Starting from the critical notion that we should be asking questions of contemporary importance - and that 'importance' itself must be defined - Anthony Pym sets about undoing many of the currently dominant models of translation history, positing, among much else, that the object of this history should be translators as people, that researchers are subjectively involved in their object, that cultural systems are based on social will, that translators work in intercultural spaces, and that a model of cooperation through negotiation may be applied to the way translators (and researchers!) work between cultures.At the same time, the proposed methodology is eminently constructive, showing how many empirical techniques can be developed and applied: clear illustrations are given of corpus selection, working definitions, deceptive statistics, and the construction of networks and regimes, incorporating elaborate examples drawn from medieval and modernist fields, as well as finding space for notes on practical problems like funding research. Finding its focus in historical debates, this book cannot help but create contemporary debate: its arguments seek not only to revitalize the historical study of translation but also to develop the wider concerns of intercultural studies.
Method in Translation History: ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgements1. HistoryHistory within translation studies The parts of translation history The interdependence and separateness of the parts A too-brief history of translation history Reasons for doing translation history2. ImportanceWhat is importance? 5Against blithe empiricism Personal interests Research and client interests Subjective interests and humility3. ListsReasons for lists Getting data The difference between catalogues and corpora Shortcomings in bibliographies: four examples Completeness in history and geology Sources as shifting sands The historian as reader of indexes4. Working definitionsWhy some information has to be thrown out In defence of definitions Inclusive definitions Defining translations from paratexts Corpora of limit cases How Wagner sneaked in How Salomé danced out5. FrequenciesStatistics and importance Diachronic distribution Retranslations, reeditions and non-translations Retranslation and its reasons A general diachronic hypothesis6. NetworksReconstructing networks from within Mapping networks Two cheap transfer maps Lines and symbols The spatial axis Cities as borders7. Norms and systemsActually reading translations Norms? Systems? Leaps of faith The will to system Subjectless prose Where's the gold? 8. RegimesWhat are regimes? Starting from debates A regime for twelfth-century Toledo A regime for Castilian protohumanism A regime for early twentieth-century poetry anthologies Translation as a transaction cost9. CausesSystemic and probabilistic causation Aristotle Transfer as material causation Final causes in theories of systems and actions Equivalence as formal cause Translators as efficient cause Multiple causation10. TranslatorsTranslators, not 'the translator' Translators can do more than translate Translators have personal interests Translators can move Translators can go by several names 11. InterculturesWhere intercultures are hidden Translations or translators? Strangers and trust Interculturality and its negation Intercultural professions as a social context An alternative basic link What is a culture?12. InterdisciplinarityPersonal reasons for pessimism A lacking discipline Cultural Studies Intercultural StudiesReferencesIndex
... a provocative and intelligent book which represents a model of excellent scholarship. (Edoardo Crisafulli, Perspectives)... an invaluable contribution to the discipline, long overdue (Zuzan Jettmarova, Across Languages and Cultures)... asks many fundamental questions about the present state and future direction of translation theory in addition to being an excellent primmer for research students in translation history. (Michael Cronin, Target)