ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the emergence of a relatively recent trajectory in translation studies, namely efforts to humanize translation. Taking a complexity approach to emergent trajectories, the paper traces the origins of this trajectory through interviews with Anthony Pym and Douglas Robinson, and through reference to their foundational work in establishing this trajectory. Pym contributed mainly through his sociology of translation and his emphasis on ethics. Robinson contributed mainly through his neuro-somatic hermeneutics that focuses on translation as a meaning-making process. In addition, the chapter considers the role that functionalism, sociological approaches and neuro-cognitive approaches in translation studies have played. While Tymoczko and Baker are usually not regarded as sociologists of translation, their focus on issues of power and the role of narrative in constructing power paved the way for interest in the role of humans in maintaining or countering power through translation. Neuro-cognitive approaches centres on the human brain and cognition, seeing translation as cognitive rather than systemic. The chapter closes by weighing up systems approaches against translator-centered approaches and asks critical questions about the agent in humanist translation studies while closing with a reminder that humanizing translation requires another step, namely biologizing translation.
