Agnès Whitfield

Translation Studies at the Interface of Disciplines

The relationship between Translation Studies and other, neighbouring, fields of inquiry has long been, and continues to be, an area for reflection for Translation Studies scholars. The move from the linguistic to the cultural turn and beyond has only broadened the number of connections, as translation scholars borrow concepts from cultural studies, sociology and anthropology, among other disciplines, to examine the products, practices and systems of translation. The title of this well-edited collection of 12 essays astutely situates the terrain of reflection in away that allows for a dynamic and constructive focus. The spatial metaphor underlying the notion of interface opens up questions related to the conceptualisation of interdisciplinary relations within Translation Studies, but also, and perhaps more importantly, draws attention to what lies in and outside the margins of contemporary translation theory. In their introduction, Duarte, Assis Rosa and Seruya take, as a starting point, that ‘Translation Studies has done more than merely draw on other disciplines; it has assimilated and dynamically adapted conceptual and methodological frameworks to employ them in the theory, practice and analysis of translation as product, process and function’. Rather than seeing this transformation within a process of discipline creation, they suggest the usefulness of taking ‘a ‘‘quantum leap’’ beyond any conception of a unitary object or unified language’. More specifically, following Arjun Appadurai’s categorisation of the ‘landscape’ of contemporary societies, they propose to call