Translation and mountaineering, a first case study

Abstract

Abstract This article argues for a dialogue between translation and mountaineering studies and provides examples of how the two could successfully interact. It contributes to literary translator studies and translation history by bringing to the fore the careers of translators and mountaineers Janet Adam Smith and Nea Morin and by establishing links between their collaborative translation and cordée féminine, arguing that they played an active role as agents of both the literary and the mountaineering fields. Moreover, it provides instances of how the awareness of translation processes can expand and deepen the analysis of gendered dynamics in mountaineering non-fiction. Finally, it shows how mountaineering studies can benefit from translation studies in order to become more aware of its dissemination processes and international dynamics, and how translation studies can benefit from mountaineering studies to more fully comprehend and capture the depth of its involvement, dependence, and interaction with the non-literary world.