Translation Studies

Being that I am going into a translation course this all seemed very interesting. The concept of source language and target language brings up some complex issues. Which theory of translation I conform to is obviously up in the air, for I feel that a survey of concepts does not signify the whole, and I am sure that there are many more dimensions to the debate. Berman, returning to the German translation practices caught my attention and I enjoyed Venuti's inclusion of Schleiermacher's argument that "'[e]ither the translator leaves the author in peace as much as possible and moves the reader toward him; or he leaves the reader in peace and moves the author toward him'" (Nicholls 305). I wonder though if leaving a translation in its foreign form and not converting it to read smoothly may cause some problems in readership, I would like to think this would produce a more organic representation. 

I would have liked to read more concerning Venuti's last statement, that "because translation also plays a powerful role in the current geopolitical economy, we must go even further to study popular cultural forms" (Nicholls 309). Schleiermacher's static two sides to translation would not be adequate to cover cultural media. Translations of these texts would require a reading also of social time and place because they would encompass ideology and popular culture, which would call for some attention to intention alongside the letter.