Mindreading in translation: Theory of Mind in a shared cognitive translation process

This paper explores the use of Theory of Mind (ToM) as a discourse-level theoretical framework in Translation Studies to explore how a translator’s decision-making is influenced by shared cognitive processes. The American English translation of the second “Manolito Gafotas” book was chosen as a case study because the translation process involved predicting the mental states of both children and adult readers, and because the translator, Carolina Travalia, published an introspective analysis of her own work, thereby providing an invaluable insight into the shared nature of the translation process. The analysis reveals that Travalia leveraged her ToM during the decision-making process to align with the publisher’s belief about two idealised and homogenised target reader categories, morally conservative parents and morally immature children. The nature of the publisher-translator collaboration revealed in the analysis raises important questions about how ethics and authorship need to be redefined when a translation is a shared cognitive process.