Among all the approaches adopted from neighbouring disciplines to the study of translation, psychological approaches seem to have been the most neglected among translation scholars. Among the few notable exceptions, including Shreve and Angelone (2010), Ehrensberger-Dow et al. (2015) as well as Schwieter and Ferriera (2017), there is now a more recent research piece. Thus, Séverine Hubscher-Davidson’s Translation and Emotion: A Psychological Perspective is drawing on psychological approaches to explore various translation-related phenomena.
Comprising an introduction and five chapters and authored by a translation scholar with an academic background in psychology (MSc in Psychology), the book paves the way for a novel approach to the study of translation. It even proves promising to those with limited knowledge of psychology as the core concepts are adequately explained at the outset, and as they are accompanied by empirical findings to show how they manifest themselves in professional translators’ work.
In the first chapter, the author defines the main concept on which the work is based, i.e. the psychological construct of emotion, and how it can be linked to translation process research. This introductory chapter will prove particularly interesting to those with limited knowledge of emotions and how they interact with the act of translation, since it provides a succinct review of the pioneering studies that have explored different aspects of translators’ emotions.
Each of the next three chapters elaborate on a specific emotional trait: emotion perception, emotion regulation and emotion expression, and follow a similar layout: first, the given trait is explained in detail. Next, the relevance of that specific trait within the realm of translation is addressed. The author then concludes the chapters with a discussion of the presence of that specific trait in the profiles of an impressive sample of 155 translators from the reported case study.
In tandem with the extended elaboration of the book on the very topic of emotion and its emergence in a plethora of constructs, it is fitting that the book should end with a conclusion on the findings from the four previous chapters where results fall under two categories, viz, findings at facet and factor levels. As regards the facet level, variables of professional translation experience, education level and literary translation experience were found to positively correlate with emotion regulation and expression. Furthermore, the construct of emotion expression was found to have a significant positive relationship with job satisfaction. At the factor level, emotionality was found to have a significant positive relationship with variables of age, professional translation experience, and job satisfaction. By the same token, the factor of self-control was informed by variables of professional translation experience, education level and literary translation experience. Additionally, a negative association was found between time spent translating and the factor of emotionality. Finally, the author elaborates on the pedagogical implications of the research in translator training programs. Drawing on the results, the variables of job satisfaction, experience and age, education and literary translation are stated as key areas where emotion play a key role. Collecting data from professional translators – and not from translation students – followed by delineating specific behaviours of the select group of professional translators – behaviours such as learning to manage emotions involved in translation work – the study revealed the positive impact of the behaviours on translation performance.
The author’s mere reliance on self-reports might be taken as a downside of the book. However, this is repeatedly acknowledged throughout the work. The study would have benefited from adopting a triangulated design in which the author could have drawn on other sources of data such as observer ratings as used by Costa and McCrae (1990), where ratings of spouses and close friends were also taken into account, adding to the credibility of the conclusions. Nevertheless, by considering the practical challenges involved in inviting the contributions of the immediate family members of the translators, the author’s attempts should not be underestimated.
The book constitutes pioneering work and seems to have initiated further interest in the study of emotion in translation, as an increasing number of empirical articles have been published in recent years (e.g., Rojo and Purificación 2018; Núñez and Alicia 2018; Shadman et al. 2019). In our view, the author’s attempts to outline psychological constructs in the translation process are part of an ongoing study and one that asks to be continued.
Nazanin Shadman
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
E-mail: nazanin.shadman@mail.um.ac.ir
Masood Khoshsaligheh (corresponding author)
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
E-mail: khoshsaligheh@um.ac.ir