About maps, versions and translations of Translation Studies: a look into the metaturn of translatology

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this paper I discuss the role played by translations of key theoretical translation studies texts (published after 1970 in English, French and Spanish) in the consolidation of translation studies as a field of scholarly research. Although bibliometric studies suggest that at least one-third of the bibliography of translation studies in English corresponds to translations of texts about translation, few efforts have been made to study those translations from a Translation Studies perspective. In line with the current movement in Translation Studies towards self-reflection, I have analysed four signs of this movement that are indicative of the discipline’s turn towards itself. Among other issues, my analysis highlights the coexistence of several versions of Translations Studies. The terms Translation Studies, traductología and traductologie and the concept of landscape, as discussed by Zanettin, Saldanha, and Harding, are used to refer to three versions of the same discipline that, for the purposes of this article, I called translatology. My analysis has led me to posit that the development of local landscapes is based on the trails of other larger developed ones and by means of a process similar to cultural assimilation. This involves a degree of sacrifice of their autonomy and particularity in order to be integrated into the larger imagined translatological community.