What is Translation Studies?

Manifesto for Translation Studies

All acts of communication are acts of translation.

Translation destroys language walls and illuminates the gestures, assertions, and utterances of other nations. Translation heightens our sensitivity to the sensibilities of foreign cultures and customs.

Translation Studies examines the art and craft of translation, i.e., what is translated, how it is translated, how it is received in the receptor language, and especially what is said so often to be lost in translation. 

Translation erases the borders between disciplines, fostering interdisciplinary thinking and research.

Translation revitalizes the study of literature and the humanities.  Academicians have to understand that all acts of interpretation and communication are acts of translation.

Translation guarantees the survival of our civilization in a globalized world with its digital and electronic innovations. The survival will depend on how well we apply the methods of translation to initiate and promote inter-cultural communication.

Translation Studies approaches literature from a new and dynamic perspective that changes the way we view literature, cultures, and each other.

Translation charts innovative ways to study the reading of verbal, visual, and musical texts.

Translation builds bridges between the humanities and the sciences to respond to the needs of a globalized world in the 21st century.

Translation cultivates associative thinking -- the foundation of creativity.

We invite you to join us in a rediscovery of literatures, cultures, and ways of thinking that you already are familiar with but will now see in a new light -- and we invite you to join us in a discovery of the new literatures, new cultures, and new ways of thinking that are defining the global community of the 21st century.  

Essay 1

The Translator As Mediator Between Cultures
By Rainer Schulte