Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In the late 1970s a new academic discipline was born: Translation Studies. We could not read literature in translation, it was argued, without asking ourselves if linguistic and cultural phenomena really were 'translatable' and exploring in some depth the concept of 'equivalence'.
When Susan Bassnett's Translation Studies appeared in the New Accents series, it quickly became the essential introduction to this new subject. Susan Bassnett tackles the crucial problems of translation and offers a history of translation theory, beginning with the ancient Romans and encompassing key twentieth-century structuralist work. She then explores specific problems of literary translation through a close, practical analysis of texts, and completes her book with extensive suggestions for further reading.
Twenty years after publication, the field of translation studies continues to grow. Updated for the second time, Susan Bassnett's Translation Studies remains essential reading for anyone new to the field.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Contents
• General Editor's Preface
• Preface to the revised edition
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Central Issues: Language and culture
• Types of translation
• Decoding and recoding
• Problems of equivalence
• Loss and gain
• Untranslatability
• Science or secondary activity?
• 2 History of Translation Theory: Problems of period study
• The Romans Bible translation
• Education and the vernacular
• Early theorists
• The Renaissance
• The seventeenth century
• The eighteenth century
• Romanticism
• Post-Romanticism
• The Victorians
• Archaizing
• The Twentieth century
• 3 Specific Problems of Literary Translation: Structures
• Poetry and translation
• Translating Prose
• Translating dramatic texts
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Select Biliography
• Appendix: The original text of The Seafarer
• Index