Table of Contents

Introduction 1. Language and Identity 2. Original Sin 3. Theory and Practice: the old dilemma 4. Dangerous Translations 5. How modern should translations be? 6. Status Anxiety 7. Under the Influence 8. Reference Point 9. Translation or Adaptation 10. Translating Style 11. Telling Tales 12. Pride and Prejudices 13. Turning the page 14. Poetry in motion 15. When translation goes horribly wrong 16. Living Languages 17. All in the mind 18. More than words 19. Just what did you call me? 20. Lost in translation 21. Good rhyme and reason 22. Women's Work 23. Plays for today 24. Between the lines 25. Playing on words 26. Pleasures of rereading 27. On the case 28. Gained in translation 29. Layers of meaning 30. The value of comparing translations 31. Where the fun comes in 32. Translators making the news 33 What exactly did Saddam say? 34. Native strengths 35. What's in a name? 36. Food for thought 37. Family matters 38. Rethinking theory and practice 39. The power of poetry

Introduction 1. Language and Identity 2. Original Sin 3. Theory and Practice: the old dilemma 4. Dangerous Translations 5. How modern should translations be? 6. Status Anxiety 7. Under the Influence 8. Reference Point 9. Translation or Adaptation 10. Translating Style 11. Telling Tales 12. Pride and Prejudices 13. Turning the page 14. Poetry in motion 15. When translation goes horribly wrong 16. Living Languages 17. All in the mind 18. More than words 19. Just what did you call me? 20. Lost in translation 21. Good rhyme and reason 22. Women's Work 23. Plays for today 24. Between the lines 25. Playing on words 26. Pleasures of rereading 27. On the case 28. Gained in translation 29. Layers of meaning 30. The value of comparing translations 31. Where the fun comes in 32. Translators making the news 33 What exactly did Saddam say? 34. Native strengths 35. What's in a name? 36. Food for thought 37. Family matters 38. Rethinking theory and practice 39. The power of poetry

About the Author

Susan Bassnett is a leading international expert in translation studies, and author of best-selling books in the field that have been translated into some 20 languages. A bilingual who has practical experience of translation and interpreting. BassnettaEURO(t)s accessible, jargon-free writing has made her work popular with students around the world. The forthright essays collected in this volume reflect ten years of writing regularly for professional translators and general readers.

Reviews

Theoretically savvy and intellectually stimulating, this collection of essays, written in highly readable prose by Susan Bassnett over a period of thirty years, offers something for everyone. Professor Bassnett writes about culture, history, religion and translation, and especially about the complex, multilayered relations amongst them, in a thoughtful, deeply humane manner. Martha P. Y. Cheung, Hong Kong Baptist UniversitySusan Bassnett has done as much as anyone to help establish Translation as a rewarding subject of academic study. Now, in the thirty-nine wide-ranging Chapters of this new book, she offers meditations on the subject that are as acute as they are lucid, and as lively as they are wise. Harish Trivedi, University of DelhiIn this highly readable, stimulating and challenging collection of essays Susan Bassnett shows the incisive intelligence, humane engagement and breadth of knowledge that have been a constant in her writings over the years. The book is a must read for anyone who cares about the present and future of translation on our planet.Michael Cronin, Centre for Translation and Textual Studies, Dublin City UniversityThis collection offers a fascinating and timely insight into the subject of one woman who is 'engaged in translation'...At times scholarly, at times resolutely practical, this book represents the unique ability of the translatior 'to shift perspective, to look simultaneously from within and from without, to question oneself and one's own culture as much as one questions the other'.Caroline Williamson in the ITI Bulletin, November-December 2011