本书的写作视角是考察当代西方翻译研究的主要成果及其对翻译活动产生的影响，重点探讨当代西方翻译理论的发展脉络，梳理这一时期欧美翻译学界的主流思想。全书从翻译研究概况入手，分析20世纪后四十年到本世纪初的主要翻译流派，涉及语言学翻译理论，功能学派翻译理论，阐释学派翻译理论、文化研究学派翻译理论、解构主义翻译理论、女性主义翻译理论及后殖民主义翻译理论，并对当今翻译研究和翻译实践中有争议的三个重要问题进行了讨论。
本书的目标读者是高校翻译专业的本科生和研究生，也可以作为翻译研究人员和译者了解当代西方翻译思想的参考书目。

PART I Introduction to Translation Studies
Chapter 1 Introduction to Translation as a Discipline
1. Basics of Translation
2. Criteria of Translation
3. Constraints of Translation
4. Nature of Translation
5. Misconceptions Concerning Translation and Translators
Chapter 2 Translation Studies: Emergence of a Discipline
1. Overview of the Development in Translation Studies
2. Features of Contemporary Western Approaches to Translation
3. Selected Readings: The Name and Nature of Translation Studies by James S.
PART II Main Approaches to Contemporary Translation Theories
Chapter 3 Linguistic Approach: A Scientific Perspective
1. Main Thoughts and Critiques
2. Chief Theorists and Scholars
3. Selected Readings: On Linguistic Aspects of Translation by Roman Jakobson
Chapter 4 Functional Approach: A Skopos Perspective
1. Main Thoughts and Critiques
2. Chief Theorists and Scholars
3. Selected Readings: Skopos and Commission in Translational Action by Hans J.Vermeer
Chapter 5 Hermeneutics: An Angle to Interpret
1. Main Thoughts and Critiques
2. Chief Theorists and Scholars
3. Selected Readings: The Hermeneutic Motion by George Steiner
Chapter 6 Cultural Translation Studies: A Culture-oriented Perspective
1. Main Thoughts and Critiques
2. Chief Theorists and Scholars
3. Selected Readings: The Position of Translated Literature Within the Literary Polysystem by Itamar Even-Zohar
Chapter 7 Deconstructionism: A Philosophical Perspective
1. Main Thoughts and Critiques
2. Chief Theorists and Scholars
3. Selected Readings: Translation, Community, Uopia by Lawrence Venuti
Chapter 8 Fenminism: A Gender-based Perspective
1. Main Thoughts and Critiques
2. Chief Theorists and Scholars
3. Selected Readings: Gender and the Metaphorics of Translation by Lori Chamberlain
Chapter 9 Postcolonialism: An Integrated Perspective
1. Main Thoughts and Critiques
2. Chief Theorists and Scholars
3. Selected Readings: The Politics of Translation by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
PART III ToPics and Issues in Translation Practice
Chapter 10 Translatability and Untranslatability
Selected Readings: Thick Translation by Kwame Anthony Appiah
Chapter 11 Domestication and Foreignization
Selected Readings: Translation and the Trials of the Foreign by Antoine Berman
Chapter 12 Translator's Subjectivity
Selected Readings: The Task of the Translator by Walter Benjamin
Bibliography