Who Cares about Translation Theory? (Latvian experience)

Abstract

The article is a study of relations between translation theory or, to be more precise – theoretical and applied translation studies and translation practice (i.e., regular work of translation professionals) with a glimpse into the views of some prominent translation theorists and afterwards provides a general picture of opinions of novice translators, experienced professional translators and translation studies experts in Latvia. The feeling is that in ‘real life’ there is a wide gap between the assessment of translation theory and practice in the eyes of several groups of persons relevant to the phenomenon of translation. A deeper survey and analysis of its results shows that the range of opinions is very wide among both translation theorists and practitioners. The pivotal question of this study is to find out who are of those who care (or do not care) about translation theory and who are those who care for translation theory. Is translatology as a research discipline a necessary complement to translation practice, or is it a testing site for ever more sophisticated translatological schools?

Keywords

• theoretical and applied translation studies
• translation/interpreting practice
• self-taught translators/interpreters
• translation scholars/theorists
• professional translator/interpreter training programmes