Precarity of Translation III: Translation Theory

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

This round table takes inspiration from the 2022 ASEEES convention theme, “precarity,” as a new methodological lens for Translation Studies within Slavic and Eastern European contexts. The word “precarity” seems to define the very essence of translation, and it’s difficult to imagine any aspect of the translation process that is not described by it: institutions of translation, the notion of the “original” text, the translator’s ethos, historical and institutional contexts, censorship and editing for an audience, even notions of source and target. Participants in this roundtable bring a variety of scholarly and methodological perspectives to address “precarity” as a concept that can unsettle traditional models of theorizing translation. We will discuss aspects of translation studies such as institutional history, hidden histories of cross-cultural exchange, the destabilization of the original, the development of new aesthetic models, and we will suggest that the notion of precarity offers insights that can fill in lacunae in translation studies approaches that have not always done justice to our precarious region.

Sub Unit

• Literature: Comparative

Chair

• Brian James Baer, Kent State U

Roundtable Members

• Maria Y. Khotimsky, MIT

• Lada Kolomiyets, Taras Shevchenko National U of Kyiv (Ukraine)

• Julia Trubikhina, Hunter College

• Russell Scott Valentino, Indiana U Bloomington

• Ilya Vinitsky, Princeton U