Mona Baker & Gabriela Saldanha. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (2nd edition)

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Seealso:

CULTURE;ETHICS;GLOBALIZATION;IDEOLOGY;LITERARY

TRANSLATION;MOBILITY;POSTCOLONIALAPPROACHES;

STRATEGIES;TRANSLATABILITY.

Furtherreading

Geertz1973;Asad1986;CliffordandMarcus1986;Feleppa1988;Niranjana

1992;Pálsson1993;Bhabha1994b;Brightman1995;Sturge1997;Wolf

2002;RubelandRosman2003;Trivedi2005;BachmannMedick2006;

Sturge2007.

KATESTURGE

Culture

Untilthebirthofanthropology,culturereferredexclusivelytothehumanistideal

ofwhatwasconsidered‘civilized’inadevelopedsociety.Sincethen,asecond

meaningofcultureasthewayoflifeofapeoplehasbecomeinfluential.Withthe

developmentofdisciplinessuchasculturalstudies,athirdmeaninghasemerged

whichattemptstoidentifypoliticalorideologicalreasonsforspecificcultural

behaviour(seeKatan1999/2004:29).Hence,dependingonthedefinition

adopted,culturemaybeformallylearnt,unconsciouslyshared,orbeasiteof

conflict.Tocomplicatemattersfurther,anthropologiststhemselvesnow

seriouslyquestion‘theoldideaof“apeople”possessing“ashared

culture”’(EriksonandNielson2001:162).

Intranslationstudies,theoristsandpractitionersareequallydividedoverthe

meaningandimportanceofculture,thoughmostwouldtacitlyacceptthatthere

issomeformof‘culturalfilter’(House2002:100)involvedinthetranslation

process

Cultureasasystemofframes

Wecanclarifytheapparentlycontradictorydefinitionsofculturebypresenting

themashierarchicalframesorlevels,eachone(tosomeextent)embedded

withinlargerframes.ThishierarchyisbasedontheTheoryofTypes(Bateson

1972),whichallowsforeachofthecompetingtypesofculture(i.e.definitions)

tobevalidfortranslation,albeitwithintheirownlevel.Inanextensivetreatment

ofcultureinthecontextoftranslationandinterpreting,Katan(1999/2004:26)

proposesadefinitionofcultureasashared‘modeloftheworld’,ahierarchical

systemofcongruentandinterrelatedbeliefs,valuesandstrategieswhichcan

guideactionandinteraction,dependingoncognitivecontext;‘[e]achaspectof

cultureislinkedina[fluid]systemtoformaunifyingcontextofculture’.The

levelsthemselvesarebasedonEdwardT.Hall’spopularanthropological

icebergmodel,the‘TriadofCulture’(1959/1990),whichservestointroduce

onedimensionofthesystem,dividingaspectsofcultureintowhatisvisible

(abovethewaterline),semivisibleandinvisible(Figure1).Theframesbelow

thewaterlineareprogressivelymorehiddenbutalsoprogressivelyclosertoour

unquestionedassumptionsabouttheworldandourown(cultural)identities.A

further,sociological,dimensionmaybedescribedasoperatingontheiceberg

itself.Thelevelsalsoreflectthevariouswaysinwhichwelearnculture:

technically,throughexplicitinstruction;formally,throughtrialanderror

modelling;andinformally,throughtheunconsciousinculcationofprinciplesand

worldviews.

Theextenttowhichatranslatorshouldintervene(i.e.interpretandmanipulate

ratherthanoperateapurelylinguistictransfer)willbeinaccordancewithour

beliefsaboutwhichframe(s)mostinfluencetranslation.Translationscholarstend

tofocusonthemorehiddenlevels,whilepractitionersaremoreconcernedwith

whatisvisibleonthesurface.

Technicalculture:civilization

Thefirstculturalframeisatthetipoftheicebergandcoincideswiththe

humanistconceptofculture.Thefocusisonthetext,dressed(adapting

Newmark1995:80)initsbestcivilizedclothesofaparticularculture.Atthis

‘Technical’level,languagesignshaveaclearWYSIWYG(WhatYouSeeIs

WhatYouGet)referentialfunction,andanyassociatedhiddenvaluesare

‘universal’.Thetaskofthetranslatoratthislevelistotransferthetermsand

conceptsinthesourcetextabroadwithminimumloss(fromliteratureand

philosophicalideastosoftware

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Figure1:AdaptedfromBrakeetal.(1995:39;Katan1999/2004:43)

manuals),sothat‘whatyousee’inthesourcetextisequivalentto‘whatyou

see’inthetargettext.Aslongasthetwocultures‘havereachedacomparable

degreeofdevelopment’,somehaveargued,thereisnoreasonwhymeaning,

readerresponseanduptakeshouldnotbe‘universal’(see,forexample,

Seleskovitch,inNewmark1988:6,andWilss1982:48).ThisiswhatNewmark

(1981:184–5)calls‘theculturalvalue’oftranslation,andindeedthebylawsof

theInternationalFederationofTranslators(n.d.)similarlyassumethatthevalue

oftranslationisthatit‘assistsinthespreadingofculturethroughouttheworld’.

ThechapterheadingsinTranslatorsthroughHistory(Delisleand

Woodsworth1995)giveusanideaofwhatisinvolvedatthislevel:the

inventionofalphabetsandthewritingofdictionaries;thedevelopmentof

nationallanguagesandliteratures,andthespreadofreligionsandculturalvalues.

Dependingontheasymmetriesofpower,spreadingthenewtermsand

conceptsmightbeperceivedasenlightenment,‘thewhiteman’sburden’,an

affront,thewieldingofhegemonyoramuchvaluedadditiontointellectual

debate.However,themainconcernoftranslatorsinterveningatthislevelisthe

textitselfandthetranslationof‘culturebound’terms,or‘culturemes’–defined

asformalized,sociallyandjuridicallyembeddedphenomenathatexistina

particularformorfunctioninonlyoneofthetwoculturesbeingcompared

(Vermeer1983a:8;Nord1997:34).Theseculturemes,or‘culturalcategories’

inNewmark’sterms(1988:95),coverawidearrayofsemanticfields:from

geographyandtraditionstoinstitutionsandtechnologies.SinceVinayand

Darbelnet(1958),variousscholarshaveofferedaplethoraofSTRATEGIESto

compensateforlackofEQUIVALENCEatthislevel(seeKwieciński2001for

ausefulsummary).

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Formalculture:functionalist,appropriatepractices

Hall’ssecond,‘Formal’,levelofculturederivesfromtheanthropological

definition,focusingonwhatisnormalorappropriate(ratherthanwhatis

civilized).HansVermeer’sdefinitionofculture,acceptedbymanytranslatorsas

‘thestandard’,belongstothislevel:‘Cultureconsistsofeverythingoneneedsto

know,masterandfeel,inordertoassesswheremembersofasocietyare

behavingacceptablyordeviantlyintheirvariousroles’(translatedinSnell

Hornby2006:55).

Culturehereisapredictablepatternofsharedpracticeswhichguideactual

(technicallevel)languageuse,forexampleculturespecificgenrepreferences,

protopypesandschemata,orevensimply‘goodstyle’;see,forexample,Clyne

(1991),Ventola(2000)andCandlinandGotti(2004).Whatisjudgedasgood

translationpracticeisalsoguidedbyculturallyspecifictranslationNORMS,

rulesandconventions,including,amongotherthings:whichtextsareaccepted

fortranslation;thetypeoftranslationandcompensationstrategiestoemploy;

andthecriteriabywhichatranslationisjudged(Chesterman1993;Toury

1995).Interventionatthislevelfocusesontheskoposofthetranslationandon

tailoringthetranslationtotheexpectationsofreceiversinthetargetculture.In

practice,however,itisoftenprojectmanagersand‘culturalinterpreters’within

thelanguageindustrywhoultimatelymediateFormalculture,leaving‘the

translator’withtheTechnical,‘lingua’partof‘linguaculture’(Agar1994).

Informalculture:cognitivesystems

Hallcallshisthirdlevelofculture‘Informal’or‘Outofawareness’,becauseit

isnotnormallyaccessibletotheconsciousbrainformetacognitivecomment.At

thislevel,therearenoformalguidestopracticebutinsteadunquestionedcore

valuesandbeliefs,orstoriesaboutselfandtheworld.Assuch,one’sculture,

inculcatedforexamplethoughfamily,schoolandthemedia,becomesa

relativelyfixedinternalrepresentationofreality,Bourdieu’shabitus(see

SOCIOLOGICALAPPROACHES),whichthenbothguidesandconstrains

one’sorientationintherealworld.Psychologicalanthropologydefinesculturein

termsofaWeltanschauung,asharedmodel,maporviewoftheperceivable

world(Korzybski1933/1958);‘mentalprogramming’(Hofstede1980/2001);

‘theformofthingsthatpeoplehaveintheirmind’(Goodenough1957/1964:36)

andwhichorientsindividualandcommunitywaysofdoingthings.Theseare

‘core,primaryethicalvalues’(Chesterman1997:149)or‘transcendental

values’(WalterFisher,inBaker2006a)thatguideFormalculturechoices.The

hierarchyofpreferredvalueorientationsisseenastheresultofacommunity

responsetouniversalhumanneedsorproblems(KluckhohnandStrodtbeck

1961),suchasrelationstotime,andbetweentheindividualandthegroup.With

theircoiningoftheterm‘culturalturn’,LefevereandBassnett(1990:1;seealso

Bassnett1980/2002)wereamongthefirsttopopularizetheviewthat

translationisabiculturalpracticerequiring‘mindshifting’(Taft1981:53)from

onelinguaculturalmodeloftheworldtoanother,andmediating(or

compensating)skillstodealwiththeinevitablerefractionbetweenonereality

andanother.Linguacultureshavebeenstudiedthrough,forexample,the

descriptionoftheir‘culturalgrammar’(Duranti1997:27;Goodenough2003:5),

definedbyWierzbicka(1996:527)as‘asetofsubconsciousrulesthatshapea

people’swaysofthinking,feeling,speaking,andinteracting’.Heremic‘cultural

scripts’(e.g.Wierzbicka2003,2006)providestronglinguisticevidenceforthe

needtotranslateattheinformallevel.Foramoreeticapproachbasedon

orientations,see,forexample,deMooij(2004)andKatan(2006);seealso

Manca(2008)foracorpusdrivenperspective.

Outsidetheiceberg:powerrelations

Sociologistsandscholarsofculturalstudiestendtofocusontheinfluencethat

cultureexercisesonsocietyandinstitutionsintermsofprevailingideologies.

Culturehereisseenastheresultofthe‘pressuresthatsocialstructuresapplyto

socialaction’(Jenks1993:25).Thesepressuresmould,manipulateorconflict

withtheindividualbutsharedmodelsoftheworlddiscussedabove.