The question of whether to disclose that a text is a translation and thereby give visibility to the translator has dominated discussions on translation throughout history. Despite becoming one of the most ubiquitous terms in translation studies, however, the concept of translator (in)visibility is often criticized for being vague, overly adaptable, and grounded in literary contexts. This interdisciplinary volume therefore draws on concepts from fields such as sociology, the digital humanities, and interpreting studies to develop and operationalize theoretical understandings of translator visibility beyond these existing criticisms and limitations. Through empirical case studies spanning areas including social media research, reception studies, institutional translation, and literary translation, this volume demonstrates the value of understanding the visibilities of translators and translation in the plural and adds much-needed nuance to one of translation studies’ most pervasive, polarizing, and imprecise concepts.

A definitive survey of the most important developments in translation theory and research, with an emphasis on the twentieth century. This new edition includes pre-twentieth century readings and readings from other fields.

Translation and Literature in East Asia: Between Visibility and Invisibility explores the issues involved in translation between Chinese, Japanese and Korean, as well as from these languages into European languages, with an eye to comparing the cultures of translation within East Asia and tracking some of their complex interrelationships. This book reasserts the need for a paradigm shift in translation theory that looks beyond European languages and furthers existing work in this field by encompassing a wider range of literature and scholarship in East Asia. Translation and Literature in East Asia brings together material dedicated to the theory and practice of translation between and from East Asian languages for the first time.

Since publication over ten years ago, The Translator’s Invisibility has provoked debate and controversy within the field of translation and become a classic text. Providing a fascinating account of the history of translation from the seventeenth century to the present day, Venuti shows how fluency prevailed over other translation strategies to shape the canon of foreign literatures in English and investigates the cultural consequences of the receptor values which were simultaneously inscribed and masked in foreign texts during this period. The author locates alternative translation theories and practices in British, American and European cultures which aim to communicate linguistic and cultural differences instead of removing them. In this second edition of his work, Venuti: clarifies and further develops key terms and arguments responds to critical commentary on his argument incorporates new case studies that include: an eighteenth century translation of a French novel by a working class woman; Richard Burton's controversial translation of the Arabian Nights; modernist poetry translation; translations of Dostoevsky by the bestselling translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky; and translated crime fiction updates data on the current state of translation, including publishing statistics and translators’ rates. The Translator’s Invisibility will be essential reading for students of translation studies at all levels. Lawrence Venuti is Professor of English at Temple University, Philadelphia. He is a translation theorist and historian as well as a translator and his recent publications include: The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference and The Translation Studies Reader, both published by Routledge.

Contra Instrumentalism questions the long-accepted notion that translation reproduces or transfers an invariant contained in or caused by the source text. This "instrumental" model of translation has dominated translation theory and commentary for more than two millennia, and its influence can be seen today in elite and popular cultures, in academic institutions and in publishing, in scholarly monographs and in literary journalism, in the most rarefied theoretical discourses and in the most commonly used clichés. Contra Instrumentalism aims to end the dominance of instrumentalism by showing how it grossly oversimplifies translation practice and fosters an illusion of immediate access to source texts. Lawrence Venuti asserts that all translation is an interpretive act that necessarily entails ethical responsibilities and political commitments. Venuti argues that a hermeneutic model offers a more comprehensive and incisive understanding of translation that enables an appreciation of not only the creative and scholarly aspects of what a translator does but also the crucial role translation plays in the cultural and social institutions that shape human life.

Exploring this theme, Robinson examines Plato's Ion, Philo Judaeus and Augustine on the Septuagint, Paul on inspired interpreters, Joseph Smith on the Book of Mormon, and Schleiermacher, Marx, and Heidegger on translation. He traces the imaginative and historical linkages between twentieth-century conceptions of ideology and ancient conceptions of spirit-channeling, and the performative inversion of power relations by which the "channel" (or translator) comes to wield the source author as his or her tool.

Over the last two decades, interest in translation around the world has increased beyond any predictions. International bestseller lists now contain large numbers of translated works, and writers from Latin America, Africa, India and China have joined the lists of eminent, bestselling European writers and those from the global English-speaking world. Despite this, translators tend to be invisible, as are the processes they follow and the strategies they employ when translating. The Translator as Writer bridges the divide between those who study translation and those who produce translations, through essays written by well-known translators talking about their own work as distinctive creative literary practice. The book emphasises this creativity, arguing that translators are effectively writers, or rewriters who produce works that can be read and enjoyed by an entirely new audience. The aim of the book is to give a proper prominence to the role of translators and in so doing to move attention back to the act of translating, away from more abstract speculation about what translation might involve.

Since publication over twenty years ago, The Translator’s Invisibility has provoked debate and controversy within the field of translation and become a classic text. Providing a fascinating account of the history of translation from the seventeenth century to the present day, Venuti shows how fluency prevailed over other translation strategies to shape the canon of foreign literatures in English and investigates the cultural consequences of the receptor values which were simultaneously inscribed and masked in foreign texts during this period. Reissued with a new introduction, in which the author provides a clear, detailed account of key concepts and arguments in order to issue a counterblast against simplistic interpretations, The Translator’s Invisibility takes its well-deserved place as part of the Routledge Translation Classics series. This book is essential reading for students of translation studies at all levels.

An investigation into the state of translation studies which looks ahead at the direction in which the author sees the field moving. Included are reviews of the work of translation theorists. A volume in a series which aims to present a broad spectrum of thinking on translation.

The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Sociology is the first encyclopaedic presentation of the research into social aspects of translation and interpreting. It consists of thirty-five chapters contributed by forty experts in their respective fields of the sociology of translation. The Handbook traces the evolution of research into social aspects of translation and interpreting, explains the basics of the sociology of translation, offers an insight into studies of translation within sociology, shows the place translation and interpreting occupies among social functional systems and its interactions with social forces and practices. With global coverage spanning all inhabited continents, the Handbook examines translational practices across diverse cultures and historical periods, from ancient origins to modern professional practices. Suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students of translation and interpreting, as well as researchers in the sociology of translation, the Handbook furnishes readers with a comprehensive understanding of the field. It offers a thorough exploration of the current state of the sociology of translation and suggests avenues for further research.