Teaching and researching literary translation in the digital context: PEnPAL in trans as a case-study

Abstract

The digital reinvention of literary studies within literary translation teaching and research informs the PEnPAL in Trans project. This inter-institutional venture joins higher education agents and researchers in Translation Studies, Literary Studies and Linguistics. Elaborating on the notions of process-oriented education and “social constructivism” (Kiraly, 2000), PEnPAL in Trans has developed a specific awareness of the literary translator’s “expert action” (Jones, 2011). Drawing on a project-based philosophy of translation training, it envisions the translated anthology as a collaborative format with potential in the digital environment. The database on English Portuguese transfer problems under development combines the advantages of translation manuals and example-driven tools as translation memories. Thus, it will constitute a categorized database of examples from hard-to-translate texts together with their translation(s) and translation strategy(ies). This database will be accessible online, thereby providing a public tool on the English-Portuguese language pair.