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A Critical Introduction to Translation Studies (Continuum Critical Introductions to Linguistics)

This introduction – in keeping with the brief of the ‘Critical Introductions’ series - aims to effect a radical change in the way literary translation is viewed and researched. It does this by exploring translation through cognitive poetics, a unique new approach to literary translation studies developed by Boase-Beier which has had considerable influence. The book revisits the concepts that have informed literary translation research since the discipline began to take shape in the 1970s and 1980s. It re-focuses them from a cognitive perspective by analysing the mental processes involved in writing and reading translations of literary and other texts. The book is interdisciplinary, drawing upon linguistics, literary theory, stylistics, neuroscience, psychology and reader theory. Boase-Beier’s research for the book involved extensive analysis of many sources - including Karl Bühler's Sprachtheorie, Derek Attridge's theory of rhythm and Antonio Damasio's work on emotion - that were not formulated with translation in mind. These are re-interpreted in the light of translation theory, and integrated with insights from Boase-Beier’s work on cognitive poetics. As a result literary translation can now, and in future, be discussed in relation to conceptual metaphor, blending, and the embodied mind. Although in essence a work of theory, the book uses many practical illustrations in order to make these new and complex ideas accessible to those (in linguistics, literary theory and translation studies) who are not familiar with cognitive poetics. It also clarifies the link between theory and practice, drawing conclusions for the latter that are intended to be useful for the translator and the teacher of translation as well as for the theorist.