A World Atlas of Translation

A World Atlas of Translation is an ambitious and rigorous work of collective scholarship. A five-year project (2014–2019) led by its editors, Yves Gambier and Ubaldo Stecconi, the book marks a significant step in the development of Translation Studies as a burgeoning field of engaging intellectual inquiry. As ‘a survey of translation around the world’, this concerted effort aims at assessing, by empirical research, ‘how and to what extent translation varies from one tradition to another’. It intervenes in those sometimes contentious debates about whether there is such a thing as a singular form of translation – or what the editors call ‘a trans-cultural notion of translation’. Considering the authors of the twenty-one chapters as ‘reporters’, tasked with informing readers about the meaning of translation in their respective communities and traditions, the editors insist from the beginning that the study adopts a bottom-up strategy, by which it can break away from an a priori acceptance of ‘universals’ or ‘cross-cultural features’ of translation. By delving into the concepts and practices of translation, as found in divergent traditions in both historical and contemporary eras, especially those long marginalised in, or even excluded from, European translation theories, the book also hopes to counter the Eurocentrism of established notions of translation that have so often dominated the field.