Functional1

Skopos theory: a retrospective assessment

 

Andrew Chesterman

                                        

[2010a      In W. Kallmeyer et al. (eds), Perspektiven auf Kommunikation. Festschrift für Liisa Tittula zum 60. Geburtstag. Berlin: SAXA Verlag, 209-225.]

 

1. Introduction

 

 

It is often said, especially by laymen, that translation does not really have a theory. Not true: it has lots! (Well, it depends what you want to call a theory; but still...)  But at least it does not have a general theory, right? Translation Studies has produced at best only a mixture of fragmentary theories. – This claim is not quite true either: we have several candidates which present themselves as general theories of translation. One them is skopos theory.

It is now about a quarter of a century since the publication of Reiß and Vermeer’s classic work, Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie (1984), and even longer since the earliest publications on a functional approach to translation. Skopos theory, as a particular type of general functional theory, seems fairly well established on the map of translation studies, and is duly mentioned in all the textbooks. But how well has it stood the test of time? My aim here is to offer a general retrospective assessment of the theory, also taking account of some more recent criticism