Collaborative Self-Translation in a Minority Language: Power Implications in the Process, the Actors and the Literary Systems Involved

Abstract

Despite the growing scholarly attention received by self-translation in the last few years, collaborative self-translation has not yet been studied in depth. In this chapter I consider the self-translator and the translator proper as part of a team in order to observe the particularities of their joint work when a minority language such as Basque is involved. The existing relationship between the two collaborators is examined by means of two paradigmatic examples drawn from Basque literature, namely two close relationships writer/spouse and writer/publisher. My purpose is to analyse the role played by each of the actors involved in the process of collaborative self-translation, also bearing in mind the power relations between the languages and cultures involved in the literary exchanges, as reflected both in the process and in the final product. Since self-translations are vastly produced in multilingual contexts throughout Europe, this example from the Basque literary context illustrates the lack of visibility experienced by collaborative self-translation in asymmetrical language combinations.