The 1960s and 1970s witnessed a transnational call for the establishment of translation theory as an academic discipline within the humanities, with debates on the theoretical foundations of translation flaring up with particular intensity in the context of avantgarde poetry. At the same time, the first successful steps towards the institutionalization of algorithm-based translation technology ('machine translation') were undertaken. Set against the backdrop of this dual development, the following essay discusses four approaches to the conceptualization of literary translation (Jiří Levý, Haroldo de Campos, Henri Meschonnic, Paolo Valesio) with a special focus on the conceptions of movement they entail. At the heart of this inquiry lies the question of how the relationship between 'translation' and 'literary circulation' as it becomes manifest in specific historical constellations can be rendered productive in conceptual terms under consideration of current scholarship in the field.