Chapter 02. Intro Video.

Early Translation Theory

Chapter 2 is early translation theory. In previous editions it was called ‘Translation theory before the
20th century’. But then it wasn't all before the 20th century, so we changed it. We changed it also to
give an emphasis to how far Translation Studies and translation theory have come in the last 50-60
years. So, what was mainstream translation theory in the 1930s and 40s is now early translation
theory.

It looks at what translators themselves often said they were doing, what the purpose of translation
was. Typically, the emphasis was on Western translation theory and figures such as Cicero and St
Jerome, writing, translating and introducing those terms such as literal and free translation sense-
for-sense, word-for-word translation, which held sway for many centuries.

There was repeated dialogue about these terms. See if you can see them repeated in the different
theorists who are mentioned in this chapter and also look at the end of the book –this is a spoiler, I
suppose-- where you'll see how these terms literal and free have been made more systematic in later
Translation Studies.

Some of the theorists are chosen not quite randomly but because they're always chosen. So, people
like Luther translated the bible into German, people like Dryden would have his three different types
of translation, and Schleiermacher, foreignizing and domesticating translation. These are figures who
recur again and again in the history of translation. They present a view that is decidedly Western; the
languages used are mainly Western European languages. It's only in the last 20 years, say, that the
scope has broadened, and now I would encourage all students to look well beyond what comes in
Chapter 2, to look at their own context, their own languages, to see what kind of tradition has been
fostered over the centuries and how this coincides with or differs from points of view that are
presented in Chapter 2 of this book.