Wang, Caiwen and Zheng, Binghan, eds. (2021): Empirical Studies of Translation and Interpreting. The Post-Structuralist Approach. New York: Routledge, 286 p.

The volume offers some of the most recent studies on T&I by researchers from different international backgrounds working on funded projects or other ongoing work. Many of these papers have been presented at the latest T&I conferences. The book intends to highlight the importance that translation and interpreting have recently acquired from the post-structuralist point of view, reflecting on the empirical turn in which we are immersed in. As the editors themselves put it, the volume “ha[s] shown slightly more invested interests in studying some areas of T&I than others, noticeably ‘Product of T&I’” and reveals to readers that it represents “a cross-section of the latest developments in T&I studies” (p. IX). The book is divided into five sections in which chapters are embedded according to their scope: Part I (“Intervention in T&I”), Part II (“Process of T&I”), Part III (“Product of T&I”), Part IV (“T&I and Technology”) and finally Part V (“T&I Education”). As it can be deducted from the above titles, the editors have not hesitated to include newer perspectives on all the different areas of interest in T&I in the volume, accepting papers of the highest standards and which, at the very same time, are a mirror of current trends in T&I. No one could deny the interest that the sections in which the volume is divided offer to the study of our field. And there lies one of the most important cornerstones of the book: its usefulness, guidance and fresh look into a domain which is constantly changing and adapting to a demanding world. In Part I, Rebecca Tipton, author of the chapter “Biopolitics, Complicity, and Community in Domestic Abuse Support Settings: Implications for Interpreter Guidance” (p. 9-28), draws on the need for support guides for interpreters working in charity-related services and with victims of domestic abuse. The author compiles the outcome of different previous studies and reflects on the findings of recent experimental research. From a biopolitical approach, she proposes to conceptualise victim support through the mediation of interpreters in order to assess the different scenarios of violence to which interpreters are often exposed. Natalia Rodríguez Vicente, Jemina Napier and Raquel de Pedro Ricoy, under the title of “Dialogue Interpreting and Person-Centred Care in a Clinical Mental Healthcare Setting” (p. 29-48), explore in a qualitative analysis to what extent interpreters’ performance can be improved when working with patients whose linguistic and cultural backgrounds are different according to the protocols and principles governing health services. The main result of the study is that interpreters could have an impact “to affect participants’ talk in ways that may influence the accomplishment of person-centred communication” (p. 44). Part II contains two chapters, “Effect of Perceived Translation Difficulty on the Allocation of Cognitive Resources Between Translating and Consultation: An Eye-Tracking and Screen-Recording Study,” by Yixiao Cui and Binghan Zheng (p. 51-73) as well as “Navigating the Web: A Study on Professional Translators’ Behaviour,” by Claire Y. Shih (p. 74-94). In the former, the authors investigate whether the balance of resource allocation to translating and consultation is affected through an increase in perceived translation difficulties. Using a study combining qualitative and quantitative methodology, they report that as perceived translation difficulties increase, so does the time that students in T&I spend translating and consulting. In the latter, the behaviour of professional translators is analysed as they consult different websites during the documentation process that takes place during translation. The author concludes the study with a list of primary and secondary actions that take place in a complementary way as a form of translators’ behaviour from a cognitive point of view. Primary actions …