The Role of Translators in Children’s Literature: Invisible Storytellers (review)

“Why does literary translation matter?” (xv). This is the central question Gillian Lathey poses in her latest contribution to translation studies, The Role of Translators in Children’s Literature: Invisible Storytellers. Her brief answer is that “it is pivotal to international cultural exchange; the transition of a text from one language to another registers ideological differences between countries and cultures; and because to anyone interested in language—which surely anyone who is passionate about literature should be—translation involves a deep engagement with the building blocks of ‘wording, meaning and sounding’ that make any language unique” (xv). Here and throughout the whole book, as the title itself underlines, Lathey enables expert and non-expert readers to understand the important role of translators in children’s literature.

Lathey’s contribution focuses on the history of children’s literature in translation into English where the main aim is “to trace in outline the chronology and impact of translators and translation on the history of children’s literature written in English and, wherever possible, to give an account of the motivation and methodology of translators working for a child audience” (8). Here she takes into account the vast history of translations into English for children from ancient to modern times. In the second part of the book, Lathey also provides an overview of translators and the role of the books they translated.

The first part of Lathey’s book provides an admirable, accurate starting point for further research in the field of translation of children’s literature, particularly translation into the English language. Lathey expresses the hope that her contribution will “become a source book for future researchers who seek to answer some of the questions it raises” (199), and here she succeeds. She has also lists some of areas where she believes further research is necessary. One of the most interesting and noteworthy chapters in Part One is dedicated to women as translators who are rendered even more “invisible storytellers” than their male counterparts. The “invisibility” of the translator, contained in Lathey’s subtitle, is a well-known concept among researchers in the field and translators themselves (Venuti, 1995). Lathey concludes the first section with a useful summary on translation practices and an overview of the child audience before the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries.

Due to the lack of space in this volume, the second part on the contribution on translation in the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries to children’s literature is not as developed as the first part, a point Lathey acknowledges herself. Nevertheless, the chapter “Translators Voices” is noteworthy since it is possible to become familiar with the most famous translators of children’s literature into English language and with their techniques and strategies. Furthermore, the second part also contains a chapter on the most important awards for English-language translators of children’s literature in the US and in Great Britain. The fairly recent foundation dates of these awards might once again be considered as a signpost of a greater attention towards the translation of literature for children. Contributions such as Lathey’s might help to raise even more the awareness towards the important role of translators in children’s literature.