Why Translators Should Want to Internationalize Translation Studies
The Translator, (2009)Abstract
The role of the translator and the conceptualization of translation are both in a period of notable change. Some of this change is happening because the profession of translation is internationalizing rapidly and thus old Eurocentric and other localized ideas no longer fully respond to the demands of the field. Globalization is also exercising transformative pressures on the practices of translation, in part driven by new technologies. Frameworks to interrogate the discourses of translation studies and to develop broader conceptualizations of translation so as to meet the challenges coming from both inside and outside the field are needed by scholars, by teachers of translation, and most of all, by translators themselves. Linking theory and pragmatics, this article explores how consideration of a broad field of ideas about translation from many parts of the world offers new models of practice, greater potential for creativity, enhancement of the translator's agency, new ethical positioning, the ability to assess translational phenomena with greater acuity, and a reservoir of conceptualizations for meeting challenges of the present and the future.