This thesis sets out to correlate—to hyphenate, even—the dual and historically disparate personae of Henry Corbin the first French translator of Heidegger, and Henry Corbin, Iranian Islamist and pioneering comparative philosopher. The thesis’ cynosure is a case for the philosophicohistorically contextual reconsideration of Corbin’s infamous translation of Heidegger’s term Dasein as “réalité-humaine”, as the result of the young Corbin’s own profound engagement with Heidegger as informed by the then philosophically avant-garde. A contextual reading of Corbin’s late “Biographical Post-Scriptum” is enriched by the introduction of a correspondence between Corbin and the Warburg Library (chiefly Gertrud Bing), discovered to lie in the Warburg Library Archive in London, but which to date does not appear in Corbinian literature. The self-proclaimed point, and cause of Corbin’s divergence from Heidegger is examined further. Traces of Corbin’s own professed “debt” to Heidegger will be shown to have indeed persisted throughout Corbin’s oeuvre. Close readings of the ontological role accorded to the transcendental imagination by Heidegger (after Kant) in the Kant book, and Heidegger’s proofs of the finitude of both Being and Dasein, as set forth in (the majority of) those texts included in Corbin’s 1938 Gallimard translation of Heidegger, Qu’est-ce que la métaphysique? (including Part 4 of the Kant book) and Parts 1-3 of the Kant book are read against Corbin’s own philosophy of the imaginal.

In a society increasingly polarised by processes of globalisation, and given the shift from national to transnational spheres of action in resisting these processes, there is a pressing need to reflect on the socio-political profile of translators and interpreters, not only in the labour market of the public and private sectors, but also in civil society. This case-study of activist interpreting ultimately invites practitioners, professionals and scholars to critically reflect on the narratives that circulate in the field in order to bring about greater engagement with the role played by translation and interpreting in an increasingly competitive, polarised and violent society.

This thesis seeks to establish the extent to which personality characteristics impact on postgraduate students' translation work from French to English. The investigation is carried out by comparing and analysing parallel translations of French source texts into English target texts, using a number of methods. The main focus is on how translator behaviour influences the translation process, how this is reflected in the resulting target text and what the consequences are in terms of translation quality. The study aims to demonstrate the influence of personalities in translation, and better understand how they affect the loss or gain of certain elements during the translation task. Chapter 1 focuses on the review of different theories and models in TS which shed light on the translator’s context and on the different factors that can potentially affect the way in which he behaves. It also reviews the few studies that have been carried out on translator behaviour, and more specifically on personality-related behaviour. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the three experiments carried out, which highlight patterns of behaviour in student translations through textual analysis, verbalisations, questionnaires and a personality test. These various methods used to investigate the process aim to emphasize and substantiate the claim that translators’ personalities play an active part in the decision-making process of translator behaviour. The final chapter summarises the implications of the findings, and concludes that each translator’s personality is apparent in their attitudinal behaviours when translating, influences their performance in varied ways, and shapes their target text. In addition, appropriate recommendations for further research and training are also made.

This thesis is an empirical and interdisciplinary investigation into the consecutive conference interpreter’s (CCIr) role as intercultural mediator. It seeks to determine whether there is a case for intercultural mediation in conference interpreting despite the greater degree of cultural transparency that characterises discourse in conference interpreting situations (CISs) when compared with other settings such as community and/or court interpreting. It also proposes an account of the CCIr’s role as intercultural mediator as an alternative to other accounts of the interpreter’s role in the literature on conference interpreting because those accounts do not explain clearly the CCIr’s role or are in conflict with very well-established concepts and principles associated with translation/interpreting such as faithfulness, accuracy, neutrality or accessibility. The account of the CCIr’s role as intercultural mediator is derived from the principles of a theoretical framework that draws on the findings of the theory of sense (Seleskovitch and Lederer 1995) and Sperber and Wilson’s (1986; 1995) relevance theory of communication (RT). The account provides the basis for formulating a clearer definition of the concept of intercultural mediation in the context of consecutive conference interpreting (CCI). Analyses of two types of data underpin the investigation: data from authentic examples from interpreters’ actual performance and data from 295 responses to a worldwide survey of professional conference interpreters conducted by this researcher for use in this thesis. Results of both analyses confirm the case for intercultural mediation in CISs and the validity of the proposed account of the CCIr’s role as intercultural mediator though situationality has been found to play an important role in the extent to which intercultural mediation is needed. Results also shed light on CCIrs’ use of cultural mediation procedures and the role of interpreters’ professional status, experience and language direction on their ability/willingness to perform intercultural mediation.