Wykład 2

• Polysystem theory refers to culture as such. When we think about culture, we can think about it as a system of systems. We can have here different subsystems like original literature and translated literature.
• Polysystem - combined system of original literary texts and translated literary texts
• Ever-Zohar believed that translated literature may influence original literature or original literature may be so strong that translated literature may follow the conventions of the original literature.
• Primary position – translated literature participates in modeling the cultural, textual, and linguistic target system.
• Translating tends to assume a primary position when:

  1. A polysystem has not yet been crystalized when literature is young, in the process of being established
  2. A literature is either peripheral or weak or both
  3. There are turning points, crises, or literary vacuums in a literature
• Secondary position – translated literature does not significantly influence the cultural, textual, and linguistic target system.
• Dominant and peripheral cultures:

  1. If we translate into the dominant culture usually preservation and domestication will be a very strong translatorial norm
  2. Weak target system (in which translation becomes a primary activity) undergoes changes in its language and discourse habits and traditions
• Translation - primary position:

  • Participates actively in shaping the center of the polysystem
  • Innovatory force – it can introduce something new into the target culture
  • When new literary models are emerging in some cultures – translation is likely to become one of the means of elaborating the new repertoire, based on this repertoire original works in a given language can be created
  • Through the foreign works, features are introduced into the home literature which did not exist there before – it may be introduced through translation if a translation is a strong force in a given system/period.
• Translation – peripheral position:

  • Translated literature maintains a peripheral position = it constitutes a peripheral system within the polysystem, generally employing secondary models.
  • Translated literature has no influence on major processes and is modeled according to norms already conventionally established by an already dominant type in the target language
  • Translated literature in this case becomes a major factor in conservatism
• Fluidity of the polysystem:

  • The hypothesis that translated literature may be either a central or peripheral system does not imply that it is always one or another
  • As a system, translated literature is itself stratified: while one section of translated literature may assume a central position, another may remain quite peripheral
  • When there is intense interference, it is the portion of translated literature deriving from a major source literature which is likely to assume a central position
• Consequences of the primary position of translated literature in a polysystem:

  • Translation participates in the process of creating new, primary models- the translators are ready to violate home conventions.
  • Translations will be done according to the initial normal adequacy.
  • It is all interrelated – If the translation is important, the translators are much more prepared to be courageous in not following the established norms.
• Consequences of the peripheral position of translated literature in a polysystem:

  • The translator’s main effort is to concentrate on finding the best ready-made secondary models for the foreign text (domestication)
  • A non-adequate translation
  • Adopting ready literary models (acceptability)