Baker is a fellow on The Body in Translation: Historicising and Reinventing Medical Humanities and Knowledge Translation at CAS this year.

Abstract:

Although various versions of narrative theory have exercised considerable influence across the humanities for several decades, translation studies did not begin to engage with this powerful theoretical tradition until fairly late in its development as a discipline. This presentation will offer an overview of the particular strand of (socio-)narrative theory introduced in Baker (2006) and applied and extended in numerous studies since, and will explore some of the ways in which narrative analysis can be operationalized at both the macro and micro levels of interaction. Examples discussed will cover a range of textual and non-textual devices through which a narrative may be elaborated in the context of translation and interpreting, and where possible specifically in medical settings such as interpreter-mediated doctor-patient interaction. Finally, although some scholars who find socio-narrative theory attractive also find it difficult to apply in a sustained manner, this presentation will attempt to demonstrate that the ability of narrative analysis to draw on an open-ended and diffuse set of features and devices is empowering rather than inhibiting, and that despite its open-endedness the analysis can and should be undertaken systematically.

Mona Baker bio:

Mona Baker is Professor Emerita of Translation Studies at the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, University of Manchester, UK, Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded project Genealogies of Knowledge: The Evolution and Contestation of Concepts across Time and Space, Director of the Baker Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at Shanghai International Studies University, recipient of the 2015 Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences Award in the field of Arts and Languages, Studies in Foreign Languages and Literatures, and honoree of the 2011 Fifth Session of Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Award for Translation, for contributions to the field of translation. She is co-editor, with Luis Pérez-González and Bolette Blaagaard, of the Routledge series Critical Perspectives on Citizen Media, author of In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation (Routledge, 1992; third edition 2018) and Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account (Routledge, 2006; Classics edition 2018), editor of Translating Dissent: Voices from and with the Egyptian Revolution (Routledge, 2016; winner of the Inttranews Linguists of the Year award for 2015), Citizen Media and Public Spaces: Diverse Expressions of Citizenship and Dissent (co-edited with Bolette Blaagaard), the Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (1998, 2001; third edition 2020, co-edited with Gabriela Saldanha); Critical Concepts: Translation Studies (4 volumes, Routledge, 2009); Critical Readings in Translation Studies (Routledge, 2010); and Translation and the Production of Knowledge(s) (special issue of Alif: Journal of Comparative Literature, 2018). Her articles have appeared in a wide range of international journals, including Social Movement Studies, Critical Studies on Terrorism, Social Semiotics, The Translator and Target. She is founding Editor of The Translator (St. Jerome Publishing, 1995-2013), former Editorial Director of St. Jerome Publishing (1995-2013), and founding Vice-President of IATIS, the International Association for Translation & Intercultural Studies (2004-2015). She posts on translation, citizen media and Palestine on her personal website and tweets at @MonaBaker11.