Translation Studies in Hungary [antikvár]

Preface Hungary is a country with a long tradition in literary translation. The eminent poets, as well as prose writers, some of them classics of Hungarian literature, who built up during the centuries the huge body of translation extant today, also wrote brilliant essays, reflecting on their work. At the same time, very little systematic research was done on the linguistic, cultural, philosophic etc. aspects of translation. Research in this field - called Translation Studies - was started in the nineteen seventies in connection with the beginnings of the training of professional translators, while the study of translation became a legitime academic field of research only recently. For a long time, university lecturers, scholars, practicing translators and interpreters who started translation research were painfully isolated not only from what was going on in translation studies in the world at large, but also from each other. This double isolation is being eased today. University lecturers, translators and interpreters interested in research, have found their forum at the regular meetings of the Translation Research Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Science. Hungarian scholars have also begun participating at international conferences, started publishing in international journals, and finally in 1996, they host an international conference on studies in translation and interpreting, with more than 400 hundred participants from all over the world. This conference provides a good occasion to review the progress Hungarian scholars have made in Translation Studies so far. 'Translation Studies in Hungary'is a first attempt to assess the state of the art in Hungary at the end of the XXth century. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Professor José Lambert for reviewing the draft version of the papers, for his critical remarks and valuable advice and in particular for his introductory article to this volume. September, 1996 Kinga Klaudy