The quality of literary translations is often assessed in comparison to the “original” text — but accepting a text as “original” if not as easy as it might seem. In Literary Translation and the Making of Originals (Bloomsbury), comparative literature professor Karen Emmerich examines what goes into establishing an “original” text — including oblique forces like aesthetics and economics — and posits that the notion of “originals” being authoritative diminishes the status of translators and translations.
