The sociological biography of translators: towards a methodological framework

Translation studies is undergoing a “biographical turn”, with growing attention to translators’ lives as a way of explaining translation phenomena. Yet the theoretical foundations of translator biography remain underexplored, limiting its development as a research method. This article examines the conceptual dilemma of biographical inquiry into translators, arguing that dominant models of translation practice, such as the Bourdieusian notion of the translator’s habitus, are largely incompatible with biographical research. As an alternative, it adopts Lahire’s “dispositionalist-contextualist” framework and outlines a three-step methodological model of the translator’s “sociological biography”. The approach is illustrated through the case of James Holmes, the American-born Dutch scholar and translator, highlighting the social dynamics behind his distinctive choices in translating homoerotic classical Latin poetry. Findings suggest that sociological biography enriches our understanding of the complexity and hybridity of translators’ practices, offering a framework for future research at the intersection of translation history, sociology, and translator studies.