A science of the times? Descriptive translation studies and history

The paradigm called Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) claims to ‘describe’ and ‘historicize’ translation. This chapter intends to illuminate this counterintuitive match between description and history. It analyzes the tension between DTS’s fundamental interest in history and its structuralist tendency to model humanistic research on the sciences. Furthermore, it identifies a series of claims concerning translation and history, and it signals to what extent these claims were defended by DTS only or mainly, or advanced by DTS and shared by others, or advanced by rivaling approaches as a critique of DTS. This discussion throws light on the relative unity or internal diversity of DTS