“Yes: I translated it!”: Visibility and the performance of translatorship in the digital paratextual space

Freeth, Peter J. (2024) “Yes: I translated it!”: Visibility and the performance of translatorship in the digital paratextual space. In: Beyond the translator’s invisibility: critical reflections and new perspectives. Translation, Interpreting and Transfer (8). Leuven University Press, Leuven, pp. 147-172. ISBN 9789462703988

Abstract

This chapter is taken from the edited volume "Beyond the Translator's Invisibility: Critical Reflection and New Perspectives" (Freeth and Treviño [eds] 2024, 147–172).

In this chapter, I argue that digital paratextual space serves as a key site of translator visibility in contemporary Anglophone culture thanks largely to the translator’s ability to perform their translatorship and assert their own visibility within such spaces. To demonstrate this, this chapter comprises a case study of German-to-English translator Jamie Bulloch and his activities within the digital paratextual space, with a particular focus on paratexts pertaining to Look Who’s Back (2014) and The Hungry and the Fat (2020). The chapter begins by elucidating the paratextual space and establishing it as a key site of translator visibility, before then defining the performance of translatorship within both digital and non-digital paratextual spaces. In terms of analysis, this chapter then investigates Bulloch’s visibility as achieved through the performance of his translatorship in both digital and non-digital contexts such at in-person promotional events and on social media. In doing so, I argue that translators have increased opportunities to perform their translatorship and so increase their own visibility within digital spaces.

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