[Online] Social Self-Translation: the Real, the Illusory, and the Hyperreal

Translation Studies ISSN: 1478-1700 (Print) 1751-2921 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtrs20 A preliminary theoretical investigation into [online] social self-translation: The real, the illusory, and the hyperreal Renée Desjardins To cite this article: Renée Desjardins (2019): A preliminary theoretical investigation into [online] social self-translation: The real, the illusory, and the hyperreal, Translation Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14781700.2019.1691048 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2019.1691048 Published online: 09 Dec 2019. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 48 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rtrs20 TRANSLATION STUDIES https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2019.1691048 A preliminary theoretical investigation into [online] social self-translation: The real, the illusory, and the hyperreal Renée Desjardins School of Translation, Université de Saint-Boniface, Winnipeg, Canada ABSTRACT KEYWORDS This article argues that “social translation”, “crowdsourced Translation; self-translation; translation”, and “user-generated translation” are in fact not social translation; social synonymous. Building on previous research, the term “social media; Instagram; Facebook translation” is used to refer to translation activity that takes place on various online social media and that engenders specific online social affordances. While crowdsourced translation in online settings continues to garner interest from translation scholars, very little has been said on the subject of self-translation in online and digital contexts, specifically with regard to social media. This article begins filling this gap by first defining [online] social self- translation and providing a taxonomy of different types of self- translation under this umbrella term. Examples are offered to illustrate the categories “real”, “illusory”, and “hyperreal”. Theoretically examining social self-translation sheds light on how self-translation phenomena occur online and how such activity can help translation studies scholars rethink the “self”, the “social” and, thus, self-translation and social translation. Introduction To contextualize this article’s preliminary investigation, it is useful to consider the histori- cal positioning of self-translation research. Although historically self-translation and self- translators have been marginalized in translation studies (TS) scholarship (e.g. Cordingley 2013; Grutman and Van Bolderen 2014; Hokenson and Munson 2007), this area has now garnered increased attention (e.g. Castro, Mainer, and Page 2017; Falceri, Gentes, and Manterola 2017). Some scholars, such as Anselmi (2012) have even advocated in favour of “self-translation studies”. Earlier research in this area usually favoured a comparative analysis of source and target texts, not dissimilar to early analyses in TS that focused on linguistic aspects of translated “products” to the detriment of other key elements, such as the context of production (translation), the identity or profile of the translator, the translator’s agency during/within the translation process, and the translation brief. And while some “high-profile” self-translators – e.g. Samuel Beckett, Nancy Huston, and Vladimir Nabokov – have garnered the attention of literary scholars and TS scholars alike, the argument has been made that this focus on established self-translators has obfus- cated an entire demographic of self-translators, i.e. those who, as Anthony Cordingley CONTACT Renée Desjardins [email protected] © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group 2 R. DESJARDINS states, “translate” themselves every day, by choice or necessity (2013, 4), be it at family gatherings, in online settings, at work, etc. These individuals may not even consider themselves self-translators at all: for them, recourse to self-translation is an inherent part of being able to communicate with and within different social networks (both offline and online) in everyday contexts. This group of individuals constitute the key demographic in the observational analyses provided here: namely, those who may not view or define themselves as self-translators, but nonetheless leverage the practice on social media to communicate with their peer and professional networks. Cordingley identifies four main currents of self-translation research, which he also uses as section headers in Self-Translation (2013). These are studies that: (1) examine self- translation and literary history; (2) incorporate interdisciplinary perspectives (sociological, psychoanalytical, and philosophical insights in this specific case); (3) have evolved from the “cultural turn”, and draw from post-colonial perspectives; and, finally, (4) consider cosmopolitan identities/texts. This corpus of self-translation research is novel in that it departs from debates fixated on fidelity to an “original”, the creation of new “originals”, and author primacy. However, none of Self-Translation’s contributors tackle social self- translation in any explicit manner,1 which is surprising given that multilingual communi- cation between online users is an inherent characteristic of online and digital spaces. Therefore, this preliminary investigation builds on interdisciplinary perspectives (translation studies and social media studies) and provides analyses that also examine different self-translation “profiles” on different social media platforms, which in turn sup- plements scholarship on self-translator profiles and cosmopolitan identities/texts. Other early and contemporary definitions of self-translation alike define self-translation as a “literary phenomenon” (Gentes and Van Bolderen 2018, n.p.), focusing more or less exclusively on literary works authored by and translated into another (human) language by the same individual, referencing, among others, Anton Popovič’s inaugural 1976 definition (which I explore in greater detail in a later section). Gentes and Van Bol- deren (2018, n.p.) argue that, “[a]s a literary phenomenon, self-translation […] involves an author translating their own literary work into another language and another text”, and that this definition, while not uncontested (Cordingley 2013), “remains the most common”. Chiara Montini (2010, 307) provides the following overview of the self-translation landscape in TS: [M]ost of the articles or monographies on the subject concern the following: a single (or a few) author(s) such as Nabokov, Beckett or Julien Green; post-colonial studies […]; some writers issued from a linguistic minority […]; exiled or migrated subjects […]; a personal account of the self-translator’s experience; self-translation from dialects […]. In my work (Desjardins 2013, 2017a, 2019), I examine translation and social media, noting the relative absence of research that critically examines self-translation activity on online social media (OSM) platforms (Desjardins 2017a, 123). Furthermore, and particularly in connection with this issue’s focal theme, recent literature on crowdsourced, collaborative, and user-generated translation in online and digital settings (going beyond online social media) (e.g. Costales 2013; Cronin 2010; 2013; García 2010; 2015; McDonough Dolmaya 2011) has made no mention of self-translation as some- thing many online content creators practice regularly, especially professional translators (e.g. self-translating a professional profile page on LinkedIn, producing translated TRANSLATION STUDIES 3 content for a website for their freelance practice, or producing self-translated bilingual content in a blog or academic profile page). This brief summary of extant literature indicates that self-translation has not, or at least not to a significant degree, been examined in online contexts or on online social media. However, self-translation, as a practice, product, and concept, has notable significance in digital and online contexts. According to 2017 data, multilingual online users seem to pivot to English2 (or other major internet languages, such as Chinese) to communicate messages on various social platforms and elsewhere in the digital world: the translation practices and products related to this phenomenon warrant investigation. However, by extension, the concept of self-translation also has relevance for various online social media practices (is there no better form of self-translation than the selfie? [Koustas 2018]). As part of the project of redefining or broadening self-translation within TS, and of expanding upon work done in Social Media Studies, the various theoretical overlaps between the concept of self-translation and online expressions of the self, such as selfies, blogging, content curation, I argue, should be examined. This exploratory work identifies points of convergence between the fields of TS and Social Media Studies (SMS), as pre- viously suggested. Further, investigating how self-translation occurs on social media can shed new light on how user-generated content is produced, constructed, articulated, and disseminated on social platforms (Desjardins 2017b). It should be noted that the intention is not to examine the products of self-translation published online or on social platforms (akin to linguistic analyses), but to consider the various social affordances and different forms of sociality social media provide self-translators. The taxonomy is meant to facilitate reconceptualizations of self-translation in light

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