Douglas Robinson

He is also Emeritus Professor of Translation, Interpreting, and Intercultural Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Robinson was born in Lafayette, Indiana, to Don and Berta Robinson; his younger brother is automobile designer Michael Robinson. He lived in the Whittier/La Habra Heights, California area until he was 13; in the summer of 1968 his parents moved the family to the Pacific Northwest, where he attended Tahoma Senior High School in Maple Valley, Washington. He spent his freshman year of college at Linfield College and his sophomore year at The Evergreen State College. An exchange year with YFU (1971–1972) in Finland led to his spending a total of 14 years there, completing his undergraduate degree and two postgraduate degrees and serving six years (1975–1981) as a lecturer in English at the University of Jyväskylä, then six more years as Assistant/Associate Professor of English (1983–1987) and English-Finnish Translation Theory and Practice (1987–1989) at the University of Tampere. In between, Robinson returned to the Pacific Northwest, earning his PhD from the University of Washington in 1983, with a dissertation entitled American Apocalypses directed by Leroy Searle. In 1989 Robinson accepted a job as assistant professor of English at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, where he worked for the next 21 years, the last three as Director of First-Year Writing. During that time he also spent one semester (spring 1999) as acting director of the MFA Program in Translation at the University of Iowa, one semester (1999–2000) as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Vic, Catalonia, and one year (2005–2006) as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer at Voronezh State University, Russia. In 2010 Robinson was appointed Tong Tin Sun Chair Professor of English and Head of the English Department at Lingnan University, and in 2012 as Chair Professor of English and Dean of Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University. He stepped down from the Deanship at the end of his first three-year term, August 31, 2015, but continued as Chair Professor of English until August 31, 2020, when he became Professor of Translating and Interpreting at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Emeritus Professor of Translation, Interpreting, and Intercultural Studies at HKBU. Upon his retirement from CUHK-Shenzhen he was hired as a Research Professor in Translation Studies and director of the Douglas Robinson Research Center at Xi'an International Studies University.

Robinson has published in a number of fields related generally to human communication: literary studies, language studies, translation studies, postcolonial studies, rhetoric, and philosophy of mind/philosophy of language. He has also published translations from Finnish to English, a novel in Finnish translation, and several textbooks, two for Finnish students of English and one each for students of translation, linguistic pragmatics, and writing. In 1989 he and Ilkka Rekiaro also coauthored a Finnish-English-Finnish dictionary, with 25,000 entries in each direction.

The two scarlet threads running all through Robinson's work since The Translator's Turn (1991) are somaticity and performativity—the imperfect social regulation of human communicative and other interaction as inwardly felt (the somatic) and outwardly staged (the performative). In his more recent work he has begun to theorize "icosis" as the becoming-true or becoming-real of group opinion, through a mass persuasion/plausibilization process channeled through the somatic exchange, and "ecosis" as the becoming-good of the community, or the becoming-communal of goodness. A third focal concern in his work is the impact of religion on sociocultural history and generally human social interaction in the West, from his 1983 Ph.D. dissertation on images of the end of the world in American literature through the history of Christianity and spirit-channeling to the ancient mystery religions. His recent work has explored the deep ecology of rhetoric in Chinese Confucianism, especially Mencius. His recent work has been in experimental translation (both theorizing it and practicing it).

• Western Translation Theory from Herodotus to Nietzsche. Manchester, UK: St. Jerome, 1997. Revised paperback edition, 2002. Reprint, Routledge, 2014. Expanded fourth edition, Routledge, 2026.

• With Diana Webster, Liisa Elonen, Leena Kirveskari, Seppo Tella, and Thelma Wiik. Jet Set 9. Helsinki: Otava, 1982. • With Vesa Häggblom: The Light Fantastic. Helsinki: Otava, 1983. • Becoming a Translator: An Accelerated Course. London and New York: Routledge, 1997. Second ed., Becoming a Translator: An Introduction to the theory and Practice of Translation, 2003. Third ed., 2012. Fourth ed., 2020. • Introducing Performative Pragmatics. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. • With Svetlana Ilinskaya: Writing as Drama. Custom-published by McGraw–Hill Learning Solutions for the University of Mississippi, 2007–2010. • Lifewriting as Drama. An e-textbook adapted from Writing as Drama for the iPad, 2011.

• Yrjö Varpio, The History of Finnish Literary Criticism, 1808–1918 (Finnish original: Suomalaisen kirjallisuudentutkimuksen historia, 1808–1918). Tampere: Hermes, 1990. • Aleksis Kivi, Heath Cobblers (Finnish original: Nummisuutarit) and Kullervo. St. Cloud, MN: North Star Press of St. Cloud, 1993. • Maaria Koskiluoma, Tottering House (Finnish original: Huojuva talo, 1983), stage adaptation of Maria Jotuni, Huojuva talo (1930s, published posthumously, 1963). Produced at the Frank Theatre, Minneapolis, MN, March–April 1994. • Elina Hirvonen, When I Forgot (Finnish original: Että hän muistaisi saman). UK edition, London: Portobello Books, 2007. US edition, Portland: Tin House, 2009. • Arto Paasilinna, A Charming Little Mass Suicide (Finnish original: Hurmaava joukkoitsemurha). Porvoo: WSOY, forthcoming. • Tuomas Kyrö, Griped (Finnish original: Mielensäpahoittaja). Porvoo: WSOY, forthcoming. • Aleksis Kivi, The Brothers Seven. Bucharest: Zeta Books, 2017. • Mia Kankimäki, The Women I Think About At Night (Finnish original: Naiset joita ajattelen öisin). New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020. • Volter Kilpi, Gulliver's Voyage to Phantomimia (Finnish original: Gulliverin matka Fantomimian mantereelle, 1944). Bucharest: Zeta Books, 2020.

• Pentinpeijaiset ("Pentti's Wake"). Translated into Finnish by Kimmo Lilja from Robinson's English original ("Saarikoski's Spirits"). Helsinki: Avain, 2007. • The Last Days of Maiju Lassila. Austin: Atmosphere, 2022. • Insecticide: A Republican Romance. Austin: Atmosphere, 2024. • You-Gin One-Gin. Austin: Atmosphere, 2026.

• With Ilkka Rekiaro: Suomi/englanti/suomi-sanakirja (Finnish-English-Finnish Dictionary). Jyväskylä: Gummerus, 1989–present.

• Mullah Billdoug, 2004–2005 • Red State Rah Rah, 2004