Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies

When does an intellectual enterprise deserve to be treated as a discipline in its own right? This is a loaded question, but a pertinent one all the same. The answer to this may be `when the enterprise in question finally has its own encyclopedia'. If so, then the very publication of this encyclopedia may be taken as a reflection and confirmation of the status of translation as an autonomous discipline with its own `theoretical' principles, methodological frameworks controversies, terminology and history-not to mention the existence of subject associations, specialized journals, textbooks, conferences, practitioners, teachers and the increasing number of students who are enrolled on institutionally mounted courses in the field in question. The existence of research infrastructure works of various kinds is also a sign of the increasing professionalization of the discipline. In this context we may mention Mark Shuttleworth's Dictionary of Translation Studies (St Jerome, 1997), Douglas Robinson's anthology Western Translation Theory: from Herodotus to Nietzsche, (St Jerome, 1997) and Edwin Gentzler's out of print book Contemporary Translation Theories (Routledge, 1993).