Potentials and Pitfalls of Publishing Self‐Translations as Bilingual Editions

Abstract

Recently, there has been increasing interest in literary self‐translation within translation studies. Yet for various reasons the phenomenon remains unknown to most readers. Publishing self‐translations as bilingual editions might be an advisable strategy against this invisibility. However, the publication in a dual‐language format proves to be a highly complex endeavor, opening up a whole new area of research. This article will focus on three aspects: reasons for publishing self‐translations as bilingual editions, potential reading strategies, and possible edition styles. Apart from the well‐known en face edition, editors have developed various ways of arranging texts in order to meet the needs of the intended reader while still respecting the author's bilingual writing. As dual‐language editions are expected to fulfill more functions than just rendering the translation process visible, publishers have to choose the edition style on a case‐by‐case basis according to several decisive factors. Further research on different edition styles and their respective potentials and pitfalls is needed in order for a typology of multilingual editions to be developed. Such a typology might then raise awareness among publishers of the various possibilities for presenting self‐translations.