Affect in Translation and Interpreting

Affect shapes every act of translation and interpreting.

Affect in Translation and Interpreting explores how emotions, relationships, and human connection guide the work of translators and interpreters around the world. Through rich case studies and conversations with practitioners, the volume shows how affect operates in community settings, trauma narratives, classrooms, literary exchanges, and the everyday encounters that define multilingual life. It reveals how affect circulates through translation and interpreting, influencing decisions and interactions, as well as the connections that emerge across languages and cultures. Methodologically rich and intellectually ambitious, the book expands the conceptual and practical horizons of affect-oriented research in compelling ways. Bringing together scholars and professionals from diverse backgrounds, it offers an essential and accessible look at the embodied, relational, and socially embedded dimensions of translation and interpreting today. It invites readers to see these practices as deeply human and shaped by care and connection.

"Affect in Translation and Interpreting" was written by Irem Ayan, Anu Viljanmaa, Chiara Rao, Koen Kerremans, Zhenglin Lu, Yin Zhang, Christof Sulzer, Kaisa Koskinen, Jan Steyn, Alicia Partnoy, Michela Deiana and Irene Manganini.

"Affect in Translation and Interpreting" was edited by Sofía Monzón, Lucie Spezzatti and Elisabeth Goemans.

Sofía Monzón is Assistant Professor and Co-director of the Translation and Interpreting Program at Utah State University.

Lucie Spezzatti is a post-doctoral researcher in literary translation at the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Translation and Interpreting.

Elisabeth Goemans is a Lecturer in Hispanic Literatures and a researcher in languages and education at KU Leuven.

Yes, "Affect in Translation and Interpreting" is part of the "Translation, Interpreting and Mediation" series.

Translation, Interpreting and Mediation

Mission statement

Championing a broad and transversal approach to the study of translational phenomena, Translation, Interpreting and Mediation (TIME)  is a book series for monographs and edited volumes that explore translation as a pervasive social practice connecting spaces and collectivities through complex forms of resemiotization and mediation. The series transcends traditional notions of translation as the decoding and recoding of semantic invariants and embraces an expansive understanding of translational agency. It aims to provide a venue for theoretical and methodological innovations at the disciplinary frontiers where translation is pervasive and essential but seldom fully understood or acknowledged. The series welcomes different perspectives on translation, interpreting and mediation, interfacing with a variety of areas of study, including sociology, literature, linguistics, cognition, politics, law, history, communication, multimodality, ecology, technology, cultural production and digital humanities (among others). The series draws inspiration from the collective expertise of CETRA (Centre for Translation Studies), its institutional home at KU Leuven.

All volumes in the series are double peer reviewed.

For questions, please contact the series editors.

Series editors

Jack McMartin (KU Leuven)
Sara Ramos Pinto (University of Leeds)

Editorial board

Núria Codina Solà (KU Leuven)
Lieven D’hulst (KU Leuven)
Peter J. Freeth (London Metropolitan University)
Deborah Giustini (Hamad Bin Khalifa University)
Gabriel González Núñez (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley)
Bei Hu (National University of Singapore)
Akiko Sakamoto (Kansai University)

Advisory board

Brian Baer (Kent State University)
Pieter Boulogne (KU Leuven)
Lynne Bowker (University of Laval)
Elke Brems (KU Leuven)
Leo Tak-hung Chan (Lingnan University, Hong Kong)
Antoon Cox (KU Leuven)
Michael Cronin (Trinity College Dublin)
Dilek Dizdar (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
Yves Gambier (University of Turku)
Maud Gonne (University of Liège)
Arnt Lykke Jakobsen (Copenhagen Business School)
Haidee Kotze (Utrecht University)
Kaisa Koskinen (Tampere University)
Kobus Marais (University of the Free State)
Reine Meylaerts (KU Leuven)
Joss Moorkens (Dublin City University)
Jemina Napier (Heriot-Watt University)
Franz Pöchhacker (University of Vienna)
Hanna Risku (University of Vienna)
Diana Roig Sanz (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Heidi Salaets (KU Leuven)
Christina Schäffner (Aston University)
Luc van Doorslaer (University of Tartu / KU Leuven)

Yes, "Affect in Translation and Interpreting" is published Open Access. It is available under a BY-NC-ND license.

Publication of "Affect in Translation and Interpreting" was funded by KU Leuven Fund for Fair Open Access
Open Book Collective
.

Contributors

Introduction. Approaching Affect in Translation and Interpreting
Sofía Monzón, Elisabeth Goemans, & Lucie Spezzatti

Part I. Interpreters’ Affective Labor and Emotional Economies

Chapter 1. Emotional Capital and Its Link to Emotional Labor in Community Interpreting
Irem Ayan

Chapter 2. Affects in On-Demand Mobile App Interpreting in Public Service Settings : Interpreters’ Experiences
Anu Viljanmaa

Chapter 3. Affect and Vicarious Traumatization: The Emotional Toll of Interpreting
Chiara Rao and Koen Kerremans

Part II. Contexts and Circulation of Affect in Translation

Chapter 4. Empathy in Translating Chinese Cultural Trauma Narratives
Zhenglin Lu and Yin Zhang

Chapter 5. A Journey into the Reader’s Mind: Pedagogical Perspectives on Rational Empathy in Translator Education
Christof Sulzer

Chapter 6. Affecting Affect: A study of “Affective Responses” to Translated Literature in the Spanish-Speaking World (1960s-1970s)
Sofía Monzón

Part III. Affective Dialogues

Chapter 7. Sticky Affects and Relational Craft: A Dialogue with Jan Steyn
Sofía Monzón

Chapter 8. “Translation Is an Act of Generosity in Which There Is No Room for the Ego”: In Conversation with Alicia Partnoy
Elisabeth Goemans

Chapter 9. “Empathy Became Fundamental”: A Conversation with Irene Manganini and Michela Deiana from the Associazione Vanvera
Lucie Spezzatti

Coda. Moving On with Researching Translation and Affect
Kaisa Koskinen

Index

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for "Affect in Translation and Interpreting" is 10.11116/9789461667588.