《Anthony Pym. Exploring Translation Theories.》.pdf

Anthony Pym. Exploring Translation Theories. London-New York: Routledge, 2009. xiv + 186 pp. ISBN 978-0-415-55363-6. USD 40.95; £ 22.99. Reviewed by Dirk Delabastita (Namur) Students and general readers wishing to familiarize themselves with Translation Studies and its many competing theories through compact and reliable surveys have been well served recently. In 2008 Jeremy Munday published the second edi- tion of his Introducing Translation Studies. For those who read French, there is Mathieu Guidère’s Introduction à la traductologie (second edition), which came out in 2010. In the same year Anthony Pym launched his Exploring Translation Theories, which is the theme of the following observations. Pym sets out to of- fer a comprehensive survey of modern Western translation theories, beginning with the classic equivalence-based models of the post-war years and moving on towards recent practices and theories such as localisation and cultural translation. Allow me to start with my conclusion by saying that Pym’s book is a must-have for any Translation Studies collection, private or public. It is well-written, perceptive and most helpful as a survey of the field. It is chock-full of ideas to agree with and to disagree with but above all to think about. Exploring Translation Theories — which sometimes refers to itself as a “course” — comes complete with its own website (http://www.tinet.cat/~apym/publica- tions/ETT/additional_material.html). There the reader finds a range of extra fea- tures, including excerpts from the Japanese and Spanish versions, a link to video interviews with several leading translation scholars, a link to the Facebook page on the book, a set of “Notes for translators (and other careful readers)” and so on. The website also features a list of errata, defeating the reviewer who had duti- fully prepared his own list. But a few small inaccuracies