Transfiction and Bordering Approaches to Theorizing Translation: Essays in Dialogue with the Work of Rosemary Arrojo

This collection seeks to expand the centers from which scholars theorize translation, building on themes in Rosemary Arrojo’s pioneering work on transfiction and the influence of bordering disciplines in investigating and elucidating questions central to the field of translation studies.

Chapters by scholars around the world theorize translation from diverse perspectives, drawing on a wide range of literatures, genres, and media, including fiction, philosophy, drama, and film. Half the chapters explore the influence of Rosemary Arrojo’s work on transfiction and the ways in which fictional representations of translators and translation can shed new light on theoretical concerns. The other chapters look to fields outside translation studies, such as linguistics, media studies, and philosophy, to demonstrate the ways in which the key thinkers and theories that have influenced Arrojo’s work can be seen in other disciplines and in turn, encourage further cross-disciplinary research interrogating key questions in the field.

The collection makes the case for a multi-layered approach to theorizing translation, one which accounts for the rich possibilities in revisiting existing work and thinking outside disciplinary boundaries in order to advance the field. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in translation studies and comparative literature.

D. M. Spitzer is an independent scholar and translator of early Greek thinking (USA). Author of A Heaven Wrought of Iron: Poems from the Odyssey (2016) and editor of Philosophy’s Treason: Studies in Philosophy and Translation (2020), Spitzer’s work has appeared in journals such as Epoché, Research in Phenomenology, and Diacritics. Currently Dr. Spitzer is organizing Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy in Honor of Professor Anthony Preus (Routledge) and writing a book exploring the ways trauma and migration shaped early Greek philosophy.

Paulo Oliveira teaches German at the State University of Campinas, and Translation Theory and Foreign Language Didactics at the University of São Paulo (Brazil). Prior and parallel to teaching, he has also gained extensive experience in translating and especially interpreting, mostly in the Humanities. His research includes digital technologies and an interface with semiotics. He currently works on an ’Epistemology of translating’ of Wittgensteinian extraction and co-edits the Nachlass of Arley Moreno in Philosophy of Language.