Translation Studies

Translation is a kind of weird thing to study. The issues are large, and it can be extremely interesting, but then you always have to bother with the actual words on the page, and the sometimes seemingly trivial issues those words bring out. A major translation can fail simply because of a pattern of slip-ups in the construal of the original text. The underlying issue of translation theory translation are hermeneutic, but you have to keep an eye on linguistic issues.

This is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

I find it weird, too, to focus on the status or dignity of translators as part of translation studies, as Venuti does.