As a meaningful manifestation of how institutionalized the discipline has become, the new Handbook of Translation Studies is most welcome. It joins the other signs of maturation such as Summer Schools, the development of academic curricula, historical surveys, journals, book series, textbooks, terminologies, bibliographies and encyclopedias.
The two essays in this volume are telling examples of Jacques Derrida’s recent work on ethical and political issues. Both deal with pressing contemporary problems. First, Derrida discusses the dilemmas of reconciliation and amnesty in situations where the bloody traumas of history demand forms of forgiveness, such as Apartheid in South Africa, the Vichy Regime in France, or the current situation in Algeria. Second, Derrida addresses the dilemma of refugee and asylum rights, which is a theme also addressed, in a different mode, by Sir Michael Dummett in another volume in this series.
The HTS aims at disseminating knowledge about translation and interpreting to a relatively broad audience: not only students who often adamantly prefer user-friendliness, researchers and lecturers in Translation Studies, Translation & Interpreting professionals; but also scholars, experts and professionals from other disciplines (among which linguistics, sociology, history, psychology).
