Biography

Douglas Robinson was born and raised in the United States, and served as Professor of English at the University of Mississippi for 21 years, but has spent 14 years living and working in Finland, and translates mainly literary, dramatic, and cinematic texts from Finnish--and also two years in Russia and 10 years in Greater China. He is a prolific scholar, with two dozen books, five dozen articles and book chapters, and numerous book-length translations from Finnish, including works by Finland's two greatest novelists, Aleksis Kivi (Heath Cobblers and Kullervo, two plays from 1864, published in 1993, and The Brothers Seven, his great 1870 novel, published in 2017) and Volter Kilpi (Gulliver's Voyage to Phantomimia, published in 2020). His current monograph project is "Translating the Monster: Volter Kilpi in Orbit Beyond (Un)translatability."

After teaching at the University of Jyvaskyla (1975-1981) and the University of Tampere (1983-1989) in Finland and the University of Mississippi (1989-2010), he came to Hong Kong as Tong Tin Sun Chair Professor and Head of English at Lingnan University (2010-2012), then moved to Hong Kong Baptist University as Chair Professor of English (2012-2020) and Dean of Arts (2012-2015). Upon his official retirement in 2020 he became Emeritus Professor of Translation, Interpreting, and Intercultural Studies at HKBU and Professor of Translating and Interpreting at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen).

Publications

I.       Scholarly

A.      Monographs

-  Unpub. “The Strange Loops of Translation.” 90,000 words. Under review at Bloomsbury Academic.

-  Unpub. “The Behavioral Economics of Translation: Keywords for Translators as Econs, Humans, and Queers.” 115,000 words. Under review at Routledge.

1.     Forthcoming, 2021. Priming Translation: Cognitive, Affective, and Social Factors. London and New York: Routledge.

2.     2019. Transgender, Translation, Translingual Address. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.

3.     2017. Translationality: Essays in the Translational-Medical Humanities. London and Singapore: Routledge.

4.     2017. Aleksis Kivi and/as World Literature. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

5.     2017. Critical Translation Studies. London and Singapore: Routledge.

6.     2017. Exorcising Translation: Towards an Intercivilizational Turn. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.

7.     2016. Semiotranslating Peirce. Tartu Semiotics Library 17. Tartu, Estonia: University of Tartu Press.

8.     2016. The Deep Ecology of Rhetoric in Mencius and Aristotle. Albany: SUNY Press.

-  Currently being translated into Chinese for publication by Shanghai Guji (Classics Press) in Shanghai, PRC.

9.     2015. The Dao of Translation: An East-West Dialogue. London and Singapore: Routledge.

10.  2013. Schleiermacher’s Icoses: Social Ecologies of the Different Methods of Translating. Bucharest: Zeta Books.

11.  2013. Displacement and the Somatics of Postcolonial Culture. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

12.  2013. Feeling Extended: Sociality as Extended Body-Becoming-Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

13.  2012. First-Year Writing and the Somatic Exchange. New York: Hampton Press.

14.  2011. Translation and the Problem of Sway. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

15.  2008. Estrangement and the Somatics of Literature: Tolstoy, Shklovsky, Brecht. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

16.  2003. Performative Linguistics: Speaking and Translating as Doing Things With Words. London: Routledge.

17.  2001. Who Translates? Translator Subjectivities Beyond Reason. Albany: SUNY Press. Winner of the 2001 Choice 38th Annual Outstanding Academic Title Award.

18.  1997. Translation and Empire: Postcolonial Approaches Explained. A volume in the “Translation Theories Explained” series, general editor Anthony Pym. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Reprint London and New York: Routledge, 2016.

-  Translated into Korean by Jeong Hwe Ook as ??? ?? ??????? ?? ??.  Seoul: DongMunSun, 2002.

-  Translated into Arabic by Thaer Ali Dib as ??????? ????????????? – ?????? ??????? ????? ????????????. Damascus, Syria: Dar Alfarqad, 2009.

19.  1997. What Is Translation? Centrifugal Theories, Critical Interventions. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press.

20.  1996. Translation and Taboo. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press.

21.  1994. No Less a Man: Masculist Art in a Feminist Age. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press.

22.  1992. Ring Lardner and the Other. New York: Oxford University Press.

23.  1991. The Translator’s Turn. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

24.  1985. American Apocalypses: The Image of the End of the World in American Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

-  Excerpted as: “Revising the American Dream: A Connecticut Yankee,” in Harold Bloom, ed., Mark Twain (NY: Chelsea House, 1986), 183-206; “The Ritual Icon,” in Harold Bloom, ed., Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts (NY: Chelsea House, 1987), 49-52.

 

B.      Anthology

1.     1997. Western Translation Theory from Herodotus to Nietzsche. Manchester, UK: St. Jerome. Revised paperback edition, 2002. Reprint London and New York: Routledge, 2015.

 

C.      Edited essay collection

1.     2016. The Pushing Hands of Translation and its Theory: In memoriam Martha Cheung, 1953-2013. London and Singapore: Routledge.

 

D.      Textbooks

1.     2011. Lifewriting as Drama. (An e-textbook based on Writing as Drama (C2), created for ENG385 “Lifewriting” at Lingnan University, term 1, 2011-2012; revised and podcasted for term 1, 2012-2013.)

2.     2007. With Svetlana Ilinskaya: Writing as Drama. (A first-year writing textbook. Custom-published for the University of Mississippi, in three editions: 2007, 2008, 2009.)

3.     2006. Introducing Performative Pragmatics. (A textbook for undergraduate linguistics students.) London and New York: Routledge, 2006.

4.     1997. Becoming a Translator. (A textbook for undergraduate students of translation.)

a.     First edition: Becoming a Translator: An Accelerated Course. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.

-  Translated into Portuguese by Jussara Sim?ens as Construindo o tradutor. Bauru, Brazil: EDUSC, 2002.

b.     Revised second edition: Becoming a Translator: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Translation. London and New York: Routledge, 2003.

- Translated into Russian by Natal’ya Shakhova as Kak stat’ perevodchikom: Vvedenie v teoriyu i praktiku perevoda. Moscow: Kudits-Obraz, 2005.

-  Translated into Bahasa-Indonesian as Menjadi Penerjemah Profesional. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar: 2005.

c.     Revised third edition: Becoming a Translator: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Translation. London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

-  Retranslated into Russian by Natal’ya Shakhova as Kak stat’ perevodchikom: Vvedenie v teoriyu i praktiku perevoda. Moscow: R. Valent, 2014.

-  Translated into Turkish by Sabri Gürses as Nasil ?evirmen Olunor. Istanbul: ?eviribilim Yay?nc?l?k, 2019. 

5.     1983. With Vesa H?ggblom: The Light Fantastic. Helsinki: Otava, 1983. (An 11th-grade English textbook for Finnish public schools.)

6.     1982. With Diana Webster, Liisa Elonen, Leena Kirveskari, Seppo Tella, and Thelma Wiik. Jet Set 9. Helsinki: Otava, 1982. (A 9th-grade English textbook for Finnish public schools.)

 

E.      Dictionary

1.     1989. With Ilkka Rekiaro: Suomi/englanti/suomi-sanakirja (Finnish-English-Finnish Dictionary, 26,000 entries in each direction). Jyv?skyl?: Gummerus. 25 editions to date.

a.      Suomi/englanti/suomi-taskusanakirja (Finnish-English-Finnish Pocket Dictionary). Jyv?skyl?: Gummerus, 1990.

b.     Published as separate large-format volumes: Suomi/englanti-sanakirja (Finnish-English Dictionary, Robinson) and Englanti/suomi-sanakirja (English-Finnish Dictionary, Rekiaro). Jyv?skyl?: Gummerus, 1991.

c.      Electronic version for Windows, Jyv?skyl?: Gummerus, 1994.

d.     Revised edition (30,000 entries in each direction), Jyv?skyl?: Gummerus, 1995.

e.      CD-ROM version, Jyv?skyl?: Gummerus, 1997.

 

F.      Journal Articles

1.     Forthcoming. “Rethinking Dynamic Equivalence as a Rhetorical Construct.” Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies.

2.     Forthcoming, 2021. With Svetlana Ilinskaya. “Queering the Popular Utopia through Translingual Science Fiction: Sense8 as Cultural Translation.” Jonathan Evans, Michela Baldo, and Ting Guo, eds., Translating the Queer Popular. Special issue of Perspectives.

3.     2020. “Volter Kilpe? englanniksi” (“Volter Kilpi in English”). Avain 17.2: 56-73.

4.     2020. “Reframing Translational Norm Theory Through 4EA Cognition.” Translation, Cognition, Behavior 3.1: 122-43.

5.     2019. “M?bius Semioticity: Six Takes on Peeter Torop’s Semiotics-of-Culture Model of Textuality.” Sign Systems Studies 47.3/4: 609-26.

6.     2019. “The Strange Loops of Translation.” ??? (many loops) 3. Online at https://xn--wgiaa.ws/3-doug-robinson-strange-loops-of-translation-douglas-hofstadter.

7.     2018. “Reading Translational Semiotics Hermeneutically: Juri Lotman’s Культура и взрыв and Wilma Clark’s Culture and Explosion Imagined Icotically as a Single Translingual Text.” Special “Translational Hermeneutics” issue of Crossroads: A Journal of English Studies 20: 8-31.

8.     2018. “#MeToo and the Estrangement of Beauty-and-the-Beast Narratives.” With Svetlana Ilinskaya. social research 85.2 (Summer): 375-405. (SSCI)

9.     2018. “Translating a Translingual Tongue: Yoko Tawada, Chantal Wright, and the World.” Michael Boyden, Julie Hansen, and Eugenia Kelbert, eds., special “Literary Translingualism” issue of Journal of World Literature 3.2 (June): 153-73.

10.  2017. “What Kind of Literature is a Literary Translation?” Target 29.3: 440-63. (SSCI, AHCI)

11.  2016. “If I Only Had a Brain: The Capgras Delusion, Simulacra, and Fiction in The Echo Maker and Jackass 3D.” Konteksty literatury/Contextual Studies 1: 92-141.

12.  2015. “The Somatics of Tone and the Tone of Somatics: The Translator’s Turn Revisited.” TIS: Translation and Interpreting Studies 10.2: 299-319. (SSCI, AHCI)

13.  2015. “Towards an Intercivilizational Turn: Naoki Sakai’s Cofigurative Regimes of Translation and the Problem of Eurocentrism.” Translation Studies 8.3: 1-16. (SSCI, AHCI)

14.  2014. “Embodied Translation: Henri Meschonnic on Translating For/Through the Ear and the Mouth.” Parallèles 26: 38-52. Online at http://www.paralleles.unige.ch/tous-les-numeros/numero-26/robinson.html.

15.  2014. “The Inscience of Translation.” International Journal of Society, Culture, and Language 2.2 (Fall): 25-40. Online at http://ijscl.net/article_5432_848.html.

16.  2013. “Эйкозиы Шлейермахера: социально-экологические аспекты перевода” (“Schleiermacher’s Icoses: Socio-Ecological Aspects of Translation”). Translated into Russian by V. B. Kashkin. Язык, Коммуникация и Социальная Среда (“Language, Communication, and the Social Environment”) 11: 146-207.

17.  2013. “Hu Gengshen and the Eco-Translatology of Early Chinese Thought.” East Journal of Translation 21.1: 9-29.

18.  2012. “Rhythm as Knowledge-Translation, Knowledge as Rhythm-Translation.” Global Media Journal—Canadian Edition 5.1: 75-94. Online at http://www.gmj.uottawa.ca/1201/v5i1_robinson.pdf.

19.  2010. “Liar Paradox Monism: A Wildean Solution to the Explanatory Gap between Materialism and Qualia.” Minerva 14: 66-106. Online at http://www.minerva.mic.ul.ie/Vol14/Monism.pdf.

20.  2009. “Translation Norms and the Hystericization of Mastery.” Chinese Translators Journal 30.4: 45-48.

21.  2007. “Tolstoy’s Infection Theory and the Aesthetics of De- and Repersonalization.” Tolstoy Studies Journal 19: 33-53.

22.  2007. “The Spatiotemporal Dialectic of Estrangement.” TDR—The Drama Review 51.4 (Winter): 121-32. (SSCI)

23.  2007. “Proprioception of the Body Politic: ‘Translation as Phantom Limb’ Revisited.” TIS: Translation and Interpreting Studies 1.2: 43-71. (SSCI, AHCI)

24.  2006. “Translation and the Nationalist/Migrant Double Bind.” TIS: Translation and Interpreting Studies 1.1 (Spring): 110-23. (SSCI, AHCI)

25.  1999-2000. “Cyborg Translation.” In Susan Petrilli, ed., La traduzione. Special issue of Athanor: Semiotica, Filosofia, Arte, Letteratura 10.2: 219-33. Reprinted in Susan Petrilli, ed., Translation Translation, 253-267. Reprinted in Susan Petrilli, ed., Translation Translation, 369-386. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2000/2003.

-  Currently being translated into Turkish by Sabri Gürses, to be published in the same volume with “Twenty-Two Theses on the Study of Translation” by Ceviribilim Yayincilik. 

26.  1999-2000. “Semiotranslation: Peircean Approaches to Translation.” Coauthored with Gregor Goethals, Robert Hodgson, Giampaolo Proni, and Ubaldo Stecconi. In Susan Petrilli, ed., La traduzione. Special issue of Athanor: Semiotica, Filosofia, Arte, Letteratura 10.2 (1999-2000): 139-52. Reprinted in Susan Petrilli, ed., Translation Translation, 253-267. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi.

27.  1999. “Nine Theses About Anecdotalism in the Study of Translation (With Special Reference to Sherry Simon, ed., Culture in Transit).” Meta 44.2 (June): 402-8.

28.  1998. “Looking Through Translation: A Response to Gideon Toury and Theo Hermans.” Current Issues in Language and Society 5.1-2: 114-23.

29.  1998. “Twenty-Two Theses on the Study of Translation.” Journal of Translation Studies (Hong Kong) 2 (June): 92-117.

-  Currently being translated into Turkish by Sabri Gürses, to be published in the same volume with “Cyborg Translation” by Ceviribilim Yayincilik. 

30.  1997. “Translation and the Repayment of Debt.” Delos 7.1-2 (April): 10-22.

31.  1995. “Translation and the Double Bind.” Studies in the Humanities 22.1/2 (December): 1-11. (AHI, MLA)

32.  1995. “The Fight for Finnish Accreditation.” The ATA Chronicle (July): 6, 34.

33.  1995. “Theorising Translation in a Woman’s Voice: Subversions of the Rhetoric of Patronage, Courtly Love, and Morality by Early Modern Women Translators.” The Translator 1.2 (November): 153-75. (SSCI, AHCI)

34.  1994. “Teaching Whole People.” National Forum 74.1 (Winter): 34-36.

35.  1994. “Why Don’t We Talk About Translation?” In Other Words 4 (November): 5-10.

36.  1994. “Translation, Mystery, and the Transformation of the Reader.” Modern Poetry in Translation 5 (Summer): 162-70.

37.  1993. “Foreignizing Experience.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 20.3 (September/December): 417-33.

38.  1992. “Neural Networks, AI, and MT.” The ATA Chronicle 21.9 (October): 1, 25-27.

39.  1992. “Ring Lardner and the Capitalist Double Bind.” American Literary History 4 (Spring): 264-87. (AHCI)

40.  1992. “Classical Theories of Translation from Cicero to Aulus Gellius.” TEXTconTEXT 1: 15-55.

41.  1992. “The Ascetic Foundations of Western Translatology: Jerome and Augustine.” Translation and Literature 1: 3-25. (AHCI)

42.  1991. “Henry James and Euphemism.” College English 53 (April): 403-27. (AHCI)

43.  1989. “Two Dickinson Readings.” Dickinson Studies 70 (Bonus): 25-35.

44.  1988. “Dear Harold.” New Literary History 20.1 (Autumn): 239-250. (AHCI)

45.  “1988. The Trivialization of American Literature.” American Quarterly 40.2 (June): 205-223. (AHCI)

46.  1987. “Trapped in the Text: ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’.” Journal of the Short Story in English 7 (Autumn): 63-75.

47.  1987. “Trivial and Esoteric Pursuits: The Power Politics of Interpretive Communities.” Southwest Review 72 (Spring): 202-23.

48.  1987. “Category Mistakes and Creative Errance.” Journal of Mental Imagery 11.2 (1987).

49.  1986. “Reader’s Power, Writer’s Power: Barth, Bergonzi, Iser, and the Modern-Postmodern Period Debate.” Criticism 28.3 (Summer): 307-322. (AHCI)

50.  1986. “Joan of Orc: A Reading of Twain’s French Fantasy Through Blake’s America: A Prophecy.” American Studies in Scandinavia 18.1: 15-26. (AHCI)

51.  1986. “Metapragmatics and its Discontents.” Journal of Pragmatics 10: 359-78. (SSCI, AHCI)

52.  1985. “Nixon in Crisis-Land: The Rhetoric of ‘Six Crises’.” Journal of American Culture 8.1 (Spring): 79-85.

53.  1985. “Intentions, Signs, and Interpretations: C. S. Peirce and the Dialogic of Pragmatism.” Kodikas/Code/Ars Semeiotica 8.3-4: 179-193.

54.  1982. “Poe’s Mini-Apocalypse: ‘The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion’.” Studies in Short Fiction 19.4 (Fall): 329-37.

55.  1982. “Metafiction and Heartfelt Memory: Narrative Balance in ‘Alice Doane’s Appeal’.” ESQ 28.4 (Fall): 213-19. (AHCI)

56.  1982. “Reading Poe’s Novel: A Speculative Review of Pym Criticism, 1950-1980.” Poe Studies 15.2 (December): 47-54. (AHCI)

57.  1981. “Visions of No End: The Anti-Apocalyptic Novels of Ellison, Barth, and Coover.” American Studies in Scandinavia 13: 1-16. (AHCI)

 

G.      Book Chapters

  • 1.     Forthcoming, 2021. “The Translator’s Mobilization of Social Emotions: A Behavioral-Economic Approach to the Rhetoric of Translation.” In a volume on translation and the social emotions edited by Susan Petrilli, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan.

  • 2.     Forthcoming, 2020. “The of the Foreign: The Feeling-Based Hermeneutics of Translation as Influenced by Ancient Chinese Thought.” In Larisa Cercel, ed., proceedings of the Third Hermeneutics and Translation Studies Symposium, Cologne, Germany, June 30-July 1, 2016.

  • 3.     Forthcoming, 2020. “Friedrich Nietzsche’s Mixed (Peri)Performativities: Wagnerian Nationalism and Emersonian Pragmatism.” In Marco Agnetta and Larisa Cercel, eds., Text Performances and Cultural Transfer. A volume in the Hermeneutics and Creativity series. St. Ingbert, Germany: R?hrig University Press.

  • 4.     Forthcoming, 2020. “George Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion and the Ontology, Ethics, and Epistemology of Translation.” In Marco Agneta, Larisa Cercel, and Brian O’Keeffe, eds., Jahrbuch für übersetzungshermeneutik [“Annual for Translational Hermeneutics”]. Hildesheim, Germany: Hildesheim University Press and Olms Verlag.

  • 5.     Forthcoming, 2020. “Translating the Nonhuman: Towards a Sustainable Theory of Translation, and a Translational Theory of Sustainability.” 11,000-word chapter in Translating Sustainability, Sustaining Translation, edited by Carlos Rojas and Christine Ji.

  • 6.     2019. “Reading and Translating Philosophy Periperformatively: A Postscript to Philosophy’s Treason.” In D.M. Spitzer, ed., Philosophy’s Treason: Studies in Philosophy and Translation, 129-58. Wilmington DE and Malaga Spain: Vernon.

  • 7.     2019. “‘A Man Carries His Door’: Affective Displacement and Refugee Poetry.” In Sam Durrant, David Farrier, Lyndsey Stonebridge, Emma Cox, and Agnes Woolley, eds., Refugee Imaginaries: Research Across the Humanities, 248-63. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.

  • 8.     2018. “Liu on Marx on Translation: Some Implications of a Submerged Translation History.” In Guo Yangsheng, ed., Toward a New Paradigm in Translation Studies in a Global Era, 22-55. Beijing: Central Compilation and Translation Press.

  • 9.     2018. “The Translatorial Middle Between Direct and Indirect Reports.” In Alessandro Capone, Manuel García-Carpintero, and Alessandra Falzone, eds., Indirect Reports and Pragmatics in the World Languages, 371-400. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

  • 10.   2017. “Beyond das Gefühl des fremden ‘the Feeling of the Foreign’: The Hermeneutical Creativity of das Gefühl des fremden ‘the Feeling of the Alien’ and das Gefühl des fremden ‘the Feeling of the Strange’.” In Larisa Cercel, Marco Agnetta, and María Teresa Amido Lozano, eds., Kreativit?t und Hermeneutik in der Translation (“Creativity and Hermeneutics in Translation”), 287-310. Saarbrücken, Germany: Narr Franco Attempto.

  • 11.  2016. “Benveniste and the Periperformative Structure of the Pragmeme.” In Keith Allen, Alessandro Capone, Istvan Kecskes, and Jacob L. Mey, eds., Pragmemes and Theories of Language Use, 85-104. Dordrecht: Springer.

  • 12.  2016. “Pushing-Hands and Periperformativity.” In Douglas Robinson, ed., The Pushing Hands of Translation and its Theory: In Memoriam Martha Cheung, 1953-2013, 173-216. London and Singapore: Routledge.

  • 13. 2015. “Fourteen Principles of Translational Hermeneutics.” In John Stanley and Larisa Cercel, eds., Translation and Hermeneutics: The First Symposium, 41-54. Bucharest: Zeta Books.

  • 14. 2014. “Problems in Translating ‘Circulatory’ Terms from Aristotle’s Greek and Mencius’s Chinese: pistis ‘persuading/being persuaded’ and zhì ‘governing/being governed’ in English.” In Laurence K. P. Wong, John C. Y. Wang, and Chan Sin-wai, eds., Two Voices in One, 159-74. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.

  • 15. 2012. “Translating Dostoevsky, Theorizing Translation: The Interpretant as Hermeneutical Guide.” In John Stanley and Larisa Cercel, eds., Unterwegs zu einer hermeneutischen übersetzungswissenschaft: Radegundis Stolze zu ihrem 60. Geburtstag, 68-101. Tübingen: Narr.

  • 16. 2009. “Adding a Voice or Two: Translating Pentti Saarikoski for a Novel.” In B.J. Epstein, ed., Northern Lights: Translation in the Nordic Countries, 213-38. Bern: Peter Lang.

  • 17. 1998. “Kugelmass, Translator (Some Thoughts on Translation and its Teaching).” Peter Bush and Kirsten Malmkjaer, eds., Rimbaud’s Rainbow: Literary Translation in Higher Education, 47-61. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

  • 18. 1996. “Translation as Phantom Limb.” In Marilyn Gaddis Rose, ed., Translation Horizons: Beyond the Boundaries of Translation Spectrum, 25-44. Translation Perspectives IX. Binghamton, NY: Center for Research in Translation.

  • 19. 1995. “Heidegger, Translation, and the Coming of the God.” In Todd Burrell and Sean K. Kelly, eds., Translation: Religion, Ideology, Politics, 102-26. Translation Perspectives VIII. Binghamton: Center for Research in Translation.

  • 20. 1995. “The Translator, Habit, and Duction (Ab-, In-, De-): C.S. Peirce and the Process of Translation.” In Peter W. Krawutschke, ed., Connections: Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the American Translators Association, November 8-12, 1995, Nashville, Tennessee, 389-99. Medford NJ: Information Today.

  • 21. 1991. “Classical Lessons for Modern Students: Cicero, Horace, Aulus Gellius, and the Training of the Translator.” In A. Leslie Willson, ed., Horizons: Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Conference of the American Translators Association, 255-65. Medford, NJ: Learned Information.

  • 22. 1982. “Oscar Wilde and the Postmodernist Novel.” In Matti Palm, ed., Literature and Science: Essays in Honor of Professor Emeritus Aatos Ojala, 255-66. Jyvaskyla: University of Jyvaskyla.

 

G.      Reviews and Review-Essays

1.     2020. Untitled review of Ron Rapoport, ed., The Lost Journalism of Ring Lardner (Lindoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017). American Literary History online review series XXI. Online at https://static.primary.prod.gcms.the-infra.com/static/site/alh/document/ALH_Online_Review_Series_21/21RobinsonFinal.pdf?node=f647e6da2d9311358e21&version=59605:8a1ff24850ba99f420f3.

2.     2015. Untitled review of Zhongli Yu, Translating Feminism in China: Gender, Sexuality, and Censorship. Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, July. Online at http://u.osu.edu/mclc/book-reviews/robinson2/. (SSCI, AHCI)

3.     2015. “Partly Sunny: A Critical Edition of Kivi’s Greatest Play.” Review-essay on Aleksis Kivi, Nummisuutarit: Komedia viidess? n?yt?ksess?. Kriittinen editio [“Heath Cobblers: A Comedy in Five Acts. A Critical Edition”], edited by Jyrki Nummi (editor-in-chief), Sakari Katajam?ki, Ossi Kokko, and Petri Lauerma. Journal of Finnish Studies 18.1: 130-52.

4.     2013. Untitled review of Henri Meschonnic, Ethics and Politics of Translating, translated by Pier-Pascale Boulanger. The Translator 19.1: 125-32. (SSCI, AHCI)

5.     2012. Untitled review of Bonnie S. McDougall, Translation Zones in Modern China: Authoritarian Command versus Gift Exchange. In Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, June. Online at http://mclc.osu.edu/rc/pubs/reviews/robinson.htm. (SSCI, AHCI)

6.     2010. Untitled review of Alexandra Lianeri and Vanda Zajko, Translation and the Classic: Identity as Change in the History of Culture. Translation Studies 3.3: 371-74. (SSCI)

7.     2003. “The Translator as Lover.” Review of David Treuer, The Translation of Dr Apelles: A Love Story. California Literary Review. Online at http://www.calitreview.com/Reviews/translation_099.htm.

8.     2002. “A Depersonalized Divine Comedy.” Review of Kirby Olson, Temping. California Literary Review. Online at http://www.calitreview.com/Reviews/temping_088.htm. 

9.     1996. “Bodying Forth the German Speechfeel.” Review of Lawrence Rosenwald and Everett Fox’s translation/edition of Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, Scripture and Translation.) Translation and Literature 5.1: 99-110. (SSCI)

10.  1995. Untitled review of Dinda Gorlée, Semiotics and the Problem of Translation: With Special Reference to the Semiotics of Charles S. Peirce. Studies in the Humanities 22.1/2 (December): 144-50. (AHI, MLA)

11.  1994-1995. Untitled review of Willis Barnstone, The Poetics of Translation: History, Theory, Practice. Modern Poetry in Translation 6 (Winter): 198-208.

12.  1994. Untitled review of Rita Copeland, Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages: Academic Traditions and Vernacular Texts. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 21.3 (September): 521-28.

13.  1994. Untitled review of Frederic Will, Translation Theory and Practice: Reassembling the Tower. Philosophy and Literature 18.1 (April): 149-50. (AHCI)

14.  1993-1994. “Finnish-Americans Speak Finnish.” (Review of Pertti Virtaranta, Amerikansuomen sanakirja. A Dictionary of American Finnish.) Finnish Americana 10: 25-30.

15.  1993. “Decolonizing Translation.” (Review-essay on Frederick R. Rener, Interpretatio, Eric Cheyfitz, The Poetics of Imperialism, and Tejaswini Niranjana, Siting Translation.) Translation and Literature 2: 113-24. (SSCI)

16.  1993. “A Polysystems Reader.” (Review of André Lefevere, Translation/History/Culture: A Sourcebook.) Translation Review 42/43: 23-27. (SSCI)

17.  1992. Untitled review of Andrew Chesterman, ed., Readings in Translation Theory, and Rainer Schulte and John Biguenet, eds., Theories of Translation from Dryden to Derrida.) South Central Review 9.4 (Winter): 101-5. (SSCI)

18.  1991. “The Subversive Translation Theorist.” (Review of Suzanne Jill Levine, The Subversive Scribe, and Lawrence Venuti, ed., Rethinking Translation.) Genre 24: 467-75.

19.  1991. “Men’s Studies and the American Renaissance.” (Review of David Leverenz, Manhood and the American Renaissance.) Nineteenth-Century Studies 5: 83-89.

20.  1986. “Dogmatizing Discourse.” (Review-essay on Ken Frieden, Genius and Monologue, Ross Chambers, Story and Situation, Jefferson Humphries, Metamorphoses of the Raven, and Evan Carton, The Rhetoric of American Romance.) Poe Studies 19.2 (December): 35-43. (AHCI)

21.  1986. “Against Representation.” (Review of Victoria Maubrey-Rose, The Anti-Representational Response: Gertrude Stein’s Lucy Church Amiably.) Studia Neuphilologica 58: 267-70.

22.  1982. Untitled review of Inger Christensen, The Meaning of Metafiction. American Studies in Scandinavia 14: 131-35. (AHCI)

 

H.      Encyclopedia, Guide, Handbook, and Companion-Volume Entries

1.  2021 (forthcoming). “Earliest Discourses on Translation.” 8000-word chapter in Anne Lange, Daniele Monticelli, Chris Rundle, eds., Handbook on the History of Translation Studies. London and New York: Routledge.

2. 2020 (forthcoming). “Transmajoritizing and Transminoritizing Classics of Philosophy.” 7000-word chapter in Paul Bandia, Siobhán McElduff, and James Hadley, eds., Handbook on Translation and the Classic. London and New York: Routledge.

3.   2019 (forthcoming). “Somatics.” 7000-word chapter in Serena Bassi and Brian James Baer, eds., Handbook of Translation and Sexuality. London and New York: Routledge.

4.  2019 (forthcoming). “Ethics in Postcolonial Translation.” 7000-word chapter in Nike Pokorn and Kaisa Koskinen, eds., Handbook of Translation Ethics. London and New York: Routledge.

5.  2019 (forthcoming). “Mencius and Rhetoric.” 7000-word chapter in Yang Xiao, ed., Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Mencius. Dordrecht: Springer.

6.  2019. “The Translator.” In Philip A. Noss and Charles S. Houser, eds. A Guide to Bible Translation: People, Languages, and Topics, 862-66. Maitland, FL: Xulon Press, and Swindon, UK: United Bible Societies.

7.  2019. “The Sacred and Taboo.” In Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, eds., Dictionary of Translation Studies, 57-59. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

8.  2015. “Translation and Creativity.” In Rodney H. Jones, ed., The Routledge Handbook of Language and Creativity, 278-89. London and New York: Routledge.

9.   2013. “Performative Pragmatics.” In Louise Cummings, ed., The Routledge Pragmatics Encyclopedia, 310-12. London and New York: Routledge.

10.  2001. “The Limits of Translation” and “Sacred Texts.” In Peter France, ed., The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation, 15-20 and 103-7. London and New York: Oxford University Press.

11.  1998. “Literature and Apocalyptic.” In Stephen J. Stein, ed., Apocalypticism in the Modern Period and the Contemporary Age, 360-91. Vol. 3 of The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism (New York: Continuum).

12.  1998. “Babel, tower of,” “Free translation,” “Hermeneutic motion,” “Imitation,” “Intertemporal translation,” “Literal translation,” “Metaphrase,” “Normative model,” “Paraphrase,” “Pseudotranslation.” 500- to 2000-word entries in Mona Baker, ed., Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, 21-22, 87-90, 97-99, 111-12, 114-16, 125-27, 153-54, 161-63, 166-67, 183-85. London and New York: Routledge.

13.  1994. “Language and Linguistics,” “Speech Acts.” 3000-word entries in Michael Groden and Martin Kreiswirth, eds., The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, 465-70, 683-87. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

 

II.      Creative

 

A.      Fiction

 

1.       Novel

1.     2007. Pentinpeijaiset. Originally titled “Saarikoski’s Spirits.” Translated into Finnish by Kimmo Lilja. Helsinki: Avain.

 

2.       Shorts

1.     2014. “Dangling Modifiers.” Agora (June 7): http://buhk.me/2014/06/07/dangling-modifiers/.

2.     2012. “Dream Well.” Onion: Lingnan Literary Magazine.

 

B.      Drama

1.     2005. Insecticide. 30-minute one-act. Directed Reading. The Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Valdez, AK, June.

2.     2004. Divine Inspiration. One-act play. Theatre Oxford, Oxford, MS, October.

3.     2004. Insecticide. 10-minute play. Directed reading. The Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Valdez, AK, June.

 

C.      Poetry

1.     2014. “The Translated Word.” In Germán Mu?oz, Tammy Ho, and Juan José Morales, eds., Desde Hong Kong: Poets in Conversation with Octavio Paz, 52-53. Chameleon Press.

 

III.    Transcreations

1.     2020. Gulliver’s Voyage to Phantomimia. Includes: (a) Volter Kilpi’s unfinished/posthumous Finnish novel Gulliverin matka Fantomimian mantereelle (1944); translated into Swiftian English by DR (65,000 words). (b) DR’s completion of the novel in Swiftian English (22,000 words). (c) Kilpi’s Preface to his novel, which he called his own translation of a Swiftian ms that he found in English; translated into English by DR (1100 words). (d) Vilho Suomi’s Preface to his posthumous publication of Kilpi’s novel, translated into English by DR (4300 words). (e) Anonymous notes using the novel’s polar vortex sequence as inspiration for the 1914 Vorticist Manifesto, written by DR (1000 words). (f) Prof. Dorn Mointeach’s assessment of the “original” English ms as written in the mid-eighteenth century, but probably (mostly) not by Swift; written pseudonymously by DR (3600 words). (g) Prof. Julius Nyrkki’s assessment of the transcreation as a lamentable hoax perpetrated by DR; written pseudonymously by DR (6000 words). Bucharest, Romania: Zeta Books

 

IV.    Translations

 

A.      From Finnish

 

1.       Books (Fiction and Scholarship)

1.     2020. Mia Kankim?ki, The Women I Think About at Night (Naiset joita ajattelen ?isin). New York: Simon & Schuster. 450-page memoir.

2.     2018. Johannes Helama, Travel Guide to Each and Every City in the World (Matkaopas maailman kaikkiin kaupunkeihin). Commissioned by the author.

3.     2017. Aleksis Kivi, The Brothers Seven (Seitsem?n veljest?, 1870). Bucharest: Zeta Books.

4.     2015. Oskari Saari and Aki Hintsa, The Core: Better Life, Better Performance (Aki Hintsa: Voittamisen anatomia). Helsinki: WSOY.

5.     2012. Tuomas Kyr?, Griped (Mielens?pahoittaja, 2010). Novel. Commissioned by WSOY (publisher), to find English publisher.

6.     2011. Arto Paasilinna, A Charming Little Mass Suicide (Hurmaava joukkoitsemurha, 1990). Novel. Commissioned by WSOY.

7.     2007. Elina Hirvonen, When I Forgot (Ett? h?n muistaisi saman, 2005). Novel. London: Portobello Books. US edition: Portland, OR: Tin House Books, 2009.

8.     1990. Yrj? Varpio, The History of Finnish Literary Criticism [Suomalaisen kirjallisuudentutkimuksen historia], 1808-1918. Scholarly monograph. Tampere: Hermes.

9.     1980. Kustaa Vilkuna, New Times for the Old House (Vanha talo astuu uuteen aikaan). Scholarly monograph. Commissioned by the Department of Ethnology, University of Jyvaskyla.

10.  1979. Timo M?kinen, A Man The Same As You: Mozart’s Magic Flute (Ihminen niin kuin sin?kin: Mozartin Taikahuilu). Scholarly monograph. Commissioned by the Savonlinna Opera Festival.

 

2.       Novel samples and excerpts

1.     2018. Petri Karra, from Dark Light (Musta valo). 39 pages. Commissioned by the author, to find an international agent.

2.     2018. Mikko-Pekka Heikkinen, from The City Wall (Betoniporsas). 33 pages. Commissioned by Elina Ahlback, literary agent.

3.     2017. Miki Liukkonen, from O. 10,000 words. Commissioned by Bonnier Rights to sell translation rights.

4.     2016. Mikko-Pekka Heikkinen, from Reindeer Mafia (Poromafia). 49 pages. Commissioned by Bonnier Rights to sell translation rights.

5.     2014. Tuomas Kyr?, from Happy Times (But Still Griped) (Ilosia aikoja, mielens?pahoittaja). 46 pages. Commissioned by Bonnier Rights to sell translation rights.

6.     2012. Mikko-Pekka Heikkinen, from Invasion of the Snowmobiles (Terveisi? Kutturasta). 40 pages. Commissioned by Bonnier Rights to sell translation rights.

7.     2012. Petri Karra, from Fleeing Dreams (Pakenevat unet, 2012). 60 pages. Commissioned by the author, for agent search.

8.     2011. Tuomas Kyr?, from The Beggar and the Bunny (Kerj?l?inen ja j?nis). 40 pages.  Commissioned by Bonnier Rights to sell translation rights.

9.     2011. Kari Hotakainen, from God’s Word (Jumalan sana). 5 pages. Commissioned by WSOY (publisher) to sell translation rights.

10.  2011. Kari Hotakainen, from A Person’s Fate (Ihmisen osa). 30 pages. Commissioned by WSOY (publisher) to sell translation rights.

11.  2010. Petri Karra, from Fate’s Director (Kohtalonohjaaja). 100 pages. Commissioned by the author, for agent search.

12.  2009. Petri Karra, from The House of Forking Love (Haarautuvan rakkauden talo). 60 pages. Commissioned by the author for agent search.

13.  2006. Elina Hirvonen, from When I Forgot (Ett? h?n muistaisi saman). 7 chapters. Commissioned by Avain (publisher) to sell translation rights. Rights were sold to 12 countries.

 

3.       Plays and Screenplays

1.     2019. Dark Light (Musta valo, TV series) pilot. 70 pages. Commissioned by Minna Virtanen.

2.     2019. TBL (TV series) pilot. 65 pages. Commissioned by Minna Virtanen.

3.     2018. Heini Junkkaala, Axel—Solo for Male Voice (Axel—Soolo mies??nelle). 34 pages. Commissioned by dramatic agent, to create English surtitles for the Helsinki production.

4.     2015. Petri Karra, Mosquito. Full-length film script, optioned by ICM, currently under development. To be directed by A.J. Annila.

5.     2015. Sirkku Peltola, A Decent Man (Ihmisellinen mies). Full-length play script. Commissioned by Finnish Playwrights’ Union, to sell production rights.

6.     2011. Rane Tiukkanen and Erikka Rahikainen, Mermaid (Merenneito). Full-length film script. Commissioned by First Floor Productions. Film directed by Rane Tiukkanen.

7.     2010. Peter Lindholm, The White Reindeer (Valkopeura). Full-length feature film script. Commissioned by First Floor Productions.

8.     2010. Aku Louhimies and Jari Olavi Rantala, War Movie (Sotaelokuva). Full-length feature film script. Screen adaptation of V?in? Linna, War Novel (Sotaromaani, 1990, restored uncensored version of The Unknown Soldier, Tuntematon sotilas, 1954). Commissioned by First Floor Productions.

9.     2010. Kati Kaartinen, Aina (Aina). Full-length play script. Commissioned by Finnish Playwrights’ Union, to sell production rights.

10.  2009. Sirkku Peltola, A Little Money (Pieni raha). Full-length play script. Commissioned by Finnish Playwrights’ Union, to sell production rights.

11.  2009. Petri Karra, Fleeing Dreams (Pakenevat unet). Full-length feature film script. Commissioned by First Floor Productions.

12.  1994. Maaria Koskiluoma, Tottering House (Huojuva talo, 1983). Full-length play script. Stage adaptation of Maria Jotuni, Huojuva talo (1930s, published posthumously, 1963). Produced at the Frank Theatre, Minneapolis, MN, March-April 1994.

13.  1993. Aleksis Kivi, Heath Cobblers (Nummisuutarit) and Kullervo. Two classic plays (1864). St. Cloud, MN: North Star Press of St. Cloud.

 

4.       Short Stories

1. 2016. Mikko-Pekka Heikkinen, “The Rower” (“Soutaja”) and “The Dogs Down South” (“Etel?n koirat”). Best European Fiction 2016. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press.

2. 2015. Tuomas Kyr?, “Extracts from Griped” (see III.A.1.1, above). Best European Fiction 2015, 171-82. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press.

3.     2014/2015. Tuomas Lius, “Dead Cinch” (“Varma nakki”). Johnny Temple, ed., Helsinki Noir. New York: Akashic Books.

4.     2014. Joonas Konstig, “The Right Place” (“Sopiva paikka”) and “Pussy Willows” (“Pajunkissat”). For inclusion in the forthcoming Finnish volume edited by Lola M. Rogers, Words Without Borders (summer).

5.     2009. Juhani Brander, “Extracts from Extinction (Lajien tuho, Avain 2007). In Alexandar Hemon, ed., Best European Fiction 2010. Bloomington, IL: Dalkey Archive Press.

 

5.       Articles

1.     1981. Juhani U.E. Lehtonen, “U.T. Sirelius: Student of Finno-Ugric Ethnology.” Etnologia Scandinavica: 13-21.

2.     1980. Kustaa Vilkuna, “Pearl Fishing in Finland and Surrounding Areas.” Etnologica Scandinavica: 133-51.

3.     1979. P?ivikki Suojanen, “On the Nature of Knowing in Empirical Case Studies.” Suomen antropologi 4: 192-200.

4.     1978. P?ivikki Suojanen, “The Spontaneous Sermon: Its Production and Context.” Abstract of Saarna, saarnaaja, tilanne: Spontaanin saarnan tuottamisprosessi L?nsi-Suomen rukoilevaisuudessa, 308-19. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.

5.     1975. Asko Vilkuna, “The Tale of the Birch-Bark Strip.” Etnologia Scandinavica: 73-79.

 

B.      From German

All translations published in 1997 were done for, and appeared in, Western Translation Theory from Herodotus to Nietzsche (Publications I.B).

 

1.     1994. August Wilhelm von Schlegel, “On the German Homer.” Translation and Literature 3: 111-17.

2.     1993. Martin Buber, “On the Diction of a German Translation of the Scripture.” Translation and Literature 2: 105-10.

3.     1997. Martin Luther, “Circular Letter on Translation.”

4.     1997. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, passage from Unvorgreifliche Gedanken, betreffend die Ausübung und Verbesserung der deutschen Sprache.

1997. Johann Gottfried Herder, two passages from Ueber die neuere Deutsche Litteratur. Fragmente (1766-1767).

5.     1997. Novalis, passages from a letter to A. W. Schlegel (1790) and Bluetenstaub (1798).

6.     1997. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, passages from “Rede zum Andenken des edlen Dichters, Bruders und Freundes Wieland” (1813), West-Oestlicher Divan (1819), Maximen und Reflexionen (1826).

7.     1997. Friedrich Schleiermacher, “On the Different Methods of Translating” (1813).

8.     1997. Wilhelm von Humboldt, passage from introduction to translation of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon (1816).

9.     1997. Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Language and Words” (from Parerga und Paralipomena, 1851).

 

C.      From Russian

1.     2009. Ol’ga Zondberg, “Have Mercy, Your Majesty Fish.” Translated by Svetlana Ilinskaya and Douglas Robinson. In Mikhail Iossel and Jeff Parker, eds., Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia, 69-75. Portland, OR: Tin House.

2.     2009. Dmitry Danilov, “More Elderly Person.” Translated by Douglas Robinson. In Mikhail Iossel and Jeff Parker, eds., Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia, 201-8. Portland, OR: Tin House.

3.     2009. Zakhar Prilepin, “The Killer and His Little Friend.” Translated by Svetlana Ilinskaya and Douglas Robinson. In Mikhail Iossel and Jeff Parker, eds., Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia, 331-42. Portland, OR: Tin House.

 

IV.    Interviews and Other Short Interactive Pieces

1.     Jane Qian Liu, “The Intercivilizational Turn of Translation Studies: An Interview with Professor Douglas Robinson.” Comparative Literature & World Literature 4.2 (2019): 51-58. Online at http://www.cwliterature.org/uploadfile/2020/0108/20200108025928506.pdf.

2.     Aditya Kumar Panda. “An Interview with Douglas Robinson.” Translation Today 11.1 (2017): 94-103.

3.     Ding Zhenqin (丁振琴). “Chinese Translation Studies in the Eyes of a Western Translation Scholar—An Interview with Professor Douglas Robinson” (一位西方学者眼中的中国翻译学——道格拉斯·罗宾逊教授访谈录). Chinese Translators Journal《中国翻译》(3, 2016): 83-86.

4.     With Li Bo. “An Interview with Prof. Douglas Robinson on Translation and Translation Studies.” Compilation and Translation Review 7.1 (March 2014): 235-60. Online at http://ej.naer.edu.tw/CTR/v07.1/ctr070221.pdf.

5.     “Response [to Andrew Chesterman].” Translation Studies 7.3 (2014): 346-49. (SSCI, AHCI)

6.     With Qin Jianghua. “Translation as Transfeeling: An Interview with Douglas Robinson.” The AALITRA Review 7 (November 2013): 20-27. (In English) Online at https://www.academia.edu/5054255/Translation_as_Transfeeling_An_Interview_with_Douglas_Robinson or http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/ALLITRA/.

7.     With Qin Jianghua. “Theoretical Constructions of and Reflections on Eco-translatology: An Interview with Douglas Robinson.” Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies (Shanghai) 9 (September: 2013): 33-38. (In Chinese)

8.     With Caryl Emerson. “Estrangement, Infection, Laughter, Somatics, Tolstoy: A Forum with Caryl Emerson and Douglas Robinson.” Comparative Literature Studies 47.2 (2010): 200-2. (AHCI)

9.     With Zhu Lin, Gao Qian, and Liu Yanchun. “An Interview with Professor Douglas Robinson.” Chinese Translators Journal 2 (2009): 39-44. (In Chinese)

10.  On-line interview by Jonathan Lethem, on “Head Space.” December 5, 1995.