In
this article, we discuss the archaeological phase of our research into
retranslating in the Finnish literary system. We address the issue from the
point of view of the past and future development on retranslation research,
focusing on methodology. We argue that for our understanding of the phenomenon
to advance, the traditional case study orientation of retranslation research
needs to be complemented with other, macro level approaches. We discuss what
kinds of research questions our archaeological data allowed us to generate, how
collecting bibliographical information of a larger set of translations allowed
us to place individual case studies within the bigger picture, and how it
allowed us to compare our findings to similar, macro level research done by
other scholars. The next step for retranslation research will, we believe,
consist of studies asking new questions on the basis of such macro level
empirical evidence (tested on new, targeted data sets or case studies) and
comparisons between these studies completed in different cultural, historical
and literary contexts.