Zhang, W. P. (2010): Illustrating Translation Studies (in Chinese), Xi’an, World Publishing Corporation, 137 p.

In fictions, illustrations are an effective means to help dramatize the plot of a story or emphasize a part of it by directing the readers’ attention in the reading process. When it comes to non-fictional type of writings, especially theoretical ones, they usually serve as a supplement. But here is an exception in which they jump to the fore, prevailing over or at least paralleling the texts in the theoretical elaborations. That is W. P. Zhang’s recent work Illustrating Translation Studies. The book is devoted to introducing to beginners or laymen of translation studies in a relaxed atmosphere theories that have been restricted to the academic circle in China. It is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to translation studies, including its definition, scope, function, birth and its relations with other disciplines such as linguistics, sociology, literary and cultural studies. Holmes and his pathbreaking map are routinely mentioned, together with the old strife between the linguistic and literary schools in translation studies. Chapter 2 acts as the most predominant part, taking up almost three fourths of the whole book. In fact, each section in this chapter occupies about the same length as that of any one of the other four chapters. Section 1 takes a brief look at the early western translation theories ranging from the word-for-word vs sense-for-sense dyad to translation principles by Dryden, Tytler and Savory and last to Schleiermacher’s “alienating” vs “naturalizing” translation. Next come the four sections of the linguistic perspective. Section 2 pays due attention to translation equivalence, an issue that the author claims is a cornerstone in the linguistics-based science of translation. Briefly discussed are Jakobson (“equivalence in meaning”), Nida (“the principle of equivalent effect”), Newmark (“emphasizing context rather than full principle of equivalent effect”) and Koller (“five types of equivalence”). Section 3 turns to translation shifts, respectively Vinay and Darbelnet’s classification, Catford’s introduction of the term, Popovic’s emphasis on “the shift of expression” and van Leuven-Zwart’s comparative-descriptive model. Section 4 takes a look at the functional theories of translation in Germany, including Reiss’s text typology, Vermeer’s skopos theory and Nord’s “functional hierarchy of translation problems.” And Section 5 introduces Halliday’s model of discourse analysis and then its applications in translation studies by House (register analysis), Baker (text and pragmatic level analysis) and Hatim and Mason (semiotic level analysis). Section 6 is about the polysystem theory. It begins with Even-Zohar, who originated the PS theory by historicizing translation works and regarding translation strategies as determined by the position of translated literature in the polysystem. The next theorist is Toury arguing for descriptive translation studies (DTS) in search of universal translation norms. Chesterman follows this line of thinking and puts forward another set of norms: product or expectancy norms vs process or professional norms. Also discussed in the section are other DTS theorists such as Hermans, Lambert and van Gorp. Section 7 covers several theorists who have made great contributions to the cultural turn of translation studies: Lefevere equating translation with rewriting, Simon lashing out at the gender politics of translation and advocating a writing project to recover the cultural identity of the translator, and Spivak linking translation practice with postcolonialism with the result of expanding the research scope of feminist translation theories. The next section revolves around only Venuti, who argues for foreignizing translation strategy and treating it as a means of resistance to the mainstream domesticating strategy. He fights against the invisibility of the translator in favor of an ethical translation agenda that respects and preserves the difference of the source text in face of the more powerful …