Developing User-centred Approaches to Technological Innovation in Literary Translation (DUAL-T)

© 2022 The authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 licence, no derivative works, attribution, CC-BY-ND. Developing User-Centred Approaches to Technological Innovation in Literary Translation (DUAL-T) Paola Ruffo, Joke Daems, and Lieve Macken LT3, Language and Translation Technology Team Ghent University, Belgium paola.ruffo@ugent.be Abstract DUAL-T is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Post- doctoral Fellowship project which aims at in- volving literary translators in the testing of technology-inclusive workflows. Participants will be asked to translate three short stories using, respectively, (1) a word processor combined with online resources, (2) a com- puter-aided translation (CAT) tool, and (3) a machine translation post-editing (MTPE) tool. 1 Project Overview In recent years, research has started to focus more on the application of technology to the literary translation workflow. In particular, an increasing number of studies is exploring the use of machine translation (MT) and post-editing (PE) for literary texts and their impact on productivity, creativity, quality and readability (see, for example, Toral et al., 2018; Tezcan et al., 2019; Webster et al., 2020; Guerberof-Arenas and Toral, 2022; Macken et al., 2022). This being said, workflows which include transla- tion technology are usually perceived “as either inap- propriate or a threat to the skills and livelihoods of literary translators” (Youdale, 2019: 199). Further- more, literary translators tend not to be included in these studies, with Moorkens et al. (2018) and Kenny and Winters (2020) being notable exceptions. This can be problematic, especially when considering lit- erary translators’ specific ways of relating to both technology and their profession. In fact, studies have shown how they prioritise social and cultural capital over economic capital (Heino 2020), are unaware of the latest technological developments (Daems 2022; Ruffo 2021), and use translation technology in novel ways (Slessor 2020; Ruffo 2022). “Developing User-centred Approaches to Techno- logical Innovation in Literary Translation” (DUAL-T) is a 2-year EU-funded project aiming at involving literary translators as end users in the co- creation of a technology-inclusive workflow, bridg- ing the gap between MT-centric research and studies on literary translators’ self-image and attitudes to- wards technology. The project is being carried out at Ghent University and sees the collaboration of a Swe- dish book translation company which uses MTPE as part of its workflow. The project’s objectives are three-fold: 1. to devise a technology-inclusive literary trans- lation workflow employing a user-led ap- proach by involving translators throughout the research and development process; 2. to assess to what extent translation technology can enhance literary translators’ existing work- flow(s); 3. to mediate a dialogue between literary transla- tors and translation technology developers by feeding back data on literary translators’ use of and attitudes towards translation technology to the industry partner of the project. 2 Research Design & Methodology According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), usability is the “extent to which a system, product or service can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use” (ISO, 2018). The project’s research design is based …

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