Literary translators and technology: SCOT as a proactive and flexible approach

ABSTRACT

This paper reports findings and observations on using the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) framework in a questionnaire study of literary translators’ self-imaging strategies and attitudes towards technology. The study took advantage of SCOT’s methodological flexibility to prioritise literary translators as a social group, hence compensating for the lack of opportunities to voice their interpretations of technology and become an active part in the framework’s development and implementation. Ultimately, the use (and adaptation) of SCOT proved useful for the identification, analysis, and discussion of recurrent themes in respondents’ narratives about technology and their position in society. In particular, SCOT helped to uncover the gap between how literary translators choose to (re)present themselves in society and how they see technology, and what other social groups might be pivotal for a more comprehensive, socially-relevant analysis. Finally, the paper presents suggestions for the use of SCOT in future research projects concerning the technologisation of the literary translation profession.

KEYWORDS:

• Social construction of technology
• computer-assisted literary translation
• translation technology
• literary translation
• human-computer interaction

Acknowledgements

This study was part of a doctoral project funded by the Heriot-Watt University School of Social Sciences and supervised by Dr Marion Winters and Prof. Graham Turner. Some of the contents of this paper are based on the resulting doctoral thesis ‘In-between role and technology: literary translators on navigating the new socio-technological paradigm’ (Ruffo, 2021).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paola Ruffo

Paola Ruffo is a researcher in the field of Computer-Aided Literary Translation (CALT). She is currently working on her Marie Skłodowska–Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship project 'Developing User-centred Approaches to Technological Innovation in Literary Translation (DUAL-T)' at Ghent University. She has previously worked as an English>Italian freelance translator and a Lecturer in Translation Technology at the University of Bristol.