The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Culture collects into a single volume thirty-two state-of-the-art chapters written by international specialists, overviewing the ways in which translation studies has both informed, and been informed by, interdisciplinary approaches to culture. The book's five sections provide a wealth of resources, covering both core issues and topics in the first part. The second part considers the relationship between translation and cultural narratives, drawing on both historical and religious case studies. The third part covers translation and social contexts, including the issues of cultural resistance, indigenous cultures and cultural representation. The fourth part addresses translation and cultural creativity, citing both popular fiction and graphic novels as examples. The final part covers translation and culture in professional settings, including cultures of science, legal settings and intercultural businesses.
The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Culture (2018), which I co-edited with Ovidi Carbonell Cortés (University of Salamanca), is the second publication in the ambitious Routledge Handbooks in Translation and Interpreting Studies series https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbooks-in-Translation-and-Interpreting-Studies/book-series/RHTI. With the Handbook of Translation Studies and Linguistics (ed. Kirsten Malmkjaer) published at the end of last year and at least four more to be published this year on politics (ed. Jonathan Evans and Fruela Fernandez), literary translation (ed. Ben Van Wyke and Kelly Washbourne), audiovisual translation (ed. Luis Pérez-González) and philosophy (ed. J Piers Rawling and Philip Wilson), the series marks, I think, an important moment in the recognition of our discipline. Each volume is an enormous undertaking - ours brings together 32 chapters from 39 authors – and while we tried to be comprehensive so as to produce a useful reference volume, we also realised that a book such as this can only ever be a partial snapshot of the field. Yet that in itself made the project very exciting for us. Translation and culture is a huge subject, so we tried to commission chapters with titles that would encourage our contributors to write on topics from fresh angles. Some chapters work as thorough literature reviews, others as case studies and still others as extended essays. To recruit so many authors meant inevitably reaching out to scholars and practitioners in other disciplines and it was both a challenge and a delight to work with such a range of people. I’m looking forward to seeing the other Handbooks in print; together they offer a map that can show us in Translation Studies something of where we have been and where we may yet travel.
Sue-Ann Harding
Chair of the IATIS Executive Council
Queen’s University Belfast
