The ICRETRA stimulus: Incentivizing CREative competence in the context of TRAnslator training by translating humor

Abstract

In Translation Studies, research into how to encourage creativity has been carried out mainly in the field of translator training and has included theoretical, methodological and empirical studies. From an interdisciplinary approach, including Psychology and Translation, in this paper we put forward a methodological proposal, arising in the context of translator training, by combining scientific/technical translation with the translation of humorous texts. After fifteen years as translator trainers in our university’s Bachelor’s Degree in Translation and Interpreting, we have observed that in the last phases of their training our students still produce translations that are quite literal in terms of vocabulary, syntax and pragmatism. It was in response to this situation that the idea of what we have decided to refer to as the “ICRETRA stimulus” arose. ICRETRA, which stands for Incentivizing CREative competence in the context of TRAnslator training, consists of a training methodology specifically developed to foster fluency and wealth of expressiveness in the practice of specialized translation – in particular, in the practice of scientific/technical translation –. For this purpose, we propose a training model, based on the translation of humorous texts, which, when implemented systematically, make students aware of the importance of activating the creative competence to produce fluent natural translations.