Constructing a Sociology of Translation.pdf

12 Hélène Buzelining these alliances is likely to reflect each constituent’s political history, althoughother routes based on social rather than political distinctions may also develop,as suggested by Les Allusifs’ case study. The benefits of these alliances are basicallytwo-fold: achieving economies of scale and/or obtaining more visibility locallyor abroad. Cooperation may also take place among translators as they sharetheir projects with partners. This work sharing may originate with the translatorsthemselves (as in the second and third cases) or the publisher (the first study). Assuch, co-translation may also take very different forms, the most obvious benefitsof which are the compressing of translation deadlines and/or attaining of betterquality standards.Cooperation may also prevail between actors taking on different roles in thetranslation and publication process: for example between publishers and translators.Translation scholars have traditionally emphasized the power relationsbetween translators and their clients or employers, in this case publishers andeditors. Power differentials were also visible in the cases recorded. But these weresomewhat overshadowed by other types of relations that involved a partial redefinitionof roles. In two of the three cases, translators (at least one member of theteam) also acted as “title-hunter” for the publisher. This, in itself, is not necessarilynew. Many literary translators have surely played a similar role in the past. Whatmay be more interesting, though, is that in both cases, this function was officialized(hence recognized and valued) by the publisher. One translator became amember of the editorial board while the other became the author’s official agentin French. This recognition was felt, by both translators, as a way to compensate,symbolically and financially, for the low status of their profession: as a way to getmore power over the selection process (hence over the very nature of titles theywould translate) and/to get some royalties (something generally not included inthe translation contract). One may regard these cases as anecdotic ones, thoughin the current publishing context marked by overproduction and insecurity forindependent publishers, translators are likely to become extremely useful allies topublishers, at least those who operate in the more restricted sphere of literatureand who have agreed to keep on promoting diversity. 26At first view, all these cooperation practices may appear to be marginal practices– marginal in the sense that they have received very little attention fromtranslation scholars. But one may wonder how marginal they are in nature. Duringthe compiling of additional data on the catalogue of the three publishing housesthat are part of this research and looking more generally at the titles recentlytranslated and published in Québec, it appeared that these practices are far from2. Also, it is worth noting that all three publishers occasionally hire their domestic authors astranslators or revisers, or otherwise offer translation projects to their revisers etc.