Book Review
Kaisa Koskinen, Translation and Affect: Essays on 
sticky affects and translational affective labour 
Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2020, 201 pp. 
Reviewed by Zarja Vršič
University of Ljubljana
Kaisa Koskinen’s book Translation and Affect, pub-
lished in 2020, deals with the role and importance 
of affects in TS. The main premise of the book is 
that to fully understand translation we also need 
to understand its affective side and the ways in 
which it forms a part of the lives of those who are 
actively involved with it, because emotions and 
affects are an important part of our human con-
dition and central to our being in the world. Even 
though affects have been the core concept in some 
other disciplines for quite some time (for example, 
in psychology, neuroscience and sociology), and some pioneering scholars have even 
long recognized the relevance of affective factors in translation and interpreting stud-
ies, this topic is still fairly under-researched and has rarely been the direct object of 
scholarly analysis. As the author herself underlines, the vast majority of the research 
focused on affect has been conducted within cognitive translation studies. Neverthe-
less, the issue has gained momentum as a number of neighbouring fields have brought 
forth new findings. The notion of affect can thus function as a “bridge concept, cross -
ing over the various orientations in TS and also cutting through different contexts and 
modes of translatorial action” (3).   
Koskinen’s book has a wide scope of inquiry, and the author draws from multiple 
fields and relies on different findings from other disciplines, like neurocognitive and 
psychological research, but nevertheless she is aiming for the sociocultural theoriza-
tion of the roles of affect in TS, a view which is congruent with the sociological turn 
in TS in the 21
st
 century and also with her own research interest. The author’s claim 
129 Stridon. Journal of Studies in Translation and Interpreting, Volume 1 Issue 1, pp. 129–131

is that any manipulative decision-making will also have an affective layer because it 
has been found that every decision is “based on emotional and visceral responses to 
an equal degree as on cognitive reasoning” (55) (here she relies on the work of neu-
roscientist Antonio Damasio) and since translating and interpreting consists of either 
active or subconscious decision-making, they will necessarily deal with the concept of 
affect. This includes researching the concept of affects in TS as a phenomenon on an 
individual and also on a social level, and deals with topics such as the affective value 
of norms and other issues (for example, self-censorship), manipulation of affective el-
ements in the source text, the translators’ and other agents’ personal and professional 
stances towards them, expectations, rules and values of a receiving culture and the af-
fects involved in the reception of the target text. The main argument is that translating 
and interpreting are (among other things) forms of “affective labour” (an important 
concept borrowed from sociological research meaning a constant management of felt 
and performed affects) and that “engaging with affect is therefore of extreme value in 
understanding translating and interpreting as complex, interpersonal, situated and 
embodied forms of human communication” (27). 
Because the book draws from so many different fields, the author is trying to find a sub-
tle balance within the messy terminology which signals that the area under study does 
not easily fall into distinct categories. Koskinen argues strongly for her own personal 
preferences when choosing a suitable terminology and writes about her own struggles 
with navigating her way through the maze of notions and definitions from different 
fields and theories where “the essence of the matter was perhaps in danger of getting 
lost in translation” (19). The complexities of the phenomenon also allow us to appreciate 
that the area under study needs to be understood both on micro (neurobiological) and 
macro (interpersonal or cultural) levels. She stresses the importance of paying attention 
to the concepts being discussed and choosing the right definitions and terminology 
based on each researcher’s personal preferences and disciplinary affiliations.
However, despite these terminological dilemmas, the book is clearly written and well or-
ganized. It goes from the individual towards the social and interpersonal, proceeding in 
a linear fashion. It opens with a chapter on modulating and appraising affective valence 
in texts (from production to translation and reception), then in the next chapter deals 
with everyday affective involvement of translators and their experiencing self when they 
translate. The following chapter covers wider social ground, including interpersonal and 
bodily aspects of affects, affective capital, tendency towards neutrality, interpreter’s per-
formance and the moral issues that come with it. Further, the book concentrates on the 
translatorial space and the interplay between place and affect in three different cases of 
translational practice connected with the metaphor of space. The last two chapters are 
probably the most innovative and appealing, since they deal with two very practical 
130 Book Review

topics which get lots of attention nowadays: affects in machine translation (especially 
in connection with translators’ attitude towards new technology) and pedagogical ap-
proaches to the affects in translation in teaching practice. In these last two chapters, the 
author also tries to predict some plausible directions and future scenarios for further 
research in the two respective fields when dealing with the issue of affects.
Methodologically, the author’s approach is very data-driven, and the book is based 
heavily on already published case studies (mainly from the author herself) which help 
illuminate the area under study. The author draws a lot on her own experience when 
dealing with the issue, and she is not afraid of approaching the topic from a very 
personal angle. She writes about her own fears, hopes and expectations when dealing 
with the issue of affects and why this topic is especially significant for her personally 
and why she thinks it may be salient in the field of TS as well. For the reader, the au-
thor’s rather personal style is far from being a weakness – after all, the book is about 
affecting and being affected. The author’s own recent turn from studying translation 
towards exploring and researching “translatoriality” and “translatorial action” (1) is in 
accord with her belief that the affects in fact do matter in TS, because they can “offer 
challenges that are not yet sufficiently resolved in TS literature” (25). 
The intention of Translation and Affect is not to offer definitive answers and rigid 
definitions but rather to ask some salient and interesting research questions. With 
such openness towards other fields and practices it definitely lays the groundwork for 
possible future research in TS and is a very welcome interdisciplinary exploration of 
affects, this obvious but sometimes forgotten aspect of every translatorial work.   
About the author
Zarja Vršič is Young Researcher and Teaching Assistant at the Department of Trans-
lation, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. She is currently researching intersemiotic 
translation between different arts for her doctoral thesis. 
131 Stridon. Journal of Studies in Translation and Interpreting, Volume 1 Issue 1, pp. 129–131