Translation is a creative, interpretive, and often contested process that shapes how cultures encounter one another. From literary classics to contemporary cinema, from subtitling and dubbing to fan translations and digital adaptations, translation mediates meaning across languages, genres, and media. It raises questions about fidelity and transformation, visibility and invisibility, and the power dynamics embedded in cultural exchange.
This Collection invites interdisciplinary scholarship that explores translation as a cultural, aesthetic, and political practice across literature, film, and other media. We welcome contributions from across the humanities and arts, including linguistics, literary studies, film and media studies, cultural studies, philosophy, and related fields.
Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
- Literary Translation: Strategies, challenges, and creative choices in translating prose, poetry, and drama; comparative analyses of translations across languages.
- Film and Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling, dubbing, and localization; cultural adaptation in global cinema and streaming platforms.
- Cross-Media Adaptation: Translation between media forms—literature to film, graphic novels to games; intersemiotic translation and multimodal storytelling.
- Cultural and Political Dimensions: Translation as a site of power, resistance, and negotiation; colonial and postcolonial perspectives on translation.
- Identity and Representation: How translation shapes cultural identity; gendered and racialized dynamics in translation practices.
- Digital and Amateur Translation: Fan translations, crowdsourced subtitling, and the role of technology in democratizing or complicating translation.
- Theories and Histories of Translation: Philosophical approaches to translation; historical trajectories and shifting paradigms.
- Language Contact and Hybridity: Translating idioms, metaphors, and cultural references; challenges of linguistic diversity and multilingual texts.
- AI and Machine Translation: The impact of artificial intelligence and large language models on translation practices; tensions between computer-led and human-led translation; questions of creativity, accuracy, and cultural nuance in automated translation; ethical and professional implications for translators. (Note: Theoretical computer science studies are considered out of scope).
We particularly encourage work that bridges disciplines, involves languages other than English and amplifies voices from underrepresented linguistic and cultural contexts.
Editors
Submitting a paper for consideration
To submit your manuscript for consideration at Humanities & Social Sciences Communications as part of this Collection, please follow the steps detailed on this page. On the first page of our online submission system, please select your article type from the drop down menu. When on the “details” tab, you will be presented with the option to select which Collection your article should be submitted to. Authors should also express their interest in the Collection in their cover letter.
Please ensure that your manuscript is submitted before midnight GMT on the listed deadline date. The submission system will close at exactly 00:00 GMT on the following day, so late submissions cannot be accepted.
Accepted papers are published on a rolling basis as soon as they are ready.
