Histoire des traductions en langue française – HTLF

The development of reseach in translation studies throughout the 20th century , especially over the last 60 years, has brought worldwide awareness, particularly in Europe and in English-speaking countries, of the role of translation in history. This role is not not only confined to the spread of literary works, but also extends to the spread of political, scientific ideas etc. The awareness of the role of translation in history has been coupled with the realization that translation itself has a long history and that ancient practices involved in translation, hastily dismissed as obsolete, deserve to be described and studied. A wide number of studies focusing on a single, specific case have been carried out. However, very few synthetic works encompassing broad periods or whole linguistic areas are currently available. It has been long established that the body of all the translations conducted in a given language is part of the intellectual heritage of that language and adds to, or even sheds light on the initial corpus of the works written in that language. This observation has lead us to propose writing a 'History of translations in the French language': as indicated by its title, this work will be an encyclopaedic description of the activity of translators in French until today. Its purpose will be to give students, researchers, teachers and also outsiders wishing to cultivate their minds, a reference book as well as a series of volumes to be read in a row (as it is the case for Jean-Pierre Vivet's 'Histoire de l'édition française'). It will make it possible to find out the circumstances under which foreign texts have entered the French language: thanks to which translators, at what date, with which publishers, for which public, and according to which procedure (imitation, adaptation, partial translation, corrected translations, retranslations, etc.) This work will not aim at being the history of translation, but rather the history of translations. It cannot of course be exhaustive. Nevertheless, it will enable a first accurate description, occasionally resorting to charts and statistical graphs, of the significant role of the practical activity of translation at different periods.