[Commlist] cfp: Special Issue of /Translation Studies/ on Media Paratexts and Translation

Call for papers - Special Issue of/Translation Studies/on*Media 
Paratexts and Translation*

Guest editors: Chiara Bucaria and Kathryn Batchelor

Please see the full CfP below or at the following link:
https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/media-paratexts-translation/?utm_source=TFO&utm_medium=cms&utm_campaign=JPG15743 



*CfP - Media Paratexts and Translation*

This special issue seeks to open up new interdisciplinary perspectives 
on the translation, adaptation and localization of media paratexts. The 
global circulation of digital media products and the increased 
customization of the user experience have resulted in a proliferation of 
such paratexts, whether in the form of promotional material (trailers, 
posters), fan-made material, or curated or data-driven user interfaces. 
While the disciplines of Media Studies and Digital Studies have embraced 
– and arguably even been transformed by – the study of such paratextual 
elements, the fields of audiovisual translation or of translation in the 
digital age have yet to integrate them into their object of study. 
Engagement with the notion of the paratext within the field of news 
translation has been even more muted, being limited to just a handful of 
studies (Zhang 2013; Hong 2019).

Premised on the idea that the combination of media paratexts and 
translation represents a rich and unexplored seam of research, this 
special issue invites interdisciplinary investigations of the ways in 
which media paratexts are linguistically and culturally mediated across 
different territories. It invites scholars to explore the impact that 
those mediations have on how media products are accessed, interpreted 
and perceived in the target cultures, thus widening the perspective from 
the media products themselves to the broader constellations of 
productions within which they circulate.

Mediation is thus taken to include not only the processes and outputs of 
translating paratexts per se but also the strategic decisions about 
distribution that are made by media companies and localization teams in 
general. These include decisions concerning which paratexts will be used 
in a specific target culture/territory (either “as is” or in their 
translated versions) and which ones will have to be recreated from 
scratch in order to better adapt to target-culture sensibilities or 
conventions. We thus invite contributors to explore the far-reaching 
consequences of apparently peripheral or ephemeral decisions. For 
example, contributors might consider the way in which the channel, 
platform or output through which a particular media text is distributed 
in a target culture invites particular associations or attracts 
particular audience segments, thus affecting reception and 
interpretation of the text before the text itself has been encountered. 
Through this broad notion of mediation, we hope to draw attention to the 
way in which reception of media products is affected by the entire 
constellation of paratextual materials among which and through which the 
media text itself circulates, rather than limiting reflection to the 
media text itself. For example, in the case of the TV series Breaking 
Bad in Italy, as explored by Bucaria (2014), the decision not to 
distribute the humorous minisodes that formed part of the paratextual 
constellation in the USA is argued to have resulted in a perception of 
Breaking Bad in Italy that is less tonally nuanced.

The definition of paratext that will be adopted for this volume will be 
broad, in line with approaches taken in Media Studies (e.g. Gray 2010). 
We thus invite consideration of meaning-making elements that have become 
essential to users’ selection and experience of audiovisual products and 
to the products’ commercial success; these might encompass interviews, 
viral marketing campaigns, TV and film trailers and teasers, summaries 
and descriptions, fan videos, and parodies, amongst others. We also 
invite explorations of elements intrinsic to the global presence of 
streaming and news platforms, such as the summaries, highlights, 
keywords and recommendations that appear in individual user interfaces, 
all of which need to be made accessible to users across the world 
through a process of localization. Where contributors are working to 
functional definitions of paratext (as commonly used in Digital and 
Media Studies), we invite consideration of material that serves 
commercial, navigational, community-building or world-building 
functions, amongst others, or that makes the text present in the world. 
(For a fuller list of paratextual functions, see Batchelor 2018, 
160-161, based on Rockenberger [2014]). We also welcome theoretical 
discussions of the adequacy of existing definitions of paratext for 
translation-focused research. In particular, contributors may wish to 
explore the difficulties around preventing the collapse of ‘paratext’ 
into the vastness of ‘context’ (Rockenberger 2014) that inevitably arise 
once Genette’s (1997) emphasis on authorial intention is dismantled.

Abstracts are invited from scholars in Translation Studies, Media 
Studies and Digital Studies. Proposed contributions should aim to 
explore the creation and use of linguistically and culturally adapted 
media paratexts from any of the following angles (with other aspects 
also welcome):

> promotional campaigns for media products (e.g. films, TV content, video games);
> customization of the user experience through paratexts;
> localization of online TV apps;
> paratextual elements in videogames;
> paratextual elements in news translation;
> theoretical perspectives on the conceptualization of media paratexts;
> fan-made vs. promotional paratexts;
> paratexts across different media.

*No payment from the authors will be required.*
*
*

/References/

Batchelor, K. (forthcoming) “Translation, Media and Paratexts,” in 
Bielsa, E. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Media. 
London: Routledge.
Batchelor, K. (2018) Translation and Paratexts. London: Routledge.
Bucaria, C. (2014) “Trailers and promos and teasers, oh my! Adapting 
television paratexts across cultures,” in Abend-David, D. (ed.) Media 
and Translation. An Interdisciplinary Approach. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 
293–313.
Bucaria, C. (2020) “Between Marketing and Cultural Adaptation. The Case 
of Comedy Film Titles in Italy,” in Dore, M. (ed.) Humour Translation in 
the Age of Multimedia. New York and London: Routledge. pp. 94–115.
Consalvo, M. (2017) “When Paratexts Become Texts: De-centering the 
Game-as-Text,” Critical Studies in Media Communication, 34(2), pp. 177-83.
Genette, G. (1997) Paratexts. Thresholds of Interpretation. Translated 
by Jane E. Lewin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grainge, P. (ed.) (2011) Ephemeral Media. Transitory Screen Culture from 
Television to YouTube. London: British Film Institute.
Grainge, P. and Johnson, C. (2015) Promotional Screen Industries. New 
York and London: Routledge.
Gray, J. (2010) Show Sold Separately. Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media 
Paratexts. New York and London: New York University Press.
Hong, J. (2019) “News translators’ para-textual visibility in South 
Korea.” Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International 
Journal of Translation 65(1), pp. 26-50.
Pesce, S. and Noto, P. (eds.) (2016) The Politics of Ephemeral Digital 
Media: Permanence and Obsolescence in Paratexts. New York and London: 
Routledge.
Rockenberger, A. (2014) “Video game framings,” in Desrochers, N. and D. 
Apollon (eds.), Examining Paratextual Theory and its Applications in 
Digital Culture. IGI Global. pp.252-86.
Zhang, M. (2013) “Stance and mediation in transediting news headlines as 
paratexts,” Perspectives, 21(3), pp. 396-41.


*Submission instructions*

Articles will be 7,000–8,000 words in length, in English (including 
notes and references).

Abstracts of 300–400 words should be submitted to the guest editors 
at*(chiara.bucaria /at/ unibo.it)*;*(k.batchelor /at/ ucl.ac.uk)*by*31 October 2021*.

Detailed style guidelines are available below.

Schedule

31 October 2021: submission of abstracts
31 December 2021: notification of acceptance of abstracts
15 July 2022: submission of manuscripts for peer review
31 January 2023: submission of revised manuscripts
31 August 2023: publication
*
*

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