Abstract
Social Representations Theory provides a comprehensive theoretical model for researching translators’ socio-cognitive processes. Developed in social psychology in the 1960s, the theory offers an integrative view of both individual and social processes in the construction and re-construction of knowledge. It draws attention to embodied meaning-making and the effect of material surroundings in perpetuating and disseminating social representations. Importantly, Social Representations Theory does not see representations as individual, solely conscious, or static mental constructions but as dynamic social–psychological phenomena that are enacted in discourse and social interaction. This article discusses Social Representations Theory as an approach to the empirical study of translators’ cognitive processes. Introducing the main concepts of the theory and using translators’ conceptualizations of source-text authors and target-text readers as an example, the article suggests avenues for using the theory in Cognitive Translation Studies.
Highlights
This article introduces Social Representations Theory as a potential theoretical model for studying socio-cognitive aspects of translation
A social representation is not defined as a static mental construction held by individuals but as: Hokkanen, S. (2020)
The view expressed by Moscovici (1961/2008) that “there is no definite break between the outside world and the world of the individual” (p. 8), which underlies Social Representations Theory, shares common ground with current thinking in Cognitive Translation Studies
Summary
This article introduces Social Representations Theory as a potential theoretical model for studying socio-cognitive aspects of translation. I examine the way in which the translator’s conceptualizations of source-text (ST) authors and target-text (TT) readers could be studied empirically through the lens of the theory It has been called a near-truism in our field that translators should think about their readers when translating (Suojanen et al, 2015), and the importance of thinking about both the ST authors and the future recipients of the translation is a core element of many established translation theories, such as functionalism (e.g., Nord, 2012). While focusing on theoretical questions, the article suggests methods for studying social representations, which relates the key concepts of the theory to translators’ socio-cognitive processes.
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