36.2365, Calls: Translation Matters - "History as Translation" (Volume 8, Issue 1) (Jrnl)

Fri Aug 8 09:05:02 UTC 2025

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-2365. Fri Aug 08 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.2365, Calls: Translation Matters - "History as Translation" (Volume 8, Issue 1) (Jrnl)

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Date: 07-Aug-2025
From: Phillippa May Bennett [pmbtranslations at gmail.com]
Subject: Translation Matters - "History as Translation" (Jrnl)

Journal: Translation Matters
Issue: History as Translation
Call Deadline: 15-Dec-2025

Special issue on History as Translation (Vol. 8.1, Spring 2026)
Guest-editor: Margarita Savchenkova
Over the past few decades, translation studies have shown an
increasing interest in historical themes. This emerging focus has led
to a range of publications that seek to offer a thorough understanding
of how history and translation intersect (see Bastin and Bandia, 2006;
Hermans, 2022; Rundle, 2022). Nevertheless, much of this research
approaches translation primarily as an interlingual activity, often
identifying temporal gaps, along with cultural and linguistic aspects,
as key challenges faced by translators.
This special issue of Translation Matters encourages rethinking
translation beyond a strictly interlinguistic framework and exploring
the idea of interpreting history as translation in its broadest sense,
sparking discussions and debates around the implications of this
perspective.
The idea of history as a form of translation first appeared in
critical historiography. For instance, Hayden White ([1987] 1990, p.
1) describes narrative—and therefore history—as “the problem of how to
translate knowing into telling, the problem of fashioning human
experience into a form assimilable to structures of meaning that are
generally human rather than culture-specific”. Alun Munslow (1997, p.
6; 2012, p. 150) also argues that history is fundamentally “the
process of translating evidence into facts” and is essentially “a
translation exercise”. Historical writing can be seen as translating
between different mediums (LaCapra, [1983] 1994, p. 26), where the
past is converted into written form and interpreted through
contemporary concepts (Jenkins, [1991] 2003, pp. 15–16). In this
context, historians act as translators bridging the past and the
present. As Peter Burke (2005, p. 3) aptly states, “[i]f the past is a
foreign country […], then historians may be regarded as translators
between past and present.”
This conception, introduced by critical historiography, has recently
been systematically explored in one of the most comprehensive and
innovative works on the intersection of historiography and translation
studies, La traducción y la(s) historia(s). Nuevas vías de
investigación, by África Vidal Claramonte (2018). In this monograph,
the author challenges the traditional view of history as an objective
account of “reality”, positing instead that history is not a single
text, but rather texts that rewrite and translate “reality”
intralingually (Vidal Claramonte, 2018, p. 2). She thus encourages
readers to reconsider history as an intralingual form of translation.
Similarly, Luigi Alonzi’s (2023) History as a Translation of the Past:
Case Studies from the West approaches historical interpretation as a
translation process. In his introduction, Alonzi (2023, p.1) argues
that interpreting the past can be seen as an “act of translation, both
epistemologically and cognitively”. Another noteworthy contribution is
Margarita Savchenkova’s (2024) work, La traducción emocional de la
historia. La memoria traumática en la obra de Svetlana Alexiévich.
Savchenkova explores how history, translation, traumatic memory, and
emotions intersect in the context of (re)writing Soviet history.
Going further, it is important to note that the understanding of
history through the lens of translation increasingly transcends the
textual realm. For example, Peter Burke (1997) employs the concept of
translatio to analyze the emergence of the carnival tradition in the
Americas. In the same vein, Sergei Oushakine (2013) invokes the idea
of translation when discussing the military parades that the Russian
government organizes annually to mark the end of the war between Nazi
Germany and the USSR. Scholars working within the field of conceptual
history frequently draw on the notion of translation to illustrate the
intricate process of both establishing and operationalizing concepts
(see Pernau and Sachsenmaier 2016). Additionally, researchers within
the history of emotions have turned to translation-oriented
approaches. A prime example is William M. Reddy’s monograph ([2001]
2004), The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of
Emotions.
Finally, when discussing history, it is essential to consider closely
related concepts such as archives, memory, archaeology, and
prehistory, all of which can be included within the framework of
history and examined through the perspective of history as
translation.
This special issue of Translation Matters seeks to engage with ongoing
discussions by examining different dimensions of history as
translation. It invites proposals on topics that explore the
intersection of history and translation, focusing on how history can
be understood through the lens of translation in
 - Academic historiography
 - Autobiographies and memoirs
 - Archives and archival materials
 - Archaeological studies
 - Popular history publications
 - Historical romance
 - Graphic novels and comics
 - Artistic expressions (theater, painting, dance, etc.)
 - Audiovisual media and video games
 - Tourism content and advertising
 - Architectural heritage
 - Museums and exhibitions
 - Material culture
Articles, in English or in Portuguese, should be 6000-8000 words in
length, including references and footnotes, and be formatted in
accordance with the guidelines given on the journal’s website. Papers
should be uploaded onto the site by December 15th 2025.
http://ojs.letras.up.pt/index.php/tm/index. Any inquiries should be
addressed to: margsav at usal.es
For full list of references, please see the journal's website.

Linguistic Field(s): Translation

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