Translation and the Periodical, Ghent University, 13-15 September

In recent years, periodicals have increasingly drawn the attention of Translation Studies (Fólica et al. 2020); reciprocally, Periodical Studies have been moving towards a transnational turn (Ernst 2022; Van Remoortel 2022). These disciplinary moves are (amongst others) informed by the development of digital methods and techniques, as well as vast digitization efforts of the archive, that have gathered speed over the past two decades (Bode 2018) and which enable the extraction, processing and analysis of the enormous amounts of information contained in periodicals. Translations constitute a significant tranche of the information periodicals publish, permitting uniquely detailed and quantitatively grounded insight into the dynamic processes that subtended transnational traffic between literatures and cultures. Notwithstanding the clear promise of research at the intersection of translation and periodical studies, and the burgeoning scholarly work that has begun to explore this middle ground, there remains a significant hiatus: there is yet strikingly little material that offers theories, methods, or instructively representative cases. On an empirical level, well-established high-brow periodicals have been the main focus of research, whereas the more popular low and middle-brow periodicals are yet to receive proper place on the research agenda.  More concretely, serial publishing practices (so-called feuilletons) and the interactions between translated and non-translated content within periodicals demand much closer attention.

The key question which this conference seeks to ponder is whether periodical translation can be argued to have particular qualities that differentiate the practice from other forms of translation, notably for print books, much as periodical writing can be distinguished from book writing. The discursive techniques of periodical translation, and its key role in the mediation of culture and the dynamic exploration of the present that has long been argued to be central to the specificity of the periodical, are likely to be key touchstones in responding to this question. The international conference ‘Translation and the Periodical’ aims to push forward decisively the developing conversations on cultural translation in periodicals. Its target is to bring scholars from various disciplines together and to activate and advance significantly on extant qualitative (cfr. Guzmán et al. 2019; Pym 2007) and quantitative work (cfr. Caristia 2020). The objective is to be a hub of knowledge and expertise in this field as it continues to grow, in particular in those periodicals that have so far largely remained out of the focus of scholarship.

The organizing committee aims to cover a broad scope of subjects and a variety of methodological perspectives in order to reflect current work on translation in periodicals, and both to inform and enhance conversations and debates to come.

Suggested topics for papers include (but are not limited to):

• theoretical contributions, defining translation in periodicals as a praxis and sharpening terminology
• methodological contributions, e.g. focusing on Digital Humanities tools for Translation Studies research
• quantifying approaches (distant reading) that establish the ratio of translated content vs. non-translated content
• transnational networks and periodicals
• the limits of the transnational paradigm
• translation as cultural mediation in periodicals
• visual analyses of translation in periodicals
• in/visibility of translation and translators in periodicals
• migrant/diaspora periodicals and their orientation towards the hosting culture vis-à-vis preserving their domestic heritage
• translation in children’s magazines
• comparative approaches to translation in newspapers and periodical journals
• archival examinations of editorial practices
• sociology of translation, identifying the translators and other actors involved in periodical publishing
• translators’ periodicals, and – in a wider frame – translation discourse in periodicals
• translational and localization practices of comics
• transnational periodicals and their role as furnishers of content for local or regional periodicals
• syndicated fiction
• readers’ responses to translation (readers’ letters etc.)

Deadline for submissions: 20 April 2023

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