PhD dissertation available now

My PhD dissertation "(Un-)Sichtbarkeit der literarischen Selbstübersetzung in der romanischsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur. Eine literatur- und übersetzungssoziologische Annäherung" ((In-)Visibility of Literary Self-translation in Contemporary Literature in Romance Languages. A Sociological Approach.)  is now available online as an open-access document.

Get access to the document herehttps://docserv.uni-duesseldorf.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-45333/Gentes_Dissertation.lit_Selbst%C3%BCbersetzung.pdf.

My dissertation is written in German, but here you find an abstract in English:

Literary self-translation is a largely unknown phenomenon, although in the past two decades it has increasingly gained attention with both literary and translation scholars. This dissertation examines the invisibility of self-translation in the realm of contemporary literature in Romance languages (1980-2015). Literary self-translation will be discussed both as a process and a product in order to understand its various functions and effects. It will be shown that self-translation is a complex and heterogeneous practice which ultimately requires a re-definition of the notion of self-translation. In Part A, "Frame Conditions of Self-Translation," we will start by giving a geographical overview of where authors self-translate into or from a Romance language. We will then discuss the reasons for opting for self-translation and finally examine the different language combinations used by the 336 identified self-translators. Part B focuses on “Self-translation as a process” and explores how writing, correction and translation processes interrelate in the textual genesis of bilingual and trilingual self-translations. Part C "Self-translation as a product" takes a closer look at the visibility of self-translation in editorial and auctorial peritexts. Afterwards, it will be discussed which strategies publishers and translators have developed in order to translate self-translated texts into other languages. Based on the theoretical reflections from the preceding chapters, Part D "Self-Translators in Contemporary Literature in Romance Languages" gives an insight into the individual practice of self-translation in the context of less common languages. The trajectory of six self-translators from Spain, France and Mexico, which so far have hardly been investigated, will be discussed in detail.