Innovative thinking in translation studies: The paradigm of Bassnett's and Lefevere's 'cultural turn'

Abstract

Nowadays, there is an increasing number of scholars who conduct their translation studies from a cultural perspective, or at least, they are paying more attention to the factors relevant to culture in their theoretical researches and translation practices. Such a trend in the field of translation studies might be called as 'cultural turn', which dates back to the 1990s when Bassnett and Lefevere officially suggested that translation studies should take the 'cultural turn' (Bassnett & Lefevere, 2001, p.xi). In this paper, the author introduces Bassnett's and Lefevere's innovative thinking in translation studies, that is, the study of translation is essentially the study of cultural interaction. According to them, translation may be viewed as rewriting or manipulation. Based on their enlightening ideas and the previous studies, the author of this paper then generalizes a theoretical framework which can be used to conduct translation studies, especially from a cultural perspective. The framework includes the theoretical foundation of cultural manipulation and cultural interaction, and some practical manipulative methods to guide translation practices to facilitate cultural communication. The author hopes that this study will contribute at least to some extent to the cultural communication and interaction partly through translation studies and practices. © 2013 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.