Functional Approaches to Culture and Translation

This volume contains a generous selection of articles on translation by Professor José Lambert (K.U. Leuven). It traces the intellectual itinerary of their author, who started out as a French and Comparative Literature scholar some four decades ago trying to get a better grip on the problem of inter-literary contacts, and who soon became a key figure in the emergent discipline of Translation Studies, where he is widely known as an indefatigable promoter of descriptively oriented research. This collection shows how José Lambert has never stopped asking new questions about the crucial but often hidden role of language and translation in the world of today. It includes some of the author’s classic papers as well as a few lesser known ones that deserve wider circulation. The editors’ introduction and the bibliography complete this thought-provoking survey of the career of one of the most creative researchers in the field.

Andrew Chesterman, Helsinki, in Target Vol. 20:2 (2008):
This Festschrift collection provides a memorable profile of the scholarly career (to date) of José Lambert, and at the same time serves the useful purpose of bringing together in a single volume a representative selection of thirteen papers in English and French that were originally published in different journals and books. The book is a fine salute to one of the most influential figures of contemporary Translation Studies. The papers have been reformatted, given a unified bibliography and "lightly edited", but the author's inimitable remains. The editors contribute an exellent introductory chapter on "José Lambert and descriptive research into literature, translation and culture", and at the end of the book there is a complete list of Lambert's own publications up to 2005, a name index and a subject index. [...] José Lambert has become more than a catalyst; he has surely become an institution in his own right, and this collection does him credit.