THE first step towards an examination of the process of translation must be to accept that although translation has a central core of linguistic activity, it belongs most properly to semiotics, the science that studies sign systems or structures, sign processes and sign functions (Hawkes, Structuralism and Semiotics, London 1977).

Provides an admirably informative introduction to a fascinating but complex subject.

This brief study will be welcomed as an introduction to some of the fundamental problems . . . of translation.

Paperback:  168 pages
Language:  English
ISBN:  0415065283
Author/Editor:  Susan Bassnett-McGuire (2000)

This book offers a critical overview of five approaches to studying translations: the translation workshop, the science of translation, translation studies, polysystem theory and deconstruction, all of which began during the 1960s and continue to be influential today.

Paperback:  220 pages
Language:  English
ISBN:  1853595136
Author/Editor:  Edwin Gentzler (2001)

Certain to become a key text, this essay legitimizes a translator's "feel" for the "right" word choice by a felt comfort with a choice determined by personal and collective usage. Robinson's critical persona, that of a breezy yet erudite psychotherapist, both attacks and appreciates Augustine, Luther, and Goethe. He will make other theorists reconsider George Steiner, rush to the defense of Eugene Nida, and go prospecting themselves in the works of Bakhtin, Bloom, and Burke. Robinson persuasively uncovers the applicability of most language-oriented literary theory and criticism to translation when the word translation is substituted at key junctures. Since an attack on various traditional translation theories is comprehensible chiefly to those who already know them, this is a book for specialists. - Marilyn Gaddis Rose, SUNY at Binghampton

Paperback:  336 pages
Language:  English
ISBN:  0801840473
Author/Editor:  Douglas Robinson (1991)

Peter Newmark's third book is an attempt to deepen and extend his views on translation. He goes easy on theories and models and diagrams and offers a few correlative statements to assist translators in finding a variety of options and in making their decisions. He discusses political concepts, linguistic interference and the role of words and discourse in translation. There are chapters on teaching translation, teaching about translation and the reason for the growing international importance of translation. Finally, Professor Newmark insists on the distinction between cultural and universal aspects of language, and sees translation as a critical and sometimes cruelly truthful weapon in exposing language, culture and literature. Peter Newark's views on translation are controversial; as a compensation he offers an abundance of interesting translation examples.

Paperback:  200 pages
Language:  English
ISBN:  1853591173
Author/Editor:  Peter Newmark (1991)

Peter Newmark's A Textbook of Translation is arguably one of the few classic texts in the occasionally emerging field of translation studies and stands out among the other, often more abstract and cultural theory-inspired works of `translatology' because of its determination to be immediately practical and applicable to actual, hands-on (usually literary) translation work. As such it is an excellent resource for both students of translation as well as practitioners of the trade.

Paperback:  292 pages
Language:  English
ISBN:  0139125930
Author/Editor:  Peter Newmark (1987)