Polysystem Theory
1. Historical and Theoretical Backdrop of Polysystem Theory
Early in 1969, Israeli scholar and professor at Tel Aviv University Itamar Even-Zohar suggested polysystem theory while working on Israeli literature. Later in 1978 he collected his articles and papers written from 1970 till 1977 as Papers in Historical Poetics, covering main ideas of polysystem theory in details. Since then, Even-Zohar has been developing polysystem theory, designed to deal with dynamics and heterogeneity in culture. In his collection of works Polysystem Studies in 1990, he continued to reformulate and improve his ideas of polysystem theory. Since polysystem hypothesis was proposed, a number of Israeli scholars notably Gideon Toury and Lambert had discussed, tested its applicability and developed the theory.
The emergence of polysystem theory was closely associated with the parallel developments in its social and historical situation to a certain extent. First of all, polysystem theory saw the rise of Israeli translation studies, which could be represented by the boom of Tel Aviv School. Even-Zohar and
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his colleges especially Gideon Toury are mainly titled the Tel Aviv School of Poetics and Semiotics since their work centered on Tel Aviv University, Israel. In addition, Israel first published international journals TRANSST (The International Newsletter of Translation Studies), and Target (International Journal of Translation Studies) respectively in 1987 and 1989, furthering the development of translation studies.
Contrary to the current rosy scene, before the 1970s, Israel had witnessed its translation theories and practice move rather slowly and its Hebrew culture in an inferior status for thousands of years. However, since the 1970s, Israel has strived for the rejuvenation of Hebrew culture with its scholars endeavoring to bring the Hebrew culture to the sight of people and even to the center of the world. While working on Israeli Hebrew literature, Israeli scholars also developed their own translation theories based on relevant research. In his Contemporary Translation Theories, American translation theorist Edwin Gentzler (2004:107)explained the reasons for the boom of Israeli translation studies：Israeli scholars interacted with German, Russian, and later Anglo-American scholars, and found themselves at a crossroad not only between the Soviet Union and the West, but between Western and “Third World ” countries.
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Having few people speaking in “minor” languages, Israeli “national” literature is very much influenced by “major” literature such as German, Russian and Anglo-American literatures. Worse still, Israel, lacking a canon of literary works, was totally dependent upon foreign language texts to provide both diversity and depth. Hence, the survival of the nation became dependent on translation.
Thanks to the importance of translation, translation studies has thereupon gradually come to prominence in Israeli academic circle. There is no doubt that the development of polysystem theory constitutes an integral part of the rise of Israeli translation studies.
Polysystem theory has its origins in comparative literature and the structuralist and semiotic traditions of the Russian Formalists and Czech Structuralists. The general approaches adopted by Even-Zohar and Gideon Toury rely to a great extent on the Russian Formalists in the 1920s---Viktor Shklovskij, Jurij Tynjanov, Roman Jakobson and others, and their successors in the following decade, mainly the Czech Structuralists, among which the ideas of Jurij Tynjanov played a vital role in the formulation of “polysystem”. Having introduced the concept of “system”, Tynjanov viewed a literary work as part of a literary
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system, which itself is defined as “a system of functions of the literary order which are in continual interrelationship with other orders” (Munday 2001:109). Based on this concept, Even-Zohar developed a new term “polysystem”. Apart from this, Even-Zohar and Gideon Toury borrowed from multiple other ideas of Tynjanov, such as his hierarchical structure of differing literary systems, his concept of defamiliarization as the measuring device for historical literary significance, and even his concept of literary mutation and evolution.
Using the work of Tynjanov and other Formalists as his starting point, Even-Zohar took up the systematic approach, aiming initially to resolve certain problems connected with translation theory and the historical structure of Hebrew literature. His application of the Formalists’ ideas in these areas finally resulted in the formulation of polysystem theory.
In conclusion, the favorable socio-historical background of polysystem theory has facilitated its emergence while the ideas of Formalists and Structuralists have laid a solid theoretical foundation for it.
1.2 Development of Polysystem Theory in the West
Ever since it was formulated, polysystem theory has
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experienced many a drastic change. A number of scholars in various countries have attempted to improve, advance, enlarge and experiment with the theory, promoting its development.
2 Major Concepts of Polysystem Theory
Polysystem theory is actually not intended for translation studies; instead, it is a theory on culture. Even-Zohar’s essay “Polysystem Theory”, as the core of polysystem theory, boasts three versions. “Polysystem Theory” was first published in 1979 and the second in 1990, both pertaining to the literary study and the translation studies. Subsequently, the 1997 version indicates that polysystem theory has already evolved from a literary theory to an ordinary cultural theory3.
2.1 Even-Zohar’ s Polysystem
The concept of polysystem coined by Even-Zohar constitutes a fundamental idea of polysystem theory. During his research, he adopted one of the currently leading ideas that sign-governed human patterns of communication, also known as semiotic phenomena, including culture, language, literature, and society should be regarded as systems rather than conglomerates of disparate elements. Based on this idea, Zohar (1990:11)
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