Kääntäjät ja tulkit toimijoina sotavanki-instituution narratiiveissa

In war, translating and interpreting is needed in intelligence, in encounters with civilians and in interrogations of prisoners, for example. Nevertheless, translators and interpreters are almost invisible in war literature and research, in spite of the importance of tasks performed by them. This can partly be explained by the fact that warfare has been studied from such viewpoints and with such methods that have not made translators’ and interpreters’ work visible. This paper discusses the tasks and roles of translators and interpreters in the Finnish prisoner-of-war camps in the Continuation War, a conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union. The institution of prisoner-of-war camps is studied in the framework of narratives, in which translating and interpreting was part of the story. Through different levels of narrativity the stories link together and to wider frames of narrativity. This paper is a part of an ongoing project called In Search of Military Translation Cultures, the aim of which is to study translating and interpreting in Finland during World War II. The project is financed by the Academy of Finland and the site of research is the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu.