Literary translation

Our research in literary translation is based on a strong descriptive foundation through the study of source texts and their translations.

Translation practices

The multitude of research projects of staff and doctoral students provides a wealth of case studies which give insights into literary translation practices in many parts of the world (Spain, Italy, France, Egypt, Canada, China, Singapore, Malaysia, among others) and at different time periods.

Theoretical frameworks

The studies also explore the translation of different literary genres: children's literature, drama, poetry, and comics, as well as the novel. Research draws on a variety of theoretical frameworks, in particular literary theory, cultural theory, sociology and linguistics.

Most importantly, through the application of theories to new material and in new contexts, the studies also allow the questioning and developing of theories with regard to such topics as censorship, intercultural relations, narrative, creativity, and retranslation.

PhD projects

• Farah Abou-Bakr (2014) The Folktale as a Site of Framing Palestinian National and Cultural Identity: Speak, Bird, Speak Again, Qul Ya Tayr, and Arab Folktales from Palestine and Israel
• Abdulla Alkhamis (2013) Socio-cultural Perspectives on Translation Activities in Saudi Arabia: A Bourdieusean Account
• Eman Almutairi: Translating Dialect in Literary Texts with Particular Reference to Arabic Regional Dialects
• Dimitris Asimakoulas (2005) Brecht in Dark Times: Translations of Brecht's Works in the Censorship Context of the Greek Junta (1967-1974)
• Amal Ayoub (2010) Framing Translated and Adapted Children's Literature in the Kilani Project: A Narrative Perspective
• 2009
• Michela Baldo (2009) Translation as Renarration in Italian Canadian Writing: Codeswitching, Focalisation, Voice and Plot in Nino Ricci's Trilogy and Its Italian Translation
• Jui-yin Chao (2012) Translational Footnotes and the Positioning of Unfamiliar Literature: Capital Flow in Translations of Angela Carter's Fiction in Taiwan
• Xiao Di: Renarrating China: The Construction of Chinese Cultural Identity in English Translations of Chinese Novels in the UK and US, 1980-2010
• Sharifah Fazliyaton Shaik Ismail (2008) The Translation of Children's Literature in Malay Language in the 1970s: Sociocultural Context and Strategies Employed
• Sameh Fekry Hanna (2006) Towards a Sociology of Drama Translation: A Bourdieusian Perspective on Translations of Shakespeare's Great Tragedies in Egypt
• Keith Harvey (2001) Translating the Queens' English: Parodic Femininity in Fictional Representations of Gay Talk: A Study of French Representations of Late 1970s American Gay Fiction
• Luciana Kaross (2014) The Lyric Translation of Songs by Ian Curtis and Morrissey into Brazilian Portuguese
• Pilar Orero (2003) The Translation of Nonsense with Reference to the Works of Edward Lear in Spanish and Catalan Translations
• Kalliopi Pasmatzi (2014) Theorising Translation as Cultural Repatriation: The Greek Civil War Narrative Translated into Greek
• Andrew Read (2013) Translating Fictional Speech between Languages and between Media: The Case of Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass
• Shabnam Saadat Arkan Najd: The Translation of Children's Literature in Iran: A Structurationist Approach
• Aurora Sambolin (2015) The Phenomenon of Self-Translation in Puerto Rican and Puerto Rican US Diaspora Literature Written by Women: The Cases of Esmeralda Santiago's America's Dream (1996) and Rosario Ferre's The House on the Lagoon (1995), from a Post-colonial Perspective
• Anne-Marie Stead: Carcanet Press and Twentieth-Century Italian Texts in Transmission
• Caroline Summers (2013) Narratives of Dissidence and Complicity: Translating Christa Wolf Before and After the Fall of the Wall
• Ting-Hui Wen (2009) Simplification as a Recurrent Translation Feature: A Corpus-based Study of Modern Chinese Translated Mystery Fiction in Taiwan
• Yu Zhongli (2012) Translating Feminism in China
• Jehan Zitawi (2004) The Translation of Disney Comics in the Arab World: A Pragmatic Perspective

Selected publications

• Asimakoulas, Dimitris (2006) 'Translations as a Means of Resistance: Paratexts in Translations of Brecht's Works under the Greek Junta (1967-1974)', CTIS Occasional Papers, 3: 78-103.
• Asimakoulas, Dimitris (2005) 'Brecht in Dark Times. Translations of his Works Under the Greek Junta (1967-1974)', Target 17(1): 93-110.
• Billiani, Francesca (2007) (ed.) Modes of Censorship and Translation: National Contexts and Diverse Media, Manchester: St. Jerome.
• Billiani, Francesca (2007) 'Renewing a Literary Culture through Translation: Poetry in Post-war Italy', in Jeremy Munday (ed.)Translation as Intervention, London: Continuum, 138-60.
• Billiani, Francesca (2006) 'Identity and Otherness: Translation Policies in Fascist Italy', CTIS Occasional Papers 3: 59-77.
• Billiani, Francesca (2000) 'Translators, Writers, Publishers and the Literary Reception of the English and American Novel in Italy in the Inter-war Period', Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies 8: 171-94.
• Brownlie, Siobhan (2009) 'Translation and the Fantastic: Nancy Huston's Instruments des ténèbres’, French Forum 34: 1: 67-83.
• Brownlie, Siobhan (2008) 'Using Riffaterre to Rehabilitate The Lover', Literature/Film Quarterly 36 :1: 52-60.
• Brownlie, Siobhan (2007) 'Examining Self-Censorship: Zola's Nana in English Translation', in Francesca Billiani (ed.) Modes of Censorship in Translation: National Contexts and Diverse Media, Manchester: St Jerome, pp. 205-234.
• Brownlie, Siobhan (2006) 'Investigating the Relationship between To Live the Orange and Vivre l'Orange', Women in French Studies14: 61-75. 
• Brownlie, Siobhan (2006) 'Literary Theory and the Translator: Gathering Together the Translator's Multiple Roles', Translation Studies in the New Millennium 4: 33-46.
• Brownlie, Siobhan (2006) 'Tough Constraints and Creativity: La Disparition and its English Translations', in Michel Ballard (ed.)La traduction, contact de langues et de cultures (2), Arras: Artois Presses Université, 137-160.
• Harvey, Keith (2003) Intercultural Movements: 'American Gay' in French Translation, Manchester : St. Jerome Publishing.
• Harvey, Keith (2000) 'Describing Camp Talk: Language/Pragmatics/Politics', Language and Literature 9(3): 240-260.
• Harvey, Keith (2000) 'Gay Community, Gay Identity and the Translated Text', TTR: Traduction, terminologie, rédaction: 137-165.
• Harvey , Keith (1998) 'Translating Camp Talk: Gay Identities and Cultural Transfer', The Translator, Special issue on Translation and Minority 4(2): 295-320. [Reproduced in Venuti (ed.) (2000) The Translation Studies Reader, London and New York: Routledge.]
• St. André, James (2007) 'The Development of British Sinology and Changes in Translation Practice: The Case of Sir John Francis Davis (1795-1890)', Translation and Interpreting Studies 2(2): 3-42.
• St. André, James (2006) 'Revealing the Invisible: Heterolingualism in Three Generations of Singaporean Playwrights', Target 18(2): 139-61.
• St. André, James (2006) '"You Can Never Go Home Again": Cultural Memory and Identity Formation in the Writing of Southeast Asian Chinese', Journal of Chinese Overseas 2(1): 33-55.
• St. André, James (2002) 'Picturing Judge Bao in Ming Fiction',Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 24: 43-73.
• St. André, James (2000) Xianzai fanyi lilun yu guoqu fanyi shijian: yi "Hao Qiu Zhuan" de Ou yi wei li ('Modern translation theory and past translation practice: European translations of the Hao qiu zhuan'), Chung-wai Literary Monthly 29(5): 105-129. [English version published in Leo Chan Tak-hung (2002) (ed)One into Many: Translation and the Dissemination of Classical Chinese Literature,  Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 39-65.]
• Strowe, Anna (2011) 'The Auctour, the Translatoure, and the Impressoure: Translating Boccaccio's Authorship in Early Modern England', Textus 24(30): 477-90.
• Strowe, Anna (2011) 'Is Simpatico Possible in Translation? The 1620 Translation of the Decameron and the Case for Similarity',The Translator 17(1): 51-75.