The author pays tribute to the extent and range of achievements of André Clas, by highlighting the importance he placed on translation, and in particular his editorial work with the journal Meta. He then focuses on four fundamental methodological approaches in translatology: prescriptive or normative, descriptive, inductive or scientific, and productive (directed towards practice). He criticizes the contrastivists, who are interested in translation only from the point of view of comparing the languages, and places them in opposition to the real traductologists, who deal in the reality of translation practice. He ultimately addresses, on new grounds, the immemorial question of literalism in translation, with the target vs. source proponents on opposing flanks.