Collaborative translation as process or product. Reflections on collaborative work based upon specific case studies

Abstract

Collaborative translation has existed for centuries, but the reflection upon this issue and its systematization are much more recent. Collaboration can take place at product level, with a shared authorship, or at process level, translation work by two or more agents, who perform a number of tasks, such as management, terminology research, and/or revision. An experience of editorial translation in collaboration is presented as an example of the first case: the translation of Reflections on Translation, by Susan Bassnett (2017), into Spanish, which gathered together 39 collaborators of different nationalities, ages, and years of experience. This is contrasted with the everyday work of a translation team, paying special attention to task division as a process, taking as examples the case of unam’s “Seminario de Traducción Permanente” (Mexico), and Universidad de la Laguna’s “Taller de Traducción Literaria” (Spain). This is taken as a pretext to show the importance of instruction in the collaborative process of translation, based on the teaching experience of various colleagues in translator training programs.