To what extent might artificial intelligence tools undermine the relevance of the translation
profession? In what ways are the practice and professional status of translators being redefined in
the era of machine translation? What is the debt that historiography and the broader humanities
and social sciences owe to translation? How does translation transform academic inquiry, and
what role does it play in cultural exchange, the transmission of knowledge, and societal
development at large? These are among the central questions addressed in the edited volume The
Co-Thinker.
The title The Co-Thinker, drawn from Peter Handke’s Song of Duration in Žarko Radaković’s
Serbian translation, gestures toward the intrinsic affinity between the work of the writer and that
of the translator. It affirms translation as an act of co-thinking—a collaborative cognitive
practice. By proposing a term (samislilac) not previously used in Serbian to designate the
translator, the volume seeks to foreground translation as a generative force in the enrichment of
language and as a primary vehicle for the transfer and circulation of knowledge.
Beyond its lexical contribution to the Serbian language—by offering a conceptually and
poetically charged supplement to prevailing definitions of the translator—the term co-thinker
also serves as a conceptual provocation. It invites renewed reflection on the epistemological and
cultural significance of translation, while simultaneously reminding the broader cultural
community of its enduring indebtedness to translators.
