Ugly Translations: Ortega y Gasset’s Ideas on Translation within Contemporary Translation Theories

Abstract

This article is intended to provide a global vision of Ortega y Gasset’s conception of translation and an integrative evaluation of his contribution to contemporary Western Translation Studies through the analysis of the role played by Ortega’s views within the paradigms adopted in the most important approaches to translation in the 20th century. The essay ‘Misery and Splendour of Translation’ brings together Ortega’s ideas on translation, which, despite the recent orientation towards empirical and technical methods in Translation Studies, seem to be very much in evidence in current translation theories. This reveals the anticipatory character of Ortega’s ideas, formulated in 1937.

Keywords

• translation history
• ortega y gasset
• translation studies