Translation history

CTIS research in this area focuses on particular periods of translation activity over the years.

It covers the scope, nature, causes and effects of those activities, with case studies drawing on archival sources, biographical data, textual and paratextual analysis.

The history and theory of translation between Chinese and European languages in the 18th to early 20th centuries

Ancient Buddhist texts

Basic questions such as what was being translated, by whom and for what purposes have led to the investigation the relationship between translation, the rise of sinology as an academic discipline in France and England.

This includes developments in translation theory of the time, rivalry between European nations in the 19th century, the rise of racist discourses which asserted European supremacy, and the interlingual development of cross-cultural concepts through translation.

Our studies also include:

  • the study of fascist Italy, especially fascist cultural policy and the development of the Italian publishing industry, from the point of view of translation.
  • the role of translation in the dissemination of scientific ideas and the contexts and impacts of scientific translation and publishing activities, with a focus on Europe in the early 19th century and Japan in the Meiji period.

PhD projects

  • Abdulla Alkhamis (2012) Socio-cultural Perspectives on Translation Activities in Saudi Arabia: A Bourdieusean Account
  • Dimitris Asimakoulas (2005) Brecht in Dark Times: Translations of Brecht's Works in the Censorship Context of the Greek Junta (1967-1974)
  • David Charlston (2012) Hegel’s Phenomenology in Translation: A Comparative Analysis of Translatorial 'Hexis'
  • I-Hsin Chen (2014) Connecting Protestantism to Chinese Ruism: Religion, Dialogism and Intertextuality in James Legge's Translation of the Lunyu
  • Sharifah Fazliyaton Shaik Ismail (2008) The Translation of Children's Literature in Malay Language in the 1970s: Sociocultural Context and Strategies Employed
  • Sameh Fekry Hanna (2006) Towards a Sociology of Drama Translation: A Bourdieusian Perspective on Translations of Shakespeare's Great Tragedies in Egypt
  • Ruselle Meade (2013) Making Knowledge Move: Translation and the Travel of Technical Textbooks in Meiji-era Japan, 1868-1894
  • Kalliopi Pasmatzi (2014) Theorising Translation as Cultural Repatriation: The Greek Civil War Narrative Translated into Greek
  • Wenjing Zhao (2005) Hu Shi's Rewritings and the Construction of a New Culture
  • Yu Zhongli (2012) Translating Feminism in China

Selected publications

  • Asimakoulas, Dimitris (2006) 'Translations as a Means of Resistance: Paratexts in Translations of Brecht's Works under the Greek Junta (1967-1974)', CTIS Occasional Papers 3: 78-103.
  • Asimakoulas, Dimitris (2005) 'Brecht in Dark Times. Translations of his Works Under the Greek Junta (1967-1974)', Target 17(1): 93-110.
  • Billiani, Francesca (ed.) (2007) Modes of Censorship and Translation: National Contexts and Diverse Media, Manchester: St Jerome
  • Billiani, Francesca (2007) 'Renewing a Literary Culture through Translation: Poetry in Post-war Italy', in Jeremy Munday (ed.)Translation as Intervention, London: Continuum, pp. 138-60.
  • Billiani, Francesca (2006) 'Identity and Otherness: Translation Policies in Fascist Italy', CTIS Occasional Papers 3: 59-77.
  • Billiani, Francesca (2000) 'Translators, Writers, Publishers and the Literary Reception of the English and American Novel in Italy in the Inter-war Period', Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies 8: 171-94.
  • Charlston, David (2013) 'Textual Embodiments of Bourdieusian Hexis: J.B. Baillie’s Translation of Hegel’s Phenomenology, The Translator 19(1): 51-80.
  • Harvey, Keith (2003) Intercultural Movements: 'American Gay' in French Translation, Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
  • Meade, Ruselle (2011) 'Translation of a Discipline: The Fate of Rankine's Engineering Science in Early Meiji-Era Japan', The Translator 17(2): 211-232.
  • Olohan, Maeve (2014) 'History of Science and History of Translation: Disciplinary Commensurability?', The Translator20(1): 9-25.
  • Olohan, Maeve (2014) 'Gate-keeping and Localizing in Scientific Translation Publishing: The Case of Richard Taylor and Scientific Memoirs', The British Journal for the History of Science 47(3): 433-450.
  • Olohan, Maeve (2012) 'Volunteer Translation and Altruism in the Context of a Nineteenth-Century Scientific Journal', The Translator 18(2): 193-215.
  • St. André, James (2010) 'Lessons from Chinese History: Translation as a Collaborative and Multi-stage Process', TTR 23: 71-94.
  • St. André, James (2007) 'The Development of British Sinology and Changes in Translation Practice: The Case of Sir John Francis Davis (1795-1890)', Translation and Interpreting Studies 2(2) : 3-42.
  • St. André, James (2006) 'Revealing the Invisible: Heterolingualism in Three Generations of Singaporean Playwrights', Target 18(2): 139-61.
  • St. André, James (2006) 'Travelling Toward True Translation: The First Generation of Sino-English Translators', The Translator12(2): 1-22.
  • St. André, James (2004) '"But do they have a notion of Justice?" Staunton's 1810 Translation of the Penal Code', The Translator10(1): 1-32.
  • St. André, James (2003) 'Retranslation as Argument: Canon Formation, Professionalization, and Rivalry in 19th Century Sinological Translation', Cadernos de Tradução 11(1): 59-93.
  • St. André, James (2002) 'Picturing Judge Bao in Ming Fiction',Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 24: 43-73.
  • St. André, James (2000) 'Modern Translation Theory and Past Translation Practice: European Translations of the Hao qiu zhuan', Chung-wai Literary Monthly 29(5):105-129. [English version published in Leo Chan Tak-hung (ed.) One into Many: Translation and the Dissemination of Classical Chinese Literature, Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2002].
  • Strowe, Anna (2011) 'The Auctour, the Translatoure, and the Impressoure: Translating Boccaccio's Authorship in Early Modern England', Textus 24(30): 477-90.
  • Strowe, Anna (2011) 'Is Simpatico Possible in Translation? The 1620 Translation of the Decameron and the Case for Similarity,The Translator 17(1): 51-75.
  • Zhao, Wenjing (2006) Cultural Manipulation of Translation Activities: Hu Shi's Rewritings and the Construction of a New Culture, Shanghai: Fudan University Press.