Politics of translation: Assimilation and reflexivity in the transformation of academic texts

Abstract

For many at the periphery and semi-periphery of the global academic field, translation or self-translation into English has become a prerequisite for the pursuit of an academic career. This article focuses on the academic translators who translate humanities and social science texts and the crucial but highly invisible role of their everyday translation practices in relation to the dominance of Anglophone discourses and concepts. It articulates an interdisciplinary theorization of the politics of translation through the concepts of assimilatory and reflexive translation, which are applied to an empirical investigation based on semi-structured interviews conducted with academic translators in the context of Spain. The analysis brings to light their backgrounds, professional profiles, and perceptions of their working conditions, as well as their views of science and good writing. Academic translators predominantly adopt an assimilatory translation strategy, reformulating texts to adapt them to Anglophone academic conventions. However, habitual collaboration between translators and authors gives rise to deliberation among both actors on how to recreate texts in the new linguistic situation. Such collaboration holds great potential for the development of more reflexive forms of translation in which an invitation to consider translation strategies and decisions is extended to authors and users of translations at large.