Translation Theory for the Practising Literary Translator

Do translation theorists observe what translators do and develop theories based on that? Do translators gain ideas and tools from studying theories? Or does it go both ways? Or is it neither, and translation scholars are completely separated from practising translators?

In my own translation practice, academic work, and teaching, I find that translation theories, far from being scary and distant from what I do as a translator on a day-to-day basis, actually provide beneficial concepts and strategies that can help me make translatorial decisions. The work of translators like me, in turn, comes to influence the way academics understand and write about what translators do.

I summarise a wide range of translation theories, from across different time periods and parts of the world, and I then follow this by suggesting ideas that stem from these theoretical concepts and that can be of practical use to translators.

B. J. Woodstein is an honorary professor in literature and translation at the University of East Anglia in England and a Swedish-to-English translator, writer, editor, EDI consultant, lactation consultant, and doula.