New book tackles the localized manifestations of Translation Studies

Researchers, scholars and practitioners interested in the influential position of translation in society, and in how translation has developed through times and in different areas worldwide, can now find new approaches and theories on the topic in a new book published in the series Approaches to Translation Studies. 

In The Situatedness of Translation Studies, Luc van Doorslaer and Ton Naaijkens critically reassess some outdated views about Translation Studies, and demonstrate that translation theory is far more diverse than its usual representation as a Western scholarly tradition arising from the 1970s onwards. They present lesser-known conceptualizations of translation and translation theory in various cultural contexts, such as Chinese, Estonian, Greek, Russian and Ukrainian. The book shows that so-called ‘modern’ arguments about translation practice encompassing much more than a linguistic phenomenon, can, in fact, be dated back and connected to several precursors, such as semiotics or transfer theory. In doing so, it theorizes and localizes discussions about perceptions of translation and Translation Studies as a discipline.

“The anglophone ‘Cultural Studies’ is not the same as the German Kulturwissenschaft," says Luc van Doorslaer. "‘Translation Studies’ in China is not the same as ‘Translation Studies’ in Estonia or Greece. Just as languages are not equivalent constructs (which makes translation so complex), neither are scholarly disciplines. The development of thinking about a phenomenon or an activity is in itself subject to varying social and cultural influences.”

Find the book as a hardback or e-book on the homepage of Brill.

About the authors:

Luc van Doorslaer, professor at the universities of Tartu, Leuven and Stellenbosch, has published widely on Translation Studies, especially in relation to journalism, imagology and institutionalization. He is also Vice President of EST (European Society for Translation Studies).

Ton Naaijkens is full professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands for German Literature and Translation Studies. In his publications, he focuses on translation history, translation criticism and more generally on cultural transfer between the Dutch and German-speaking areas.

Contributors: Yves Gambier, Iryna Odrekhivska, Elin Sütiste, Silvi Salupere, Shaul Levin, Feng Cui, Natalia Kamovnikova, Anastasia Shakhova, George Floros, Simos Grammenidis, Anne Lange.