Doubts and Directions in Translation Studies

Book excerpt: Like previous collections based on congresses of the European Society of Translation Studies (EST), this volume presents the latest insights and findings in an ever-changing, ever-challenging domain. The twenty-six papers, carefully chosen from about 140 presented at the 4th EST Congress, offer a bird's eye view of the most pressing concerns and most exciting vistas in Translation Studies today. The editors' final choices reflect a focus on quality of approach, originality of topic, and clarity of presentation, and aim at capturing the most salient developments in the contemporary theory, methodology and technology of TS. As always in EST, the themes covered relate to translation as well as interpreting. They include discussion of a broad range of text-types and skopoi, and a diversity of themes, such as translation universals, translation strategies, translation and ideology, perception of translated humor, translation tools, etc. Many of the papers force us to take a fresh look at seemingly well established paradigms and familiar notions, while also making recourse to work being done in other disciplines (Semiotics, Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Contrastive Studies).