How Genre Awareness Contributes to Quality Translations

From a literary perspective, the notion of genres in the original biblical texts has been established for years (e.g., Alter and Kermode 1990; Ryken and Longman 2010). Scholars and practitioners in the Bible translation world also advocate for the consideration of familiar genres in the translation process (e.g., Boerger 2016; Dickie 2022; Green 2007; Salisbury 2014, 2015; Stark 2011; Unseth 2006; Wendland 2011, 2017; Wilt & Wendland 2008). Several quality-related motivations emerge from these appeals for the use of familiar genres in translation: (1) increased faithfulness to the original text; (2) the improved reception of translations in communities; and (3) a more efficient and enjoyable translation process.

This paper enriches the conversation around genres and quality with insights not only from the Bible translation world but also from other fields that consider genres, such as emotions studies (e.g., Inselmann 2016), academic writing (e.g., Bruce 2008), ethnoarts (e.g., Schrag 2013), psychology (e.g., Obermeier et al. 2013), translation studies (e.g., Biel 2017), and cognitive linguistics (e.g., Nikiforidou 2019). Most significantly, this paper provides a combination of theoretical grounding and practical examples for the variety of ways in which genre awareness can improve the quality of translations, their reception, and the translation process itself. In addition, this work considers various challenges and concerns surrounding genre-level translations, providing suggestions for how the use of genres may be nuanced for different purposes and contexts.