JosTrans: Special issue on crime in translation
The Journal of Specialised Translation Guest-edited by Karen Seago, Jonathan Evans and Begoña Rodriguez
Crime fiction is a hot topic with an explosion of crime novels, television series and films, many of them translated not only out of English, but also increasingly into English. However, there has not been that much research into crime fiction in translation and this special issue addresses this gap, bringing together work on crime in translation for the first time.
The issue focuses what is specific to crime fiction translation: how do genre conventions shape translation decisions? How do you translate suspense; clues and misdirection; characters ranging from serial criminals to victims to expert professionals? To what extent does the popular status of the genre influence reception and adaptation? How does crime travel across culturally and socially specific environments?
This special issue offers a wide engagement with the different challenges of crime fiction translation and crime in translation, starting out with an introduction to the key features of crime fiction and how they shape translation strategies. Articles discuss genre-specific translation challenges, stylistic accommodation, metaphor deletion, slang and racism as well as the importance of setting, the function of formulaic dialogue, transmedial adaptation from novel to graphic novel and consensus translation in theory and practice. Three contributions focus on non-fictional elements of crime in translation: a discussion of the culturally specific concept of the ‘mafia’ and two contributions on legal interpreting and ethics.
We are also very grateful for permission to publish a chapter from Carlo Lucarelli and its translation produced by the translation workshop discussed in one of the articles. Many thanks to authors Domingo Villar, Dominique Manotti, Marcello Fois, Pia Juul, Isabel del Rio and translators Amanda Hopkinson and Silvester Mazzarella for agreeing to be interviewed.
[url=http://www.jostrans.org]http://www.jostrans.org[/url]
Posted by Lucja Biel on 15th Jul 2014
in Announcements
