Greg Hunt Oct 23, 2015:

There's nothing to apologise for. If anything, I think it's just an unfortunate effect of this medium. If we'd been discussing this face-to-face, there wouldn't have been any kind of problem - quite the opposite, I'm sure.

Charles Davis Oct 23, 2015:

@Greg I was a bit brusque and a bit chippy the other day; I must have been in a bad mood. I apologise. Your position is perfectly reasonable.

Greg Hunt Oct 23, 2015:

Fair enough. In fact, I agree with you. My initial suggestion was literally the first thing that occurred to me in the 30 seconds I had before going into a class. I now think that something like what Charles and others have suggested would work better here - perhaps "a review of the literature", "a recent overview", "the state of current thinking on this issue". I'm even going to change my vote, which was genuinely neutral because I wasn't sure at the time, but wanted to respond there and then to comments made on Charles's answer.
The point I was trying, but plainly failing, to make in my recent comments here was not that "the state of the art" was the best option for this particular case (although it's also true that we don't really have a lot of context), but that it was not inappropriate, or something which "hardly" worked, in the field of history in general.

Thomas Walker Oct 23, 2015:

I have to go with Charles' proposed translation on this. In my experience, "State of the Art" usually refers to a field, to a discipline or a subdiscipline; "survey of the current state of knowledge" would more likely refer to a specific question, a specific topic, much more focused than "state of the art". A "literature review" is likely to be a part of a statement of either "state of the art" or "survey of the current state of knowledge" - but either would have to include more than a literature review: maybe unpublished research, personal communications, proposed research projects, trends in thinking.
BTW, Justin: your cited segment is "estado de la cuestión y completa biografía" - is it possible that maybe that should have been "...y completa **bibliografia**"? Extensive bibliographies commonly accompany statements about the status of our knowledge of a field.

Charles Davis Oct 20, 2015:

Yes, the one you cited in your comment does use "state of the art" as a title. The others use the phrase but not as a title.

Here are some more good examples of state of the art as a title in history:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1889663
http://labor.dukejournals.org/content/4/3/134.citation
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/eb048627

The relative frequency I was referring to was "state of the art" versus alternatives in English, in the field of history.

Greg Hunt Oct 20, 2015:

I didn't say you did say "unprecedented".
To really settle the question of relative frequency, we'd have to study the frequency of "el estado de la cuestión" in Spanish and compare them. I'm not sure we'd find a big difference - but I don't know.
One of the links is broken: http://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com.es/2012/08/open-acces...
On the Cambridge one, you need to click on one of the "read more" links I think.
In the example reference I gave below your answer, the author uses the phrase in precisely the sense you describe as the title of a whole section of a chapter.
Despite all this, I must insist that I'm not 100% sure it's what I'd choose, but my point was that I don't think it's something that can be dismissed as something which "hardly" works for history - as it plainly seems to work pretty well.

Charles Davis Oct 20, 2015:

Review article This is an option in US English, but in British academic usage it means something different: an extended review, often of two or three new publications on a subject.

Charles Davis Oct 20, 2015:

@Greg I didn't say unprecedented, I said unusual. I could find you half a dozen examples straight away. It's a question of relative frequency.

It *is* unusual. Remember that we are not looking for examples of someone referring to "the state of the art" in historical research, in a blurb or review, for example; we're looking for what to call a piece of work of the kind that is called "estado de la cuestión" in Spanish, in the academic field of history. And it is unusual to find this called this a "the state of the art", unusual enough for it not to be recommended as a translation, in my view.

By the way, I've checked your links and I can't find "state of the art" in all of them.

Greg Hunt Oct 20, 2015:

I'm not totally sold on it, but it's just that it's not *that* unusual either.

Greg Hunt Oct 20, 2015:

Search for "state of the art" here: http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/ClasDram/chapters/011intro.htm
http://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com.es/2012/08/open-acces...
html http://www.brill.com/publications/brills-companions-classica...
http://www.jhsonline.org/reviews/review119.htm

Greg Hunt Oct 20, 2015:

State of the art Some examples: http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/classical-stud... : "Gerson’s many contributors have also all risen to a formidable task, making this an impressive showcase for the state of the art in a field that is rapidly gaining in recognition".

Charles Davis Oct 20, 2015:

State of the art is a term applied mainly to scientific and technological fields. It is unusual in academic writing on history.

MarinaM Oct 20, 2015:

State fo the art I agree with Greg. If "estado de la cuestión" is at the beginning, it should be rendered as State of the art. If at the end, literature review.

Greg Hunt Oct 20, 2015:

State of the art?