Portrayals of Translators and Interpreters in Contemporary Fiction and Motion Pictures: An Agency Perspective
Abstract
Considering the popularity of works of fiction and their impact on the public’s perception of groups and entities, this research focuses on portrayals of translators and interpreters in contemporary English fiction and motions pictures, from the perspective of agency. The study adopts the theoretical model proposed by Poupaud (2009) to operationalize agency. The three aspects of agency delineated by Poupaud, namely resource, performance, and discourse, were explored using thematic analysis in a corpus of 15 novels and 5 motion pictures featuring a translator or interpreter as a central character whose work is in the focus of the narrative and relevant to the plot. The findings of the study suggest that the resource aspect is mostly concerned with linguistic competence, while the aspect of performance focuses on the process of translation and the way these characters put their expertise and resources into use. Finally, in the discourse aspect the attitudes and perceptions surrounding agency of some characters are positive and agent-aware, while other characters face negative, distrustful attitudes and ideas of invisibility. To conclude, the findings suggest that the performance of translators and interpreters is the most visible aspect of their agency, while the discourse aspects points at the influence of the other agents and their expectations.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Marziyeh Ashouri, Dr. Mazdak Bolouri
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Copyright Licensee: Iranian Journal of Translation Studies. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0 license).
