Translation as Re-narration

This chapter offers an overview of narrative theory as it has been applied in the field of translation studies. It starts by outlining the theoretical assumptions that underpin the narrative approach, and then explains and exemplifies two sets of conceptual tools used in the analysis of translation and interpreting events from a narrative perspective. The first set consists of a narrative typology (personal, public, conceptual and meta narratives). The second set consists of features that account for the way in which narratives are configured: selective appropriation, temporality, relationality, causal emplotment, genericness, particularity, normativeness, and narrative accrual. The chapter concludes with a narrative analysis of a subtitled political commercial that demonstrates some of the strengths of the narrative framework.