Investigating Translator Visibility in the Digital Paratextual Space

Investigating Translator Visibility in the Digital Paratextual Space presents a new framework for understanding how literary translators are made visible across the diverse constellations of paratextual materials created as literary translations move through the spheres of creation, production, and reception. Drawing on paratext theory, publishing studies, and the sociology of translation, the book develops a methodology that focuses not only on how translators are positioned within paratextual materials, but also on the role they play in achieving that visibility. It then demonstrates this approach through a demonstrative study of Jamie Bulloch's translations of Timur Vermes's Look Who's Back and The Hungry and the Fat, which draws on evidence from publisher archives, marketing materials, social media, reader reviews, and digital retail platforms. In doing so, the book reconceptualises translator visibility as a continuum rather than a simple visible–invisible binary, introduces the concept of collateral paratextuality to account for the interactions between competing paratextual materials, and explores the impact of algorithmic mediation and personalised content on the presentation of translated literature in digital environments. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in translation studies, literary studies, publishing studies, book history, and the digital humanities.