50 Years Later. What Have We Learnt after Holmes (1972) and Where Are We Now?

Abstract

In 1972, James Stratton Holmes (1924-1986) presented "The Name and Nature of Translation Studies" in the translation section of the Third Congress of Applied Linguistics, held in Copenhagen. This was the first attempt to vertebrate the incipient academic discipline of Translation Studies (TS) as an autonomous pursuit.

The very scope and way of translating has changed dramatically since 1972, and there have been subsequent attempts to revise and extend Holmes' scheme. However, Holmes' proposal is still cited very frequently, and it is now considered to be the foundation of TS as an academic discipline. In addition to its structure, Holmes' label translation studies was also highly influential and it is today the most frequent designation in English.

This volume has been published in 2022, fifty years after Holmes' influential paper. Its contents and structure attempt to be both a tribute to Holmes and a panoramic view of the state of Translation Studies half a century later. To meet this aim, we identified several areas in Holmes map that have experienced a dramatic evolution and change and asked leading scholars in each area to contribute with a chapter reviewing the evolution of that research area and comparing its current state with Holmes' map.