Translation Studies: New Accents

Preface to the fourth edition
Introduction
Chapter 1 Central issues
Chapter 2 History of translation theory
Chapter 3 Specific problems of literary translation
Select bibliography

Susan Bassnett is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Warwick. She has published extensively on translation, and her best known books include Reflections on Translation (2011), Constructing Cultures written with André Lefevere (1996) and Post-Colonial Translation co-edited with Harish Trivedi (1999). She translates from several languages and lectures on aspects of translation all over the world.

In the late 1970s a new academic discipline was born: Translation Studies. We could not read literature in translation, it was argued, without asking ourselves if linguistic and cultural phenomena really were 'translatable' and exploring in some depth the concept of 'equivalence'. When Susan Bassnett's Translation Studies appeared in the New Accents series, it quickly became the one introduction every student and interested reader had to own. Susan Bassnett tackles the crucial problems of translation and offers a history of translation theory, beginning with the ancient Romans and encompassing key twentieth-century structuralist work. She then explores specific problems of literary translation through a close, practical analysis of texts.
The 4th edition remains essential reading for anyone new to the field and has been updated to include the following:

• A new preface detailing developments in the field, engaging with such issues as translation and globalization and extend discussion beyond literary texts to news, film and mass media.
• A significantly updated chapter 1, expanded to include sections on important areas such as:

The Cultural Turn in Translation Studies
Translation and Power
Postcolonial translation
Skopos theory
Translation and new technology
The ‘Translational Turn’

• An updated chapter 2, expanded to include discussion of the latter part of the twentieth century, as well as translation studies in the Chinese and Indian contexts.
• A revised chapter 3, with an expanded section on translating for the theatre.
• An updated and expanded bibliography.