Beyond the Translator’s Invisibility

Whether we allow audiences to know that a text is a translation or to see the person responsible for translating it are questions that have dominated discussions about translation throughout history. Despite becoming one of the most ubiquitous terms in translation studies, however, the concept of translator invisibility is often criticized for being vague, overly adaptable, and grounded in literary contexts. This interdisciplinary volume therefore draws on concepts from fields such as sociology, the digital humanities, and interpretation studies to develop and operationalize theoretical understandings of translator visibility beyond these existing criticisms and limitations. Through empirical case studies spanning areas including social media research, reception studies, institutional translation, and literary translation, this volume demonstrates the value of such approaches and adds much-needed nuance to one of translation studies’ most pervasive, polarizing, and imprecise concepts.