LA&PS English led a daylong hybrid workshop at the Maison Suger, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (), on the challenges of compiling, conserving, and promoting literary translators’ archives. The workshop brought together Translation Studies scholars, literary translators, national archivists, and university librarians from four countries (Canada, Finland, France and Norway).
Translation Studies research highlights how important translators’ archives are for understanding the translation process as well as the editorial, cultural and political issues it raises. Nonetheless, literary translators’ archival fonds remain all too rare. National and university libraries lack space and funding to support archival development in general and acquisition policies often prioritize authors over translators. As translators work and communicate almost exclusively online, their archival material itself, including drafts, revisions, notes, and correspondence, is becoming more ephemeral.
“One of the key issues to emerge from the workshop, states Professor Whitfield, is the range of reasons that can make literary translators reticent to donate their archives. They may underestimate the value of their archives or feel that opening their draft work to perusal could reflect poorly on their work. Many translate freelance and have little time for keeping archives. Increasing access to literary translators’ archives will require addressing these concerns.”
This project was supported by the , a publicly funded French foundation that fosters research in the humanities and social sciences, and the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at 91ɫ through a Dean's Award for Research Excellence (DARE) research assistant, English major Mckenzie Tzeng-Fearon. More information on the workshop can be found on the .