Can emotions be translated?

What is it about?

Emotions have traditionally remained marginalised in much cultural debate, and especially in translation studies. Yet, translation involves emotions at all levels. If we consider interlingual translation only, it is evident that the translator or interpreter constantly attends to emotional expressions that are somehow intonated. The book "Exploring the Translatability of Emotions" edited by Susan Petrilli and Meng Ji goes one step further, and considers the translatability of emotions not only as a linguistic phenomenon, but also in a broad sense. Translation is viewed as a method in the quest for understanding.

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Photo by Domingo Alvarez E on Unsplash

Photo by Domingo Alvarez E on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The collection of essays selected by Susan Petrilli and Meng Ji contributes a long-overdue exploration of the translatability of human emotions under diverse aspects, from varying perspectives and with diverse analytical instruments. The transdisciplinary scope of this volume is confirmed by the wide range of fields represented, among which semiotics, logic, philosophy, linguistics, communication sciences, psychology, neurosciences, and anthropology. Petrilli and Ji’s collected volume is broadly introductory, providing both a methodological critical framework to investigate key questions of the relationship between translation and emotions and a selection of multidisciplinary case studies that could serve as a useful springboard for further analysis on the subject.

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