Sidney Shapiro's Translatorial Agency

Abstract

Translatorial agencies have gained wider currency in contemporary translation studies. Efforts have been made to delve into it from both translators' individual habits and the contextual elements of their work. But there is still relatively little work done on the variety of translatorial agencies exercised in different actual working conditions. Drawing on available studies and archival primary sources, this article tries to look into the development of translatorial agencies over time and space by uncovering the translator Sidney Shapiro's changeable textual, paratextual and extratextual agency in different translation networks in which he had been involved. The central argument of the article is that the extent to which translatorial agencies are influenced by other actors in the same network depends on whether the translator has the chance, ability, and willingness to negotiate with them.