Target (2008, 2009, 2015). Her latest publications focus on the ethical aspects of voice: “Textual, Moral and Psychological Voices of Translation” (forthcoming in Slovo.ru: Baltic accent journal, ed. by Yves Gambier) and Traduire les voix de la nature/Translating the Voices of Nature (forthcoming in the Vita traductiva-series, co-edited with Bruno Poncharal).