METM09 presentation Thread: Promising practices
Dare to edit? Translators as editors – the student's experience
Stella Fumagalli and Fiona Kelso -“ Spain
As part of the final year of the degree in Translation and Interpreting at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, students are required to take a semester-long course in specialized translation. This paper describes the authors' experience of a simulated -˜real-life' task undertaken in the first semester of the 2008-2009 academic year.
Using specific examples, we look at the role of the translators as author's editors: their freedoms, constraints, and the criteria they use. We analyze the importance of the relationship between the source text author and the translator, between the translation brief and the final result. We also look at the conflicts that arise between the initiator's purpose and the translator's expertise, which is particularly relevant for university students at a pre-specialist stage in their translation careers.
We consider these aspects of the translation process in the controlled environment of a university course and how they might be transferred and resolved when undertaking similar translations in the workplace.
Stella Fumagalli is Graduate in Cultural and Linguistic Mediation from the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. She is currently studying for the Master in Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies (Intercultural Mediation) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Email
Fiona Kelso holds a BA (Hons) in Geography from the University of Leeds, UK. She is currently studying for the Master in Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies (Translation Studies) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and works as a translator and editor in the Language Service of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Email