< Back to previous page

Project

Storytelling identities of interpreters in conflicts: a narrative study of Iraqi interpreters with the US military (2003-2011)

This project explores the identities of Iraqi interpreters who worked for the US military during the Iraq War 2003-2011. Although interpreting studies is a field by itself and there are enormous researches conducted within, very few researchers have tackled interpreting and interpreters using a narrative theory (Baker, 2006, 2010; Harding, 2012; Probirskaja, 2016). However, the application of the narrative theory in interpreting studies to scrutinise the identities of interpreters in the field, especially in war zones, has not been explored yet.

In order to explore the identities above, the research will be based on a framework developed, within the social constructionist view to the study of identity, by Bucholtz and Hall (2005). They propose five principles which draws on previous research on identity: the emergence principle, the positionality principle, the indexicality principle, the relationality principle and the partialness principle.

Data will be heavily based on interviews with three main groups: Iraqi interpreters, US military personnel and Iraqi notables who closely monitor the situation in Iraq after 2003. In addition, the study will benefit from the project by PhD students at Kent State University (Translation Histories: The history of Iraqi warzone interpreters, 2017). They created an online database of resources on Iraq interpreters. Other sets of data will include documentaries, reports, books and video clips.

References

Baker, M. (2006) Translation and conflict. London: Routledge.

Baker, M. (2010) Interpreters and Translators in the War Zone. The Translator, 16 (2), pp. 197-222.

Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. (2005) 'Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach', Discourse Studies, 7(4-5), pp. 585-614.

Harding, S. (2012) “How do I apply narrative theory?”: Socio-narrative theory in translation studies. Target International Journal of Translation Studies, 24 (2), pp. 286-309.

Probirskaja, S. (2016). How do interpreters become heroes? Narratives on Soviet/Russian military interpreters. Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series: Themes in Translation Studies, 15, 205–226.

Translation Histories: The history of Iraqi warzone interpreters (2017). Available at: http://www.translationhistory.com/iraqinterpreters/ (Accessed: 03 December 2017).

Date:5 Sep 2018 →  8 Nov 2019
Keywords:Narrative theory, Iraq, United States, Iraqi interpreters, Iraq War, Conflict, War zone, Interpreting studies, Narrative, Identity
Disciplines:Theory and methodology of literary studies
Project type:PhD project