Who: María Sierra Córdoba Serrano (speaking in Spanish, interpreted by student interpreters)

What: The Spanish-Language Translation Publishing Market: A Case Study in the Sociology of Translation

When: Tomorrow, November 3 (Tue) 12:15 – 1:45

Where: Irvine Auditorium

Recently, much has been written about the “Sociological Turn” in Translation Studies. Indeed, some scholars have gone so far as to claim that we are dealing with a new “paradigmatic shift” (Inghilleri, 2005: 125).

Without endorsing Inghilleri’s view, I will certainly admit that new ground has been broken: sociologically oriented approaches to Translation Studies have led to an important shift from the study of texts to the study of people and institutions (translators, publishers, cultural institutions, etc.).

To explore this innovation the sociological turn has brought to translation studies, I will first introduce the subfield of the sociology of translation, an interdisciplinary area translation scholars have begun to explore in recent years. The second part of my talk will focus on a particular case study: the Spanish-language translation market (the biggest for books in translation in the world; The Economist, 19th-25th January 2008, p. 71). Particular emphasis will be placed on the Spanish-language translations published and/or distributed in the U.S. The emergent Spanish publishing market in the United States is of special interest because it challenges traditional territorial and national conceptualizations of culture – succinctly expressed by the 19th-century axiom “language equals nation equals culture.” This major “delocalized” market is also the target of many Spanish-speaking publishing conglomerates, who see in it a profitable niche, given the ever-increasing Hispanic buying power in the U.S. (projected to grow from a present $1.1 trillion to $12.4 trillion by 2011).

Through an examination of four stakeholders groups—institutional agents (cultural attachés, diplomats, national book associations, etc.), international publishing conglomerates (e.g. Grupo Planeta, Santillana, etc.), small independent publishers (e.g. Era, LOM, Txalaparta ) and finally, intermediary agents (translators, scouts, etc.),—I will show the different logics and constraints (economic, political and cultural) that rule the circulation and reception of these translations.