none 10.1075/btl.167.01gia John Benjamins Publishing Company John Benjamins Publishing Company 1757 185679805 7638445 1419183 202601142132000022 10.1075 2026-01-14T20:32:43Z 2025-11-20T09:15:46Z 0 0929-7316 10.1075/btl https://benjamins.com/ catalog/btl Vasso Giannakopoulou University of Cyprus https://ror.org/02qjrjx09 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3302-3295 Elin Sütiste University of Tartu https://ror.org/03z77qz90 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7899-8227 A prominent keyword of the 21st century humanities, the concept of transmedia describes, in essence, an age-old phenomenon: texts tend to spread in a fragmented fashion, in various media, and be appropriated and further developed by multiple agents. However, the concept of transmedia and the practices it describes have become especially foregrounded with the rise of the new digital technologies and the spread of globalization. Transmedial practices more often than not span across languages and cultures; nevertheless, the ways in which transmediality intersects with translation is an aspect that has so far received limited attention in the respective academic fields. The aim of this volume is to introduce the concept of transmedia to translation studies and to highlight the centrality of translation processes in transmedial phenomena. Both in its narrower sense as interlingual transfer and in its broader sense as intersemiotic transposition, translation is of paramount importance in the study of transmedia. 167 11 20 2025 11 20 2025 9789027228598 9789027244369 John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam 10.1075/btl.167 http://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027244369 https://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/9789027244369.pdf https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1075/btl.167/html Vasso Giannakopoulou University of Cyprus https://ror.org/02qjrjx09 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3302-3295 Abstract In an era defined by globalization and digital media convergence, our understanding of textuality has expanded and the way that texts are produced, distributed, and consumed has changed considerably, especially when they cross linguistic and cultural boundaries. Grounded in semiotic and media theory, the article examines how media-related concepts can be particularly useful to the study of relevant research topics in translation studies (TS). Drawing on foundational theories by Henry Jenkins, and Juri Lotman, an attempt is made to delineate key terms — multimedia, crossmedia, intermedia, and transmedia — by tracing shared ground and to suggest their potential relevance for TS. Transmediality is conceptualized as the expansion of narrative fragments, across multiple media, with the engagement of multiple produsers ( Bruns 2008 ), at an age when traditional concepts, such as the linearity of the reading experience and the fixedness of textual meaning, have been seriously destabilized. Ultimately, the article argues for the usefulness of transmediality as both a conceptual tool and an analytical framework, capable of capturing the dialogic and dynamic nature of narrative dissemination. By embedding this concept within the semiotics of culture, this essay offers a model to understand how stories travel, transform, and persist across time, space, and modality and suggests that, should we indeed agree on its definition, transmediality could potentially be a useful tool for navigating the complexity of textual circulation across today’s multimodal, multilingual, and multicultural landscapes. 11 20 2025 11 20 2025 2 30 10.1075/btl.167.01gia https://benjamins.com/catalog/btl.167.01gia https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1075/btl.167.01gia/html Translation Arduini 1 1 8 2011 Translation: A New Paradigm Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies Armstrong 3 310 2020 Media and Mediality 10.1057/9781137547903_12 Culture and Translation in Romantic Germany Berman (1984) 1992 The Experience of the Foreign 10.1353/con.1996.0018 Intermedial Studies: An Introduction to Meaning across Media Bruhn 2022 Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage Bruns 2008 10.7551/mitpress/9780262028202.001.0001 Understanding Media Semiotics Danesi 2002 10.1177/1367877914528122 10.1515/sem-2015-0018 10.18680/hss.2020.0004 Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture Eco vii 1990 Introduction Experiences in Translation Eco 2001 10.1057/9780230275201_2 10.1057/9781137474254 10.1007/978-3-030-01294-6 10.4324/9781315188478 The Routledge Companion to Transmedia Studies Freeman 2019 inTRAlinea Giannakopoulou 2023 Shakespeare Refracted in Manga: An Homage to André Lefevere 10.4324/9781003188872-10 10.4324/9781315692845-4 10.1515/9783110237740.1 10.1075/hts.4.nar1 Translated! Papers on Literary Translation and Translation Studies Holmes 67 (1972) 1988 The Name and Nature of Translation Studies 10.1177/1367877914528117 International Journal of Communication Ibrus 8 2283 2014 What Is the Cultural Function and Value of European Transmedia Independents? 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Five More on Friday) Pop Junctions Jenkins 2009 Revenge of the Origami Unicorn: The Remaining Four Principles of Transmedia Storytelling The Rise of Transtexts: Challenges and Opportunities Jenkins 220 2017 Transmedia Logics and Locations 10.1525/9780520934283-001 10.1075/target.18062.jon The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies Kaindl 257 2013 Multimodality and Translation 10.4324/9781315670898-2 Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies Katan 3 133 2020 Culture 10.1525/9780520912434 Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication Kress 2001 10.2307/1314871 Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace Lévy 1997 10.1080/14781700.2011.589651 10.1080/14781700.2015.1063449 Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture Lotman 1990 Culture, Memory and History: Essays in Cultural Semiotics Lotman 2019 Beginnings of the Semiotics of Culture Lotman 53 (1973) 2013 Theses on the Semiotic Study of Cultures (As Applied to Slavic Texts). Devised Truths and the Transmedial Construction of Worlds Madisson 2025 Building Plots: The Transmedia Conspiracy Narratives of 1984 in Latvia and Estonia 10.1075/hts.2.cul1 Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man McLuhan 1964 Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation Mitchell 1995 The Transmedial Aspect of Cultural Autocommunication Ojamaa 2015 10.1177/1367877914528119 10.12697/SSS.2019.47.1-2.06 10.1177/1367877912459145 10.1002/9781118613504.ch9 Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies Pérez-González 346 2020 Multimodality 10.7202/1005505ar Narrative across Media: The Languages of Storytelling Ryan 2004 Poetics Today Ryan 34 3 361 2013 10.1215/03335372-2325250 Transmedia Storytelling and Transfiction Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies Ryan 7 2 1 2015 10.5250/storyworlds.7.2.0001 Transmedia Storytelling: Industry Buzzword or New Narratice Experience? 10.2307/j.ctt1d9nkdg.5 Translation and Subjectivity: On “Japan” and Cultural Nationalism Sakai 1997 Crossmedia Innovations. Texts, Markets, Institutions Saldre 25 2012 Transmedia Space Transmediations: Communication across Media Borders Salmose 2020 International Journal of Communication Scolari 3 586 2009 Transmedia Storytelling: Implicit Consumers, Narrative Worlds, and Branding in Contemporary Media Production 10.1163/9789004437807_005 The Companion to Juri Lotman: A Semiotic Theory of Culture Tamm 2022 10.2307/j.ctt1d8h8vn 10.4324/9781351054904-41 The Third Wave Toffler 1980 10.12697/SSS.2008.36.2.06 The Routledge Handbook of Language and Culture Torop 170 2015 Cultural Semiotics Transmedial Worlds in Everyday Life Tosca 2020 Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics Toury 2 1111 1994 Translation: A Cultural-Semiotic Perspective 10.1002/9781118584194.ch21 Between Zecca 10 20 170 2020 Understanding Media Relations in the Age of Convergence: A Metatheoretical Taxonomy 10.1075/tris.21016.zwi Translaboration in Analogue and Digital Practice: Labour, Power, Ethics Zwischenberger 2023 10.57088/978-3-7329-9036-8