cultural situation offers the translation theory an escape from the constraint that limited the previous theories in the 1960s and 1970s. Additionally, DTS guided by polysystem theory gives accurate definitions of various kinds of translation such as literal translation, literary translation, rewriting, pseudo-translation, so it avoids the confusion and the endless significant disputes caused by the prescriptive translation norms (李文革2004:203).
Gentzler(2004:119-123) summarizes the advantages of polysystem theory over other earlier theories. First, it allows for its own augmentation and integrates the study of literature with the study of social and economic forces of history. Secondly, its initiator Even-Zohar moves away from the isolated study of individual texts towards the study of translation within the cultural and literary systems in which it functions. Finally, the non-prescriptive definition of equivalence and adequacy allows for variation according to the historical and cultural situation of the text.
In a broad sense, polysystem theory has exerted a profound influence on translation studies. First and foremost, it gives attention and thought to the role of translation within a literary system, which was once ignored by literary theorists for a long time. Before the emergence of polysystem theory, literary
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translation had seldom been incorporated into the historical account in any coherent way in the long course of the histories of literature. The function of translated literature for a literature as a whole or its position within that literature was not studied by scholars. Meanwhile, there was no awareness of the possible existence of translated literature as a particular literary system. By demonstrating the importance of translation within the larger context of literary studies, polysystem theory has greatly changed the peripheral position of translated literature within the literary system.
Furthermore, it proves those remarkable contributions that translation has made to the cultural development, which has directly enhanced the cultural position of translation on the ideological level, and indirectly raised the academic position of translation studies. Since it has deconstructed the prescriptive focus on what translation should be, it has encouraged researchers to explore what translation does in specific cultural settings. To put it differently, it looks at actual translations within the larger sociological context, and incorporates social, historical and cultural factors into its hypothesis, expanding the scope of translation studies.
Hence, polysystem theory has made an enormous
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contribution to translation studies, not only providing a useful framework for making the emerging discipline of translation studies academically acceptable but also facilitating the so-called “culture turn”.
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