MLA: Disambiguating when author and year are the same.

edited September 17, 2019
In my case I have two works by same author, but with different translators. The in-text citation, however, does not disambiguate at all, providing just title and author.

I don't know whether MLA prescribes adding the translator, or the year, but this is a standard case and I imagine it is me doing something wrong and not zotero.

Any ideas?
  • If I'm understanding you correctly, you're not looking at two works, but the same work by the same author in different translations?
    Zotero's MLA style doesn't capture that distinction in in-text citations and I'm not quite sure there is an easy way for it to do so. (And while I understand why this would come up, it's less standard than you seem to think it is; I believe you're literally the first person to ask about this for MLA).

    But since MLA is a style focused on readability, I'm wondering whether just adding the year, which is what Zotero could automate, is the right choice. Presumably, if you're writing about two different translations, you'd want that information front and center, so maybe even cite the translator as the main author. That wouldn't be something Zotero could easily do automatically, but you could add an item with the translator as the only creator and include the author into the title and cite that/those.
  • Hi Adam, thanks!

    Yes it is the same work, same author, different translation. But it question would be relevant any time someone is citing from various editions of the same work.

    Adding the translator does seem to give the more relevant information. I can also do so by listing the translator as a secondary author. Zotero then includes both in the in-text citation.

    But I prefer the date mainly because it looks cleaner. I also happen to be discussing the publication dates rather than the translation choices. How could I have to date added automatically? Just add it to the title?
  • I take back my suggestion. If I add the date to the title, the bibliography is improperly formatted, or has the date mentioned twice.
  • @adamsmith I think adding year in the case that author and title-short are the same would work well.
  • edited September 17, 2019
    i added the year to the short title. It kind of bothers me that the year is italicized in the in-text citation, but I'm ok.
  • We'll fix this in the style if you have a little time.
  • awesome! thank you!
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