IATIS Yearbook 2025

Type: Edited volume from Routledge UK (contract signed)

Title:

Exploring ‘Geo’ in Translation:

Redefining Territoriality of Translational Landscape in South Asia

1. Rationale:

Space and spatiality have been significant coordinates in the study of translation in the West. The concept has long been included in humanities and social sciences by scholars like Edward Soja (1989); and Warf and Arias (2009). This edited volume aims to question how the concept of “geo” features in translation and analyse translation as a point of intersection and relationality that redefines our concepts of spatial axis and territorial coordinates. However, the volume will concentrate on the issues of space and spatiality vis-à-vis translation in the geo-territorial space of South Asia.

This volume will attempt to bring the disciplines of geometry and geography to the terrain of translation studies and thus include alternative models to expand the field. The etymological origin of ‘geometry’ traces back to the Greek word geometria or “measurement of earth or land”. Similarly, ‘geography’ originates from the Greek word geographia which means “description of the earth's surface”. The prefix ‘trans-‘ in the word ‘translation’ means ‘to go beyond’, ‘on the other side’. Thus, when taken together, translation from the geographical and geometrical perspective alludes to the question of movement in terms of land or space. If we take the model of Euclidean Geometry, then the translational act as a spatial flow can be understood from a geometrical angle as a process of distance-preserving/distance-altering transformation between two metrical/geographical spaces.

Again, translation, as a political activity, determines how communities are mapped by their cultural other and as such points out how the binaries of the centre and periphery construct our worldviews based on asymmetrical power relations. Michael Cronin (2000), while exploring the relationship between translation and geographical spaces, has meticulously considered movement both in the context of territorial and narrative space and analysed it through the lens of language. Federico Italiano (2016) has examined how Western spatial imaginations constructed through literary works have been translated across languages, media, and epochs and created the idea of the world through cultural differences.

The translation of travel narratives, literary travelogues, and nautical fiction has not only introduced the “unknown” but also created an imaginary geo-territorial space based on global power politics.  As such, a panel titled “The ‘Geo’ turn in Translation Studies'' was proposed in the Annual Congress of American Comparative Literature Association of India in the year 2022 by the editors to focus on the relationship between translation and spatiality from the geographical and/or geometrical perspective. The panel concentrated on sub-themes like translation and cartographic imagination, translational movement within geometrical coordinates, territoriality, spatiality, translational plane, travel and translation, translation as a negotiation between spaces, translation, and territorial politics, and translated texts as geographical spaces of contact. The panel sought to question how geographical, geometrical, and geocritical factors influence translational power dynamics and explore the coordinating points that connect translation with geoterritoriality. The editors propose a compendium of selected papers presented in this panel, plus additional chapters received through a global call for submissions.

The chapters of this volume draw on research concentrated on the geoterritory of the Global South and offer a unique perspective and commentary on the translational practices of South Asia. By bringing in the concepts of geometry and geography in the discussion of translation studies, this volume will attempt to broaden the scope of translation studies by incorporating elements of the two scientific fields, thereby expanding the spatial dimensions of the discipline. It will examine how ‘translation’ has been employed within the realm of pure/natural science, as well as the potential for integrating its usages from both the humanities and social science. In this volume, the contributors situated in the Global South will endeavour to examine the geo quotient in translation and redefine the concept of ‘spatiality’ within the context of translation studies from a scientific perspective. This will consequently situate translation studies within the interwoven realm encompassing natural/pure science and social science/humanities. The proposed volume will be among the very first known to the editors to bring together a collection of research-based, practice-oriented deliberations on translation practices which included the spatial axis of geography and geometry in the context of South Asia, thereby opening up new vistas to the existing scholarship of translation studies.

2. Blurb and Keywords:

South Asia as a geo-territorial space has always been considered as one of the most diverse spaces in terms of ethnicity, religion, cultures, political identities, caste, and class-based inequalities. Given its plurilingual and multicultural nature, this subregion of Asia has been the most fertile ground for translation. This volume explores how land, territoriality, space, metrics, and the ‘geo’ influenced/affected the translation practice of the region. This edited volume analyses translation in South Asia as a point of intersection and relationality that redefines our concepts of spatial axis and territorial coordinates with methodologies emerging from the Global South.

3. Keywords:

Translation and Cartographic Imagination, Metrical coordinates and Geospaces, Territoriality, Spatiality, Translational Plane, Geography and Geometry, Travel and Translation.

4. Referencing:

• Chicago Manual of Style (Author-Date).

• The chapter will comprise approx. 5000-5500 words, including references.

• Quotations: Use double quotation marks for direct quotes. For quotes longer than 40 words, format as block quotations without quotation marks.

• Italics: Italicise the titles of books and journals.

• Capitalisation: Capitalise major words in titles and subtitles.

In-text Citations:

• Single author: (Bassnett 2002)

• Two authors: (Hatim and Mason 1990)

• Three or more authors: (Venuti et al. 2018)

Work Cited:

Arrange entries alphabetically by the author's last name. For works with multiple authors, list all authors up to ten; for more than ten, list the first seven followed by "et al."

Books

Bassnett, Susan. 2002. Translation Studies. 3rd ed. London: Routledge.

Book Chapters

Venuti, Lawrence. 2018. "Translation, Community, Utopia." In The Translation Studies Reader, edited by Lawrence Venuti, 468–488. 3rd ed. London: Routledge.

Journal Articles

Hatim, Basil, and Ian Mason. 1990. "Discourse and the Translator." Language and Communication 10 (2): 123–134.

Online Resources

Munday, Jeremy. 2020. "Introducing Translation Studies." Routledge. Accessed May 14, 2025. https://www.routledge.com/Introducing-Translation-Studies/Munday/p/book/9781138912557.

For comprehensive guidelines, refer to the Routledge Manuscript Preparation Guide.

5. Editors:

Dr. Saswati Saha
Dr. Rindon Kundu

6. Timeline:

Abstracts (max. 300 words with 5 Keywords) should be sent to ssaha@cus.ac.in and cc to rindon.k@srisriuniversity.edu.in by 31st May 2025.