Biography as network-building

James S. Holmes and dutch-english poetry translation

Francis R. Jones

pp. 309-331

in: Jean Boase-Beier, Lina Fisher, Hiroko Furukawa (eds), The Palgrave handbook of literary translation, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

Poetry translation from a language of limited diffusion into another language is typically dominated by a few lifelong "dedicated experts". Dedicated experts usually translate many poets, work alongside many fellow translators, and may edit multi-poet, multi-translator anthologies. Thus, their career involves building ever-wider networks of poets and translators, which last beyond the dedicated expert him/herself. In this case study of leading Dutch-English poetry translator and editor James S. Holmes (1924–1986), Jones uses a database of translations to map Holmes' working networks with poets and other translators over time. Analysis uses diachronic, network-based approaches within a Bourdieusian sociological framework. This study, therefore, models the dedicated expert as networked actor rather than mega-translator, and proposes a methodological alternative to "heroic individual narratives' for translator biography.

Cited authors

Holmes James S