The translation of genre and the genre of translation

The relevance of genre analysis to translation is well-established in both the theoretical and applied branches of translation studies. A translation will function effectively in the receiving culture if it is recognised by the recipients as a token of a particular genre. Familiarity with genre will thus enable translators to arrive at an appropriate target text that is in keeping with the conventions and expectations of the receiving culture. This traditional cross-cultural perspective on translating genres can be expanded to include instances of translation that do not fit into the traditional paradigms of source text-target text equivalence: translators are often called upon to activate function-altering (as opposed to function-retaining) translation strategies in order to create a partially or entirely new text or to produce translation-specific genres such as the products of bilingual abstracting, summarizing and gist translation. In addition to this predominantly linguistic approach to translation and genre is the one proposed by scholars working within descriptive translation studies which suggests that a translated text constitutes a genre of its own. Empirical studies have identified universals of translation behaviour that are specific to translated texts as opposed to monolingual text production. Closely linked to this strand of research is the notion of hybridity, which is often the result of a translation process and which also concerns the phenomenon of translation as a genre per se. The present paper explores each of these aspects in relation to the different ways in which the interface between “genre” and “translation” is interpreted within the field of translation studies today.