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Article published In: Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts
Vol. 8:2 (2022) ► pp.101–113

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The name and nature of translation studies

A reappraisal

 | University of Leeds, UK
 | University of Leeds, UK
Published online: 5 July 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00089.mun
Abstract
James Stratton Holmes (Iowa, 1924 – Amsterdam, 1986) is known as both a major translator/editor of poetry from Dutch (. 2020. “The Polyphony of Periodicals: James S. Holmes and Delta.” In Literary Translation in Periodicals: Methodological Challenges for a Transnational Approach, ed. by Laura Fólica, Daniela Roig-Sanz, and Stefania Caristia, 331–346. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, Brems, Elke, and Jack McMartin. 2021. “The Voices of James Stratton Holmes.” In Literary Translator Studies, ed. by Klaus Kaindl, Waltraud Kolb, and Daniel Schlager, 249–264. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and as a teacher and researcher of translation, whose professional career was centred in the Netherlands at the University of Amsterdam. He has had a long-lasting influence on the development of the field of translation as an academic subject with his landmark essay “The Name and Nature of Translation Studies”. First presented at a 1972 conference in Copenhagen, it is “generally regarded as the founding statement of the discipline” (Gentzler, Edwin. 2001. Contemporary Translation Theories. Revised ed. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 93). Yet, fifty years on, how valid is that essay in today’s context? We present a review and reappraisal of the essay in the context of Holmes’ academic work as a whole and we raise a few questions about the future and history of the discipline.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Translated! volume and the Holmes Group
    • 2.1The name of the discipline
    • 2.2The nature of Translation Studies
  • 3.Relevance for today
  • References
References (30)
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