Metaglossia: The Translation World

A few weeks ago, Routledge sent me a copy of the latest edition of Jeremy Munday’s Introducing Translation Studies, which I’ll be using in the fall with my undergraduate theory of translation course (in combination with the Reacting to the Past method I’ve already discussed here). We’ll be publishing a review of the book in the March 2013 issue of The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, but in the meantime, I thought I’d write a short review of my own here.
So what has changed since the last version of the book, which was published four years ago? Visually, this third edition, released in February 2012, is quite appealing: it uses both blue and black text throughout, which makes navigating through the chapters much easier. It’s also been expanded: the 2008 edition, which was also smaller in size, was 236 pages, while this one is 366. Although a new chapter, which discusses how to apply theory to translation commentaries and research projects, accounts for most of the extra pages, the other chapters generally contain new material as well.

Abstract

This review covers books in Translation Studies which were published in 2009 and 2010. The list is lengthy, strong evidence of the continued growth of the discipline and the intense activity in both ‘traditional’ and new spheres. Despite the range, there are five relatively clear foci, which determine the different sections of this review: 1. Translation Theory, which includes a description of several new and important anthologies of writings on translation, most notably Routledge’s four-volume Translation Studies in its Critical Concepts in Linguistics series; 2. Non-Western Theories and Contexts, notably India, Japan and China. These are evidence of the continuing internationalization of Translation Studies and the challenges to the fixed views of translation that have grown out of the bias of the subject towards European languages and contexts; 3. Globalization, Conflict and News Translation.....