The relative need for Comparative Translation Studies

This article asks to what extent Comparative Translation Studies is needed and realistic to achieve. The difficulties of comparative approaches in other disciplines are related to translation studies, where ‘comparative’ up to now has been used for several levels of analysis. An important difference with most other disciplines is that comparison seems to be more self-evident in a trans-discipline like translation studies, where transfer between two or more sides is always immanently present. The selection of the units of analysis/comparison is a pitfall, particularly when working with larger units at a systemic or sociocultural level when studying cultural (ex)change. It is suggested that existing tools used in translation studies can be helpful in structuring the approach and the methodology: both mixed-method models from descriptive translation studies and existing conceptual maps in the discipline.