Introducing Translation Studies

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Jeremy Munday’s Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications serves as a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the dynamic and evolving field of translation studies. The first three chapters lay a foundational groundwork, tracing the discipline's emergence, its historical roots, and the central theoretical debates concerning meaning and equivalence that dominated its early linguistic phase.

Chapter 1: Main Issues of Translation Studies establishes the discipline's identity and scope. It begins by distinguishing the long-standing practice of translation from the relatively new academic field of "Translation Studies," a term popularized by James S. Holmes. The chapter charts the discipline's liberation from its subordinate role in language teaching and comparative literature, highlighting its growth since the 1970s through specialized university courses, dedicated journals, and international conferences. A central focus is Holmes's seminal "map" of the field, which provides a systematic framework. This map divides translation studies into "pure" research (encompassing theoretical and descriptive branches) and "applied" activities (such as translator training, translation aids, and criticism). The descriptive branch is further categorized into product-oriented, function-oriented, and process-oriented studies. Holmes's model clarifies the field's diverse objectives, from describing translation phenomena and establishing general principles to practical applications, thereby bridging the historical gap between theory and practice and asserting translation studies as an independent, interdisciplinary area of research.