Genetic translation studies: An emerging discipline

Abstract

This article charts the emergence of a new form of translation research that we term genetic translation studies. It explores the foundations of this approach in the French school of critique génétique, which developed a methodology for studying the drafts, manuscripts and other working documents (avant-textes) of modern literary works with the aim of revealing the complexity of the creative processes engaged in their production. This methodology draws upon different theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches (poetic, linguistic, philosophical, psychoanalytical, phenomenological, etc.) and has since been adapted to the study of other media, including music, cinema, photography, painting, architecture, and the translated text. This article analyses how genetic approaches have been applied to translated texts by both genetic critics and translation scholars. It highlights, furthermore, the opportunities as well as the challenges for literary and other forms of translation research when a genetic approach is adopted.

Translating knowledge in the multilingual paradigm: Beyond epistemicide

“…The new field of Genetic Translation Studies (e.g. Cordingley and Montini, 2015;Nunes et al, 2020) might offer a methodological framework for this kind of study that could help (through the study of authors' plans, drafts, notes, and correspondence) to establish if code-switching and linguistic hybridity are present in the pretextual phase as the disciplinary discourse is negotiated and terminological equivalences are sought, and in what language(s) the authors are thinking during the project-design, literature review, data-collection, and planning stages. Potentially fruitful notions here might be those of the intertext, defined by Jung (2002) as 'a collective knowledge distilled from a multiplicity of texts read by the authors or even language usage that they have absorbed' (p. 19) and which forms part of the 'pre-stage of the original' (p. 30), 15 and Anthony Pym's (1998: 177-192) interculture, the transitional zone of cultural and linguistic overlaps and intersections in which real-life translators live and work.…”

Cibler la source&#8239: ce que la génétique des traductions fait aux textes

“…On l'aura compris : lire la traduction à travers les documents des archives, et grâce aux instruments de la génétique des textes et des traductions, permet une approche de l'oeuvre blasphème, voire révolutionnaire, selon les points de vue. Car l'oeuvre n'est plus figée à jamais dans sa forme définitive, mais elle montre ce qui reste inachevé et, par conséquent, elle exhibe sa fragilité car « il est dans la nature de la critique génétique, autant que de la traduction, d'inachever (unfinish) ce qui semblait achevé 24 ». Il en découle une certaine indétermination du texte, et à travers cette « mise en crise de l'original », « on assiste à la "production" du texte, toujours en devenir et jamais fixé, jamais fini 25 ».…”

subjetividad de Jhumpa Lahiri en Il quaderno di Nerina: un caso de autotraducción

“…Además, es importante mencionar que esta comprensión de la autotraducción también puede enriquecerse a través de la aportación de los Genetic Translation Studies (Grésillon, 1994;Cordingley y Montini, 2015;Nunes, Moura y Pacheco Pinto, 2021, entre otros). Este campo de investigación se enfoca en el análisis de los procesos de trabajo del/de la traductor/a y la evolución del texto traducido al estudiar los manuscritos, borradores y otros documentos, con el objetivo de desvelar ciertas complejidades del proceso compositivo.…”