There is a long tradition of thought and an enormous body of opinion about translation. In the past, the views and/or doctrines expressed by translators were mainly comments on specific problems they had encountered, or philosophical reflections on translatability, but they were not based on an elaborate theory of translation. With the development of translation studies as an academic discipline in the second half of the 20th century, theoretical principles have been formulated which are the basis for the description, observation, and teaching of translation. However, there is no unified theory and no agreement on central concepts of the discipline. What we have instead is a multiplicity of different approaches, each of which is focussing on specific aspects, looking at the product or the process of translation from a specific angle, and using or avoiding specific terminology. This article presents different approaches (linguistic, textlinguistic, functionalist, psycholinguistic) and descriptive translation and cultural studies). Their main arguments, contributions and shortcomings are characterised, and some major representatives are named. By illustrating these approaches, some major developments in the field can be shown, but it cannot be a comprehensive account. The presentation concentrates on translation studies, and suffers from a Eurocentric focus. Translation studies is not a homogeneous discipline. Different approaches exist side by side, but in future more and more research in translation studies will in all probability be characterised by interdisciplinary approaches.