On Institutional Translation in a Fictional Context: Interdisciplinary Remarks on the Structure and Hierarchy of the Royal Institute of Translation in R. F. Kuang’s <i>Babel</i>

Abstract Employing an interdisciplinary approach from linguistics, literary studies, and translation studies, this article examines the structures and hierarchies present in the fictional Royal Institute of Translation, the emblematic institution of British imperial power which is the lynchpin of R. F. Kuang’s 2022 speculative novel Babel . With the work primarily set in a fictional 1830s Oxford where magical translation -based silver bars are the key to colonial dominance, the institutional management of languages and translation unsurprisingly assumes a key role. After contextualising Kuang’s towering creation in historical, linguistic, and literary terms, the hierarchy and structure of the Institute is presented and discussed via close reading of a selected excerpt from the novel. This analysis is complemented by relevant observations on the institutional and professional context of translation and interpreting both in historical and in contemporary times.