Researchers

Claudine Borg (1 July–15 September 2023) will examine the working process of a literary translator with a special focus on the use of and need for IT tools. For the present study, Borg, who is also an experienced literary translator, will use an autoethnographic research method (see, e.g., Hokkanen 2016). She will translate a short story from French or English into Maltese, keeping track of all the draft versions and recording in fieldnotes her working process, which she will then analyse. To ensure ecological validity, Borg will translate the text in her usual translation environment and follow her customary working methods.

Email: claudine.borg@um.edu.mt

Researcher profile: https://www.um.edu.mt/profile/claudineborg

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3858-5502

Latest publications on the subject

Borg, C. 2023. A Literary Translation in the Making: A Process-Oriented Perspective. London & New York: Routledge.

Borg, C. 2022. Vjaġġ f’Art is-Siġar. Translation into Maltese of J.M.G Le Clézio’s novel for children Voyage au pays des arbres. Malta: Faraxa.

Borg, C. 2021. Kunċert b’Tifkira ta’ Anġlu. Translation into Maltese of Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s book of short stories Concerto à la mémoire d’un ange. Malta: Faraxa.

Borg, C. 2020. Verżjoni(jiet) bil-Malti ta’ Le Petit Chaperon Rouge. Leħen il-Malti, Għadd 39, pp. 67–82.

Borg, C. & Calleja, C., ed. 2020. Within the Conch: Anthology of contemporary Maltese prose translated into English. Malta: National Book Council of Malta.

Borg, C. & Calleja, C. 2020. Introduction. In: BORG, C. & CALLEJA, C., ed. Within the Conch: Anthology of contemporary Maltese prose translated into English. Malta: National Book Council of Malta, pp. vii–xii.

Borg, C. & Calleja, C. 2020. ‘Will’ English translation of Alfred Sant’s short story Testment. In: BORG, C. & CALLEJA, C., ed. Within the Conch: Anthology of contemporary Maltese prose translated into English. Malta: National Book Council of Malta, pp. 125–140.

Teemu Ikonen (1 September 2022 – 31 October 2023) builds his contribution to the project with his expertise in narratology and on his original theory of literary adaptation. Ikonen will first map the boundary of translation and adaptation with the help of Doležel, Genette and Cattrysse. He then explores the relation between adaptation in general and literary translation by analyzing the experimental writing practices with connect narrative and thematic information with conceptual and procedural structures in a complex way. His corpus consists of experimental prose works by Leevi Lehto, Markku Eskelinen, Jaakko Yli-Juonikas, Laura Lindstedt and Sinikka Vuola, and of procedural translations by Ville Keynäs. Ikonen experiments with translations of these texts into English and with modelling their concepts and procedures for digitalization with the aid of the research carried out in the international group Outranspo and in the Finnish group Post-Oulipo.

Email: teemu.ikonen@helsinki.fi

Researcher profile: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/persons/teemu-ikonen

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7121-1102

Aleksandra Konovalova is a doctoral researcher at the University of Turku. Her doctoral research covers Machine Translation topics, specifically enhancement of literary Machine Translation with the help of Character Networks.

Email: aleksandra.a.konovalova@utu.fi

Researcher profile: https://www.utu.fi/fi/ihmiset/aleksandra-konovalova

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2000-2057

Maarit Koponen currently works as Professor of Translation Studies at the University of Eastern Finland. Her research interests focus on the quality and usability of machine translation from the perspective of both translators and other users. In the “Narrative Text, Translator and Machine” project, her main role will the usability testing of the translation tool prototype developed during the project. She will work on collecting user feedback on the tool and its effect on the translators’ work.

Sähköposti: maarit.koponen@uef.fi

Tutkijaprofiili: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/henkilo/maarit.koponen/

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6123-5386

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mtkoponen

Latest publications on the subject

Koponen, Maarit, Sanna Nyqvist, and Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov. 2022. “Translating with Technology: How Digitalisation Affects Authorship and Copyright of Literary Texts.” In Using Technologies for Creative-Text Translation, edited by James Luke Hadley, Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov, Carlos S.C. Teixeira, and Antonio Toral, 180–198. Routledge Advances in Translation and Interpreting Studies. New York and London: Routledge.

Koponen, Maarit, Umut Sulubacak, Kaisa Vitikainen, and Jörg Tiedemann. 2020a. “MT for Subtitling: Investigating Professional Translators’ User Experience and Feedback.” In Proceedings of the 14th Conference of the Association for Machine Translation in the Americas 1st Workshop on Post-Editing in Modern-Day Translation, 79–92. United States: AMTA.

Koponen, Maarit, Umut Sulubacak, Kaisa Vitikainen, and Jörg Tiedemann. 2020b. “MT for Subtitling: User Evaluation of Post-Editing Productivity.” In Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference of the European Association for Machine Translation (EAMT 2020), 115–124. Switzerland: European Association for Machine Translation. https://eamt2020.inesc-id.pt/.

Lauri A. Niskanen (1 January 2024–31 December 2024) has studied the translation of a complex intertextual literary text, and the hermeneutic process which continues in the translations and retranslations of a literary work. He has created a digital OSH companion, which enables the tagging of lexical and syntactical markers in the hypertext of the source text. These markers are references to hypotexts, which are imitated or parodied in the work examined. The method can be elaborated by comparing these referential relationships (‘tags’) to those present in translated texts. For the present study, Niskanen will examine how the OSH hypertext tags, or referential signals, can be automated, coded, and used in the prototype of a machine-assisted literary translation application, and how they could be used to recognise intertextual references and connect allusions to their correct context.

Email: lauri.niskanen@helsinki.fi

Researcher profile: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/persons/lauri-niskanen

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5338-2124

Twitter: https://twitter.com/niskanenlauri

Latest publications on the subject

Niskanen, Lauri, “The ‘Oxen of the Sun’ hypertext: A digital hypertext in the study of polyphonic translations of James Joyce’s Ulysses”. In Hadley, J. L., Taivalkoski-Shilov, K., Teixaira, C. S. C. & Toral, A. (eds.) ‘Using Technologies for Creative-Text Translation’. (2022; Milton: Routledge – Taylor & Francis Group, pp. 161–79).

Niskanen, Lauri, ‘A Hubbub of Phenomenon: The Finnish and Swedish Polyphonic Translations of James Joyce’s Ulysses’ (2021; Helsinki: University of Helsinki).

Niskanen, Lauri (in Finnish) “Ilmiön tyhjä hälinä: James Joycen Ulysseksen suomen- ja ruotsinkieliset moniääniset käännökset”, ‘Kirjallisuudentutkimuksen Aikakauslehti Avain’, 2021 vol. 18 (4), pp. 96–102.

Minna Ruokonen is a University Lecturer in English Language and Translation at the University of Eastern Finland (2011 to present). She holds a PhD in English Translation Studies (2010, University of Turku). In her postdoctoral research, she has conducted three extensive surveys on how Finnish translators and translator students experience translators’ status and working conditions and is currently interested in translators’ job satisfaction. She has also published two articles with Kaisa Koskinen on translators’ and translation students’ attitudes towards translation technology.

In this project, Ruokonen and Salmi will first conduct an online survey concerning the translation technology related views, hopes and needs of Finnish literary translators. After the survey, Ruokonen and Salmi will conduct semi-structured interviews with literary translators with the aim of gaining a clearer and more in-depth understanding of the central themes arising from the survey material. The analysis will combine quantitative and qualitative methods. The data gathered will be used in the design of the project’s customised translation tool.

Email: minna.ruokonen@uef.fi

Researcher profile: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/henkilo/minna.ruokonen/

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4566-986X

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MinnaRuokonen1

Latest publications on the subject

Ruokonen, Minna & Svahn, Elin 2022. Comparative research into translator status: Finland and Sweden as a case in point. Perspectives 30(5), 859–875. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2021.1953546

Hjort, Minna & Ruokonen, Minna 2021. Extinction or evolution? Changes in in-house translators’ work in Finland in 1995 – 2018. MikaEL 14, 44–61. https://www.sktl.fi/liitto/seminaarit/mikael-verkkojulkaisu/vol/mikael-vol14-2021/

Ruokonen, Minna, Lassus, Jannika & Virtanen, Taru 2020. ‘I fulfil my place among the humankind, in the universe’: Finnish translators’ job satisfaction in three empirical studies. MikaEL 13, 109–123. https://www.sktl.fi/liitto/seminaarit/mikael-verkkojulkaisu/vol/mikael-vol13-2020/

Ruokonen, Minna & Mäkisalo, Jukka 2018. Middling-status profession, high-status work: Finnish translators’ status perceptions in the light of their backgrounds, working conditions and job satisfaction. Translation and Interpreting 10(1), 1–17. http://www.trans-int.org/index.php/transint/issue/view/44

Koskinen, Kaisa & Ruokonen, Minna 2017. Love letters or hate mail? Translators’ technology acceptance in the light of their emotional narratives. In: Kenny, Dorothy (ed.) Human Issues in Translation Technology. IATIS Yearbook. London: Routledge, 8–24.

Ruokonen, Minna & Koskinen, Kaisa 2017. Dancing with technology: translators’ narratives on the dance of human and machinic agency in translation work. The Translator 23(3), 310–323.

Leena Salmi is a University Lecturer in French and Translation at the University of Turku (2005 to present). She holds a PhD in French Translation Studies (2004, University of Turku). Her Ph.D. dealt with the usability of computer documentation. She has earlier conducted surveys on the technology perception of Finnish translators and translator students, and more recently an international survey on how institutional translators see the competences required from a translator. Her other research interests include post-editing, translation quality assessment and translator education.

In this project, Ruokonen and Salmi will first conduct an online survey concerning the translation technology related views, hopes and needs of Finnish literary translators. After the survey, Ruokonen and Salmi will conduct semi-structured interviews with literary translators with the aim of gaining a clearer and more in-depth understanding of the central themes arising from the survey material. The analysis will combine quantitative and qualitative methods. The data gathered will be used in the design of the project’s customised translation tool.

Email: leena.salmi@utu.fi

Researcher profile: https://www.utu.fi/fi/ihmiset/leena-salmi

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4725-3844

Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov is the PI of the research project. She is a Professor of Multilingual Translation Studies and Vice Head of the School of Languages and Translation Studies at the University of Turku. Taivalkoski-Shilov is a specialist of research on translated literature (stylistic features of narrative texts, reception of translated literature). She has published articles, organised workshops and has recently edited a book on the uses of translation technology for literary translation (Hadley, Taivalkoski-Shilov, Teixeira and Toral, eds. 2022, Using Technologies for Creative-Text Translation, Routledge). In her most recent research (Koponen, Nyqvist, Taivalkoski- Shilov, 2022), she has studied machine-assisted literary translation from an ethical perspective (see also Taivalkoski-Shilov 2019). She will continue working on this line of research in this project.

Email: kristiina.taivalkoski-shilov@utu.fi

Researcher profile: https://www.utu.fi/fi/ihmiset/kristiina-taivalkoski-shilov

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3299-0817

Latest publications on the subject

Using Technologies for Creative-Text Translation, ed. by James Luke Hadley, Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov, Carlos S. C. Teixeira, and Antonio Toral. 2022. London: Routledge.

Maarit Koponen, Sanna Nyqvist and Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov “Translating with Technology: How Digitalisation Affects Authorship and Copyright of Literary Texts.” 2022. In Using Technologies for Creative-Text Translation, ed. by James Luke Hadley, Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov, Carlos S. C. Teixeira, and Antonio Toral. New York & London: Routledge, pp. 180–198.

Teemu Vahtola will join the project in 2025 as a postdoctoral researcher after having finished his PhD (due 2024) on artificial neural networks for diverse paraphrase detection and generation. Vahtola’s research will focus on applying natural language understanding models to literary domain. He will also collaborate with Aleksandra Konovalova on developing the CAT-tool prototype for literary translation.

Email: teemu.vahtola@helsinki.fi

Researcher profile: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/teemu-vahtola