Open Access“Visible” at Last? Some Notes on English as a Target Language and Translated Books in the US
Author(s) -
Giuseppe Palumbo
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
elope
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2386-0316
pISSN - 1581-8918
DOI - 10.4312/elope.18.1.55-69
Subject(s) - publishing , translation (biology) , computer science , exploratory analysis , linguistics , distribution (mathematics) , library science , history , literature , data science , art , philosophy , mathematics , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , chemistry , messenger rna , gene
In the international system of translations, English has been described as playing a “hypercentral” role. At the same time, translation is seen as playing a marginal role in the Anglo-American cultural and publishing scenarios. The present paper is aimed at revisiting this idea. After an overview of recent studies that have examined the role and significance of translated titles in the publishing markets of English-speaking countries, the paper reports on an exploratory analysis of records available in a database that collects information on books in translation published or distributed in the US starting from 2008. The analysis indicates that translation is enjoying a renewed attention in the US market, in terms of both the number of translated titles and the distribution of translations across different genres.