Academic Translation: From Theory to Practice

Abstract

Long overshadowed by literary translation, on the one hand, and scientific/technical translation, on the other, academic translation is nonetheless crucial to the transnational circulation of texts and concepts in fields across the Humanities and Social Sciences. This article begins by offering an overview of attempts to theorize academic translation, beginning with Oleksandr Finkel’s addition of “non-literary prose” to his translation typology of 1929. The article then addresses the specific challenges that distinguish academic translation from the translation of literary and scientific/technical texts, namely, the selection of one original from several editions; the management of terminology, which is often more figurative and contested than in the hard sciences; and citational practices, which may involve texts in a variety of languages and in translation.