Translation in Society - Volume 4, Issue 2, 2025

Based on original archival research, this paper observes the sudden emergence of a large number of periodically published scientific and technical translation bibliographies in various Western countries. It proposes that these bibliographies should not (only) be regarded as a resource for research into the history of (scientific) translation, but that they themselves can be conceptualized as a new type of object of such research: translation bibliographies are a form of explicit translation knowledge that can and should be investigated with regard to the historical conditions of their production as well as their functions. This paper claims that these translation bibliographies form the core of a ‘translation knowledge infrastructure’ that was successively built up from 1945 onwards in the wake of the internationalization of the academic field in order to control the massive increase in translation production and to organize it rationally.

Through an ethnographic account, this article explores Spanish-language publishing and reading in the United States, focusing on the key role of translation and attitudes towards it, along with the social fabric of reading. The practice of “simultaneous and parallel publishing” (that is, publishing English originals and their Spanish translations at the same time) is found to be reflected in some reading practices that overlook the translated nature of Latina/o/x texts in Spanish translation. This special case of invisibility is considered alongside a type of talk among booksellers and readers that positions Spanish translation as best avoided. Thus, while the heterogenous Hispanophone readership in the United States could give rise to a laboratory for cohabitation, creativity and innovation in translation and language practices, this remains unlikely if translation is framed as an extension of an original’s market share or perceived as providing access to the “same” but an inferior text.

This article adopts a microhistorical approach, zooming in on the Swedish literary translator Lily Vallquist’s (1897–1986) working life in the 1950s in relation to the professionalization of literary translators in Sweden during the same period. Combining a microhistorical and translation sociological perspective, the article showcases how literary translators in 1950s Sweden engaged with different forms of boundary work to establish the literary profession as a profession in its own right and how this is reflected in the everyday work by an individual translator. The correspondence with publishing house representatives reveals that Lily Vallquist assumed a high degree of responsibility for different aspects of the translation event; although she was “only” a translator, she was not “only translating”. In sum, the article challenges assumptions regarding the multi-professionality of (literary) translators that are often presented as a universal truth and presents a case where the translators rather strived for mono-professionalism.

Translation processes are inevitably conducted amid conflicting and intertwining socio-political and ideological dynamics, and the credibility of the narratives they represent is established through discussion among relevant stakeholders within the society for whom the text is intended. This article aims to analyze the socio-political and ideological context in which the unauthorized and abridged Turkish translation of Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey (1989) emerged, as well as how it was disseminated in Türkiye, using Baker’s narrativity theory as a framework. The translation, which arrived in Turkish in the early 1990s, presents a conceptual narrative that claims to highlight ethnic variety in Türkiye, and thereby contradicts its nationalist public narrative. It faced immediate opposition from nationalist factions, while simultaneously serving as a reference point for the ideological positions of liberals and socialists. The ensuing reactions — both favorable and unfavorable — from historians, politicians, and academics expose the conflicting narratives inside the country. The article explores these narratives and focuses on the implications of its role in generating discussion about the strength of the principles upholding the Turkish Republic’s view of ethnicity.

This article analyzes the availability and accessibility of multilingual coronavirus information on the websites of the three largest cities in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim is to assess whether these websites fulfilled their objective of providing access to coronavirus information in the needed languages for the residents of the area. The research questions are: (1) How accessible were the websites in terms of findability, timeliness, and language coverage? (2) How did the practices on the websites reflect the translation policies of the municipalities? The material consists of website data, interviews, and municipal policy documents. The results demonstrate that the cities clearly saw the provision of multilingual information as a priority, and translations were available in up to twenty non-national languages. However, cities’ translation policies were poorly defined, they were unprepared for the timely publication of crisis information in multiple languages on their websites, and their crisis communication plans did not adequately address the needs of multilingual populations.

This short introduction to my translation (with Gabriela Veronelli and María Constanza Guzmán) of José María Arguedas’s “Entre el kechwa y el castellano, la angustia del mestizo” (1939), here titled “The Anguish of the Mestizo between Quechua and Spanish,” situates Arguedas’s essay within debates on translation, transculturation, and decolonial thought. Arguedas explores the existential and linguistic tensions of living between Quechua and Spanish, viewing translation as a creative and ethical negotiation between worlds. His reflections anticipate current concerns in translation studies — from eco-translation to affect studies and posthumanist approaches — highlighting translation as a site of cultural, epistemic, and ontological encounter.

José María Arguedas (1911–1969) was a Peruvian novelist, anthropologist, and translator whose work bridges Indigenous and Western epistemologies. Written in 1939, “Entre el kechwa y el castellano, la angustia del mestizo” is an essential essay in Latin American thought on language, identity, and cultural hybridity. In it, Arguedas articulates the psychic and linguistic conflict of the mestizo — those positioned between Quechua and Spanish, between Indigenous and colonial worlds. The essay reflects Arguedas’s lifelong project to translate not just between languages but between ontologies. He argues that Quechua expresses the animate world of a people and a land infused with affect and communal belonging, whereas Spanish embodies a rationalist worldview detached from land and spirit. Writing from within this tension, Arguedas envisions a future in which the mestizo transforms Spanish through the “genius” of Quechua, producing new expressive and cultural forms. Published decades before the emergence of decolonial and postcolonial theory, this text anticipates central concerns of translation studies today: translation as transculturation, as epistemic negotiation, and as ecological and affective relation. It also resonates with Indigenous resurgence and multilingual realities across the Americas. This English translation seeks to make accessible one of Arguedas’s most incisive meditations on translation, language, and identity. It brings renewed attention to a thinker whose bilingual imagination remains vital for understanding the intertwined futures of language, land, and cultural survival.