ABSTRACT
Self-translation is no longer assumed to be the preserve of an elite class of literary prodigies. Scholars have explored the complex products of self-translation; they have begun to analyse the range of bilingual writing processes employed by its practitioners; and they have categorised different poetic, geopolitical and commercial motivators or pressures. Santoyo began the work of documenting self-translators in Europe since the Middle Ages, while his list of those engaged with French in the 20th century expanded like a "telephone directory". Presenting his French text as a self-translation, Dasconaguerre offered a powerful guarantee of the authenticity of his text's exoticism: issued from the foreign culture, its passage into French by the author assured that its authenticity was not compromised. The 1,334 published books and articles listed in the invaluable online self-translation bibliography indicate that the vast majority of this research has been carried out in the 21st century.
