Emotions and Translation

Hubscher-Davidson, Severine (2021). Emotions and Translation. In: Gambier, Yves and Van Doorslaer, Luc eds. Handbook of Translation Studies (HTS). HTS, 5. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 53–58.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/hts.5.emo1

URL: https://benjamins.com/catalog/hts.5

Abstract

Emotions are complex reactions comprising experiential, behavioural, and physiological components. The role that they play in the practice of translation has been mooted for some time. In 1996, Jääskeläinen observed that affective factors, be they personal involvement, commitment, motivation, or attitude, may be a relevant parameter in accounting for translational behaviour. It is only relatively recently, however, that scholars have started to explore empirically the influence on the translation process and product of affect, the term used in psychology to refer to emotions that influence one’s thinking and actions. Translation studies (TS) can be thus said to have witnessed an affective turn, inspired by a growing focus on emotions in the field of psychology (e.g., Sander & Scherer 2009), which has dramatically altered and expanded the scope of research on the role of emotions in translation (see also Translation psychology).