Critical translation studies

摘要

Douglas Robinson has been busy. This is his second book this year and the second to deal with the work of Naoki Sakai (see also Robinson, 2017). Robinson's move to Hong Kong in 2010 has led to a period of productivity and to a consideration of scholars working on translation from outside of translation studies, particularly Sakai, but also Lydia Liu and Jon Solomon. Robinson draws from these three scholars' work in his new Critical Translation Studies, which posits, as he writes, 'a school of thought about translation that doesn't exist' (ix): critical translation studies. This 'school' is constructed around dismantling and problematising notions of translation, with Liu (1995, 2004, as well as the collection Liu, 1999) working predominantly on China and Sakai on Japan in moments when national language and national identity were in the process of forming. This historical background is important to understanding their approaches. Sakai sees the creation of what he calls the 'regime of translation' (Sakai, 1997, p. 17), a historical constructed understanding of translation, linked to national languages and what he calls 'homolingual address', where the speaker assumes a homogenous audience of other speakers of that language (Sakai, 1997, p. 8).