ABSTRACT

Translation history would appear to have little to do with linguistics in any strict sense, and have certainly paid little attention to linguistic matters. Linguistics is nevertheless the orientation that dominates the translator-training institutes in Spain, where author currently work. In a not unrelated adventure, at one stage author sought 'prequalification' for the position of maitre de conferences in France, entering a centralized national system that obliged me to apply in one of ten categories, none of which mentioned translation. To explain why the status of comparative literature is briefly considered, the interdisciplinarity of translation studies, and the chances of translation history becoming part of something wider, something called intercultural studies, which could even benefit from having no institutionalized academic structure at all. The first might be Warwick University's doctoral programme in 'Translation Studies, Comparative Literary Theory, Comparative Literature, British Cultural Studies, Modern British Studies and Post-Colonial Studies'.