2022/07/05 by Jeremy Munday, Elizaveta Vasserman
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Language, Metaphor, and Cognition #Translation Studies and Practices #linguistics and terminology studies
paper · doi:10.1075/ttmc.00089.mun
openalex publication_date 2022/07/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26
Abstract James Stratton Holmes (Iowa, 1924 – Amsterdam, 1986) is known as both a major translator/editor of poetry from Dutch ( Brems and McMartin 2020 , 2021 ) and as a teacher and researcher of translation, whose professional career was centred in the Netherlands at the University of Amsterdam. He has had a long-lasting influence on the development of the field of translation as an academic subject with his landmark essay “The Name and Nature of Translation Studies”. First presented at a 1972 conference in Copenhagen, it is “generally regarded as the founding statement of the discipline” ( Gentzler 2001 , 93). Yet, fifty years on, how valid is that essay in today’s context? We present a review and reappraisal of the essay in the context of Holmes’ academic work as a whole and we raise a few questions about the future and history of the discipline.