SALLE 2.08 (BATIMENT MULTIMEDIA)
Translating like it’s 1826: Developing a diachronic approach to Translation Industry Studies
How did translators work in the early decades of modern print capitalism? What were the materialities of their professional practice, and how do they differ from those experienced by their twenty-first-century peers? This presentation will frame literary translation not as a creative practice, but as a form of labour, with expectations of productivity and output reflective of the publishing market within which individual translators are contracted. Based on research conducted for my book Professional Translators in Nineteenth-Century France, it will offer a deep dive into the career of Auguste-Jean-Baptiste Defauconprêt, literary translation entrepreneur and inventor of the « lingual steam engine », to explore translation practice diachronically within the Translation Industry Studies turn. The seminar will also include a practical component, inviting participants to engage in a process of historical re-enactment by trying their hand at translating with the tools of the early nineteenth century.