Distant Reading and Metadata: A Study of Translation Knowledge Transfer in the Big Data Era

In the current era of big data, translation knowledge production has posed dramatic challenges to the translingual dissemination of translation knowledge with regard to quantity and time. On the one hand, the conclusions derived from translation book reviews are under suspicion due to the methods of close reading adopted. On the other hand, the exponential quantity of metadata produced in today’s knowledge production has pathetically remained unexplored if not ignored altogether. This article argues that metadata should be better viewed as paratext in digital era, and only by using certain technological tools can knowledge be created. Drawing on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and in particular Moretti’s distant reading method, this article collects the metadata of the research monographs and collections in English published in recent 6 years and then analyzes what knowledge can be gained for a renewed vision of the cross-cultural transferring of translation knowledge in today’s world.