Author Description

Written by eminent scholars from many countries, this Guide highlights the place of translation in our culture, encouraging awareness of the process of translating and making the translator more visible. It covers translations out of many languages, from Greek to Korean, Swahili to Russian. For some works (e.g. Virgil's Aeneid) which have been much translated, the discussion is historical and critical; with less familiar literatures, the Guide examines the extent to which translation has done justice to the range of work available. It contains entries on individual texts (such as the Thousand and One Nights), writers (Ibsen or Proust), genres (Chinese poetry), or national literature (for example, Hungarian). These entries are complemented by more substantial essays on theoretical questions, a pioneering outline of the history of translation into English, and discussions of the problems raised by specific types of text (for example, poetry or oral literature). Recent years have seen a boom in translation studies, and this is the first comprehensive guide to this essential element of literature in English.