Bassnett argues that translation is an act of a text. This means that the translator is not a neutral mediator but an active participant who shapes the text for a new audience. Key Themes in "Translation, History, and Culture"
Translation is a form of manipulation. It shapes how a reader perceives the source text.
A: Earlier theorists (like Vinay & Darbelnet) focused on linguistic structures. Bassnett focuses on ideology, historical context, and power dynamics. translation history and culture susan bassnett pdf
Historically, colonial powers utilized translation to construct a specific image of the colonized "Other" that justified subjugation. Conversely, translation also served as a tool of resistance, enabling colonized cultures to reappropriate Western texts and subvert colonial authority. Bassnett demonstrated that studying the history of translation is, in essence, studying the history of global power struggles. Navigating Research: Finding Susan Bassnett’s Work
: Moving text from one country to another causes cultures to push, pull, and change each other. 🔑 Key Ideas in the Book Susan Bassnett - Translation Studies - UniCA Bassnett argues that translation is an act of a text
Introduced formally in the 1990 volume Translation, History, and Culture (co-edited with André Lefevere), the "Cultural Turn" argued that the object of study in translation should be the cultural text rather than just the sentence or word. Bassnett and Lefevere stated that translation is an act of cultural negotiation. The target culture's norms, values, and taboos dictate how a text is received, adapted, and sometimes censored. 3. Translation as Refraction and Rewriting
A more recent collection of Bassnett's insights into the evolving landscape of the field. Academic Access and Ethical Retrieval It shapes how a reader perceives the source text
To fully understand the arguments first proposed in Translation, History and Culture , one must turn to Constructing Cultures: Essays on Literary Translation (1998). This book brings together for the first time the work of the two translator/scholars who are regarded as founders of this major field of study [10†L7-L8]. It continues to develop some of the principal research lines that both have been pursuing in recent years, most specifically the cultural turn in Translation Studies [3†L18-L21][10†L10-L11].
Before the 1980s, translation studies were heavily focused on linguistic equivalence—essentially, how to make a word in Language A match a word in Language B perfectly. Bassnett, along with Lefevere, advocated for a move away from this purely linguistic, prescriptive approach toward a more descriptive and functional one. What is the "Cultural Turn"?