Gideon Toury (; 6 June 1942 – 4 October 2016) was an Israeli translation scholar and professor of Poetics, Comparative Literature and Translation Studies at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

, where he held the M. Bernstein Chair of Translation Theory. Gideon Toury was a pioneer of Descriptive Translation Studies.

Biography

Gideon Toury was born in Haifa, the first child of the historian Jacob Toury (1915–2004) and his wife Eve. He completed high school at the Reali School in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

in 1960. After high-school, he did his military service in the Nahal Brigade and the paratroopers and as part of his training was sent to a kibbutz, to help out with the farming. He lived there for six years, and he ended up editing the kibbutz journal and organizing cultural events. This experience helped him obtaining a position in a children's journal, where he did his first translations, and later as the editor of the Hebrew version of ''Popular Photography''. He graduated with honors in Hebrew language and Literature at Tel Aviv University in 1970, and completed a PhD Literary Theory at the same university in 1977 on the topic of ''Translational Norms and Literary Translation into Hebrew, 1930-1945''. In 1980 he won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for his translation into Hebrew of C.S. Lewis ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader''. He was the first chair professor in CETRA, the research program in

Translation Studies Translation studies is an academic interdiscipline dealing with the systematic study of the theory, description and application of translation, interpreting, and localization. As an interdiscipline, translation studies borrows much from the vari ...

created by

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 F ...

in 1989. In 1999, he was awarded honorary membership of the UNESCO Chair of Translation Studies at Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia. In 2000, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated to MDX) is a public research university based in Hendon, northwest London, England. The university also has campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. The name of the university is ...

, London. From 1970 to 1983, he worked with

Benjamin Harshav Benjamin Harshav (), born Hrushovski (Hebrew: הרושובסקי); June 26, 1928 – April 23, 2015 was a literary theorist specialising in comparative literature, a Yiddish and Hebrew poet (under pen names including H. Benjamin (Hebrew: ה. ב� ...

Itamar Even-Zohar Itamar Even-Zohar (; 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-Zohar was born in Tel Aviv. He ea ...

and

Menachem Perry Menahem or Menachem (, "consoler" or "comforter"; ''Meniḫîmme'' 'me-ni-ḫi-im-me'' Greek language, Greek: Μεναέμ ''Manaem'' in the Septuagint, Μεναέν ''Manaen'' in Aquila of Sinope, Aquila; ; full name: , ''Menahem son of Gad ...

in the journal ''Literature'' and in 1989 he founded '' Target, International Journal of Translation Studies'' and has been general editor since. He is also General Editor of the ''Benjamins Translation Library''. He was also a member of the boards of ''The Translator'' and the ''Translation Studies Abstracts'' until he was "unappointed" following the decision of

Mona Baker Mona Baker (Born Mona Hatim; Arabic: منى حاتم; born September 29, 1953) is a professor of translation studies and Director of the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at the University of Manchester in England. Career Baker s ...

to boycott Israeli academia.

Research

His main research is on the theory of translation and descriptive translation studies, with emphasis on the history of the Hebrew translation of the Bible to the present. According to Toury, there are prescriptive and descriptive studies. Prescriptive approaches aim to formulate rules that should be followed by anyone who produces a text of a given type. They are focused on finding the most optimal or correct solutions. Descriptive approaches are about looking into existing texts and describing the rules they seem to follow. He came up with the term "translation norms", as hidden rules followed by the majority discovered by descriptive observation of actual translation. They are not understood as prescriptive rules but as norms specific to a context. Therefore, norms change with time and culture, so translation re-visits the same problem over and over again.

Publications

He has published three books, a number of edited volumes and numerous articles, in both English and Hebrew, in the fields of translation theory and comparative literature. His articles have also appeared in translation in many other languages, and he is himself an active translator too (with about 30 books and many articles to his credit).

Books in English

* ''In Search of a Theory of Translation''. Tel Aviv: The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel Aviv University. 1980. * ''Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond''. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 1995.

Edited books

* ''Translation Theory: A Reader''.Tel Aviv University: Dyonun. 1980.(English and Hebrew) * With

.''Translation Theory and Intercultural Relations''The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel Aviv University. 1981. * ''Translation Across Cultures.''New Delhi: Bahri Publications. 1987. * ''Introducing Translation Theory: Selected Articles.''Tel Aviv University: Dyonun. 1991. 198 pp. (English and Hebrew)

Edited Journals

* '' Target, International Journal of Translation Studies''. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1989-. (with José Lambert.) * ''TRANSST: An International Newsletter of Translation Studies''. 1987-. (with the help of José Lambert)

Literary Translations into Hebrew

Sheila Burnford Sheila Philip Cochrane Burnford née Every (11 May 1916 – 20 April 1984) was a Scottish writer. She is best known for her novel '' The Incredible Journey'' about two dogs and a cat traveling through the Canadian wilderness. Life and work Bu ...

. '' The Incredible Journey.'' 1970. *

John Masefield John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer. He was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1930 until his death in 1967, during which time he lived at Burcot, Oxfordshire, near Abingdon ...

. ''

The Midnight Folk ''The Midnight Folk'' is a children's fantasy novel by John Masefield first published in 1927. It is about a boy, Kay Harker, who sets out to discover what became of a fortune stolen from his seafaring great grandfather Aston Tirrold Harker (in ...

.'' 1971. *

Francis Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940), widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and exces ...

. ''

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.'' 1974. *

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...

. ''

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.'' 1976. *

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. '' Katz und Maus.'' 1976. *

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

. ''

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.'' (3 Kap.) *

Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...

. ''

The Good Soldier ''The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion'' is a 1915 novel by the British writer Ford Madox Ford. It is set just before World War I, and chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham and his seemingly perfect marriage, along with that of his two A ...

.'' 1977. *

Clive Staples Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

. ''

The Magician's Nephew ''The Magician's Nephew'' is a portal fantasy novel by British author C. S. Lewis, published in 1955 by The Bodley Head. It is the sixth published of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). In recent editions, which sequence ...

.'' 1978. *

Uwe Johnson Uwe Johnson (; 20 July 1934 – 22 February 1984) was a German writer, editor, and scholar. Such prominent writers and scholars as Günter Grass and Hans Mayer declared Johnson to be the most significant writer to emerge from East Germany. Duri ...

. ''Zwei Ansichten.'' 1978. * Clive Staples Lewis. ''

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' is a portal fantasy novel written by British author C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1952. It was the third published of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). Macmillan US p ...

.'' 1979. * Jerome David Salinger. '' The Laughing Man.'' 1979. *

Peter Handke Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrians, Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has ...

. ''Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter.'' 1979. *

Beverly Cleary Beverly or Beverley may refer to: Places Australia * Beverley, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide * Beverley, Western Australia, a town * Shire of Beverley, Western Australia Canada * Beverly, Alberta, a town that amalgamated with the City ...

. ''

Henry Huggins Henry Huggins is a character appearing in a series of children's literature novels by Beverly Cleary, illustrated by Louis Darling, and first appearing in '' Henry Huggins''. He is a young boy living on Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon. In ...

.'' 1979. *

. ''

Prince Caspian ''Prince Caspian'' (originally published as ''Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia'') is a high fantasy novel written by British author C. S. Lewis and published by Geoffrey Bles in 1951. It was the second published of seven novels in ''The C ...

.'' 1980. *

John Cheever John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is mostly set on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs ...

. '' Falconer.'' 1981. *

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), th ...

. '' Mortality and Mercy in Vienna.'' 1981. *

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...

. ''

The Moon Is Down ''The Moon Is Down'' is a novel by American writer John Steinbeck. Fashioned for adaptation for the theatre and for which Steinbeck received the Norwegian King Haakon VII Freedom Cross, it was published by Viking Press in March 1942. The sto ...

.'' 1981. * Clive Staples Lewis. ''

The Horse and His Boy ''The Horse and His Boy'' is a high fantasy novel written by British author C. S. Lewis and published by Geoffrey Bles in 1954. Of the seven novels that comprise ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956), ''The Horse and His Boy'' was the fift ...

.'' 1982. *

Christiane Felscherinow Vera Christiane Felscherinow (born 20 May 1962) is a German actress and musician who is best known for her contribution to the 1978 autobiographical book ''Christiane F.'' (original title: ), and the film and television miniseries based on the ...

. ''Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo.'' 1982. * Clive Staples Lewis. ''

The Silver Chair ''The Silver Chair'' is a portal fantasy novel written by British author C. S. Lewis and published by Geoffrey Bles in 1953. It was the fourth of seven novels published in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956), but became volume six in rec ...

.'' 1983. *

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

. ''

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' is an 1889 historical novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The book was originally titled ''A Yankee in King Arthur's Court''. Some early editions are titled ''A Yankee at the Court ...

.'' 1983. * Clive Staples Lewis. ''

The Last Battle ''The Last Battle'' is a portal fantasy novel written by British author C. S. Lewis, published by The Bodley Head in 1956. It was the seventh and final novel in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). Like the other novels in the series, ...

.'' 1984. *

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. ''Das Vermächtnis.'' 1984. *

. '' Bullet Park.'' 1985. *

. ''

For Whom the Bell Tolls ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned ...

.'' 1986. *

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. '' The Lost World.'' 1986. *

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. ''Szene.'' 1987. *

Thornton Wilder Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, for the novel ''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and ''The Skin of Our Teeth'', and a U. ...

. ''

The Bridge of San Luis Rey ''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' is American author Thornton Wilder's second novel. It was first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, and was the best-selling work of fiction that year. Premise ''The ...

.'' 1988. * Gert Hofmann: ''Auf dem Turm.'' 1991. *

Nevil Shute Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 189912 January 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name to protect his enginee ...

. ''

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.'' 1991. *

. '' Two short stories.'' 1993. *

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

. '' Königliche Hoheit.'' 1994. *

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. '' All the Pretty Horses.'' 1995.

External links

Gideon Toury's Site
includin

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toury, Gideon 1942 births 2016 deaths Academics from Tel Aviv Tel Aviv University alumni Linguists from Israel Israeli translation scholars