André Alphons Lefevere (1945 – 27 March 1996) was a translation theorist. He had studied at the

University of Ghent Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...

(1964–1968) and then obtained his PhD at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the an ...

in 1972. When he died of

acute leukemia Acute leukemia or acute leukaemia is a family of serious medical conditions relating to an original diagnosis of leukemia. In most cases, these can be classified according to the lineage, myeloid or lymphoid, of the malignant cells that grow uncon ...

, he was Professor of Germanic Studies at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

Thought and influence

His most important contribution is in comparative literary studies and translation studies in particular. Drawing upon the notions of polysystem theorists like

Itamar Even-Zohar Itamar Even-Zohar ( he, איתמר אבן-זהר) (born 1939) is an Israeli culture researcher and professor at Tel Aviv University. Even-Zohar is a pioneer of polysystem theory and the theory of cultural repertoires. Biography Itamar Even-Zoha ...

, he theorized translation as a form of rewriting produced and read with a set of ideological and political constraints within the target language cultural system. Lefevere developed the idea of translation as a form of rewriting, which means that any text produced on the basis of another has the intention of adapting that other text to a certain ideology or to a certain poetics, and usually to both. Lefevere, along with

Gideon Toury Gideon Toury ( he, גדעון טורי) (6 June 1942 – 4 October 2016) was an Israeli translation scholar and professor of Poetics, Comparative Literature and Translation Studies at Tel Aviv University, where he held the M. Bernstein Chair of ...

, James S. Holmes and

Jose Lambert José Lambert (born 1941) is a Professor of Comparative Literature at KU Leuven, Belgium, and is best known for his work in Translation Studies. He is also noted for leading international initiatives in this field. Biography Lambert studied Fr ...

, can be considered among the foremost scholars who have made translation studies an autonomous discipline. Together with

Susan Bassnett Susan Edna Bassnett, (born 21 October 1945) is a translation theorist and scholar of comparative literature. She served as pro-vice-chancellor at the University of Warwick for ten years and taught in its Centre for Translation and Comparative C ...

he envisaged that "neither the word, nor the text, but the culture becomes the operational 'unit' of translation". This has been hailed by Edwin Gentzler, one of the leading synthesizers of

translation theory Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

, as the "real breakthrough for the field of translation studies"; it epitomized what is termed "the coming of age" of the discipline; an increasing intercultural or multicultural trend, that might be termed ''the postcolonial turn''.

Publications

* ''Translating Poetry: Seven Strategies and a Blueprint''. Amsterdam: Van Gorcum, 1975 * ''Translating Literature: The German Tradition''. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1977 * ''Literary Knowledge''. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1977 * "Why waste our time on rewrites? The trouble with interpretation and the role of rewriting in an alternative paradigm", in ''The Manipulation of Literature: Studies in Literary Translation'', edited by Theo Hermans, London & Sydney: Croom Helm. 1985 * ''Essays in Comparative Literature''. Calcutta: Papyrus, 1989 * ''Translating Literature: Practice and Theory in a Comparative Literature Framework''. New York: MLA, 1992 * ''Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame''. London/New York:Routledge, 1992 * ''Constructing Cultures'' (with

). London: Multilingual Matters, 1997 ;as editor * ''Poëzie van 1720 tot 1920''. Amsterdam: Coutinho, 1989 * ''Translation – Culture/History: A Source Book''. London/New York: Routledge, 1992 ;as translator *

Herta Müller Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf (german: Nitzkydorf, link=no), Timiș County in Romania, her native language is G ...

, ''Traveling on one Leg'' (transl. with Valentina Glajar). Northwestern University Press, 1999; 2010.

References

External links

Memorium and biodata at the University of Texas website A brief preview of Translation, Rewriting and Manipulation of Literary Fame at Google BooksLefevere on Google Scholar
1945 births 1996 deaths Ghent University alumni Alumni of the University of Essex Belgian translators Linguists from Belgium 20th-century translators Belgian translation scholars 20th-century linguists Translation theorists {{Belgium-academic-bio-stub