"Power" And "Constructing Cultures": On Susan Bassnett's And André Lefevere's Translation Studies

The"cultural turn"in translation studies in 1990s is a major paradigm shift and a great breakthrough for translation studies. Susan Bassnett and AndréLefevere are the leaders in this turn. Their translation studies have pushed translation studies to take the"cultural turn", and have left a far reaching influence to later translation studies.As Bassnett's and Lefevere's translation studies are so important for the"cultural turn"and later translation studies, based on a study on their main works on translation studies, this thesis sets out to explore the key concepts of Bassnett's and Lefevere's translation studies, which are believed to be"power"and"constructing cultures", with the purpose of contributing to a better understanding of Bassnett's and Lefevere's translation studies and a better understanding of the"cultural turn"in translation studies and later translation studies.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One points out that since Bassnett and Lefevere are both the most important translation studies scholars who have jointly pushed translation studies to take the"cultural turn", and since each of their studies tests and illuminates the other, this thesis intends to make a research on the key concepts in Bassnett's and Lefevere's translation studies in order to open a door for us to understand their translation studies, the"cultural turn"in translation studies and later translation studies.Chapter Two intends to find out the key concepts in Bassnett's and Lefevere's translation studies by examining their main research work and interpreting the definitions they give to"translation". Through this study, the key concepts are believed to be"power"and"constructing cultures".Chapter Three elaborates on the two key concepts:"power"and"constructing cultures"."Power"is the manipulative forces in translation practice, which are primarily ideology, patronage, poetics, the"Universe of Discourse"and language. The forces decide largely such issues as what to translate, how to translate and so on."Constructing cultures"is their stress on the role of translation, which is reflected in the fact that translation creates an image of the original in the reader's mind and has an influence on the development of the literary system and the cultural system. The author also tentatively builds an association between the two key concepts through a study on the conditions for admitting the translation into the target culture, for only if such conditions are met can the translation produced under power manipulation take part in constructing cultures.Chapter Four illustrates four main illuminations of Bassnett's and Lefevere's ideas of"power"and"constructing cultures"on translation studies and cultural studies, by making a comparative study of Bassnett's and Lefevere's translation studies and the translation studies before and after the"cultural turn". On the one hand, it shows that Bassnett's and Lefevere's translation studies have corrected some old misconceptions in translation practice, and they point out that the equivalence in translation is conditional and that it is more important to transfer the culture-loaded information than to transfer the literal meaning of the original. On the other hand, it shows that later translation studies have inherited and developed some of their ideas and have carried out further studies in many research areas which they have touched upon or suggested in their studies: their idea of power manipulation have been adopted by many scholars in the study of translation practice and their studies on power have finally pushed the"power turn"in translation studies; they have promoted the studies on translator's subjectivity and responsibility in constructing cultures; they, as well as many other scholars, have made an attempt to bridge the gap between translation studies and cultural studies and promote the joint development of translation studies and cultural studies.Chapter Five is a summary of the whole thesis. The author points out that since translations are produced and accepted under power manipulation and they play an important role of constructing cultures, Bassnett's and Lefevere's ideas of"power"and"constructing cultures"will constantly be influential in translation studies as well as cultural studies.