THE TRANSLATOR’S VOICE AND ITS IMPACT ON LITERARY AUTHENTICITY
Keywords:
translator’s voice, literary authenticity, post-structuralist translation theory, stylistic mediation, narrative identityAbstract
The concept of the translator’s voice has become central to contemporary translation studies, challenging long-standing assumptions about neutrality, equivalence, and fidelity. At the same time, literary authenticity remains an elusive and contested notion, often implicitly defined through source-text primacy. This article reconceptualizes the relationship between the translator’s voice and literary authenticity by situating both within post-structuralist, descriptive, and sociocultural paradigms of translation. Drawing on theoretical contributions from translator-style research, narrative theory, and cultural translation studies, the article argues that authenticity in literary translation is not a property transferred from the source text but a negotiated effect co-produced by author, translator, and target readership. Through qualitative stylistic analysis, the study demonstrates that the translator’s voice functions not as a distortion of authenticity but as a condition for its re-articulation across linguistic and cultural systems
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