Tradurre. Un approccio multidisciplinare

Translation is attracting increasing interest today as its central role in transcultural communication becomes ever more apparent in our rapidly evolving world. The geopolitical arena is undergoing profound changes with the emergence of previously submerged cultures and ethnic identities and the disintegration of established socio-political hegemonies. This upheaval has been accompanied by a general spread and diversification of contacts among individuals and institutions throughout the world and the need for peoples worldwide to overcome linguistic and cultural barriers on order to reach international understanding is stronger than ever. Translation fulfils this need. Thanks to translation cultures are able to exchange information and knowledge in every field from the political, social, cultural and economic to the scientific, medical, and technological. In the light of the all-pervasiveness and importance of translation today, it is hardly surprising that it has attracted the attention of scholars engaged in various fields of study who, in their turn, have brought fresh insights to the discipline. The result is that translation can today be considered a multidiscipline that displays great depth and breadth of study. It draws inspiration from such disciplines as linguistics, literature, cultural studies, history, anthropology, ethnography, psychology, philosophy and theology and spans different aspects from the purely theoretical to the descriptive to the applied. The survival of translation as a multidiscipline depends, however, on its ability to blend and harmonise the plurality of approaches and interests in a collaborative existence where diversification and specialisation are seen not in a negative light of fragmentation but in a positive one of mutual respect. It cannot be denied that descriptive studies regarding the phenomenon and mechanics of translation in a historical and cultural perspective have contributed greatly to establishing translation as an independent academic discipline. But it must also be acknowledged that a vast amount of interesting research is being carried out in the pedagogical sphere. Furthermore, the theoretical component provides not only guiding principles, rather than rigid rules, to be applied to practice but also a descriptive overview of translation behaviour through the ages. Drawing on the experience of scholars engaged in translation research and didactics and flanked by contributions from leading experts in translation theory, the present volume adopts an eclectic approach to the multifarious nature of translation and offers an in-depth overview of current trends and approaches in the study of translation.