Poetry as a Heuristic Object of Discourse in Translation Theory. Preliminary notes for the resurrection of poetry translation in the age of globalization

Abstract

In recent years, especially since the sociological turn and the advent of globalization in Translation Studies, very few academic articles or book chapters on literary translation have focused on poetry as a literary form. A major shift to prose has mirrored the recent trends on the international translation market. However, in his introduction to a guest-edited issue of Translation Studies, Lawrence Venuti rightfully argued that poetry should be “moved closer to the center of Translation Studies” (2011, p. 127), as “[it] is more likely to encourage experimental strategies that can reveal what is unique about translation as a linguistic and cultural practice.” (p. 127) The present article looks at how this literary form has been exploited by a number of scholars pertaining to various schools of thought, in an attempt at demonstrating its heuristic value for the academic discourse in Translation Studies. The analysis suggests that the potentialities of poetry translation are countless, both from a discursive and from a conceptual point of view.