Translating the American textbook

This article analyzes the development of academic textbook publishing from a translation studies viewpoint. Based on the existing literature and on the analysis of the paratextual features of a few key titles, the author first outlines the specificities of this genre of academic writing and editorial product as it developed in the twentieth century in the United States. Then follows an exploration of how a few of the most distinguished representatives of this genre made their way into other European languages, and of the factors that either favored or impeded the “translation” of the underlying textbook adoption system. The focus is on French-speaking contexts. As a conclusion, it is argued that to understand the international circulation and translation of academic textbooks, one needs to consider – in relation to the dimensions commonly acknowledged in sociologies of translation, such as the size of publishing industries and markets, or the relative position and symbolic capital of the languages, fields...