Book review Translation/History/Culture: A Sourcebook. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. 182 pp. ISBN 0-415-07697-8 (hdb) / 0-415-07698-6 (pbk) (Translation Studies).
Table of contents
This anthology, the editor states in the preface, presents a selection of texts on translation in a thematic arrangement, in order to highlight "the important topics that [ p. 259 ]should be covered in any discussion of literary translation" (p. xiv). These topics are presented as "new" by the general editors of the series to which this book belongs, in a rather programmatic way. Essential in this program is the awareness that (the power of) ideology, patronage and poetics play an essential role in translation. It should be mentioned in passing, however, that this is not so "new": since the 1980s not many scholars or even translators would deny the importance of these factors for translation and translation studies. Be that as it may, a "new" program asks for a rewriting of the past and in this anthology Lefevere indeed wants to present texts from the past that "should provide the essential background for current thinking about the translation of literature" (p. xiii). Yet there is a discrepancy between the claims made by Lefevere and the material that should support them. Let me elaborate on this.
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