Contributions of the Theory

Toury's theory seemed to occupy two opposing theoretical poles. On the one hand he was strongly opposed to the idea of source-oriented translation. But in the practical application of his theories, he often was forced to do a comparative analysis of different translations of the same text. Instead of using real-life examples, he made use of an ideal translation that was often imaginary. He acknowledged that he needed this “invariant of comparison” to locate the translation between his two poles of source-oriented and target-oriented translations. This paradoxically leads to the concept of universals underlying superficial differences in languages and cultures, which contradicted his notion of practical and target-oriented translation theory.

Despite this, Toury's theory has contributed to translation studies in many ways. His theories brought in socio-cultural factors that were largely ignored hitherto in the process of translation. Gentzler points out four ways in which Toury influenced translation studies:

1. The notion of complete linguistic and literary equivalence was abandoned.
2. The literary tendencies of the target culture as determining factors on translation were acknowledged.
3. The notion of an original text with stable meaning was undermined.
4. Both original and translated texts were seen as parts of an interrelated semiotic web.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of Toury's theory was that it took into consideration the fact that translation is an empirical activity undertaken in the real world, and that translators are people driven by their ideology in their choice of translations. Translation then becomes an activity that spreads beyond the purely linguistic and literary realms with far-reaching implications in the actual world.

Assignments

1. What is the contribution of Itamar Even-Zohar to the field of Translation Studies? Do you think his theory is relevant today?
2. Do you agree with Toury’s concepts of norms in translation? Why?
   

References

Even-Zohar, Itamar. “The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem”. The Translation Studies Reader. Ed. Lawrence Venuti. London: Routledge, 2000: 192 – 197.

Gentzler, Edwin. Contemporary Translation Theories. Second revised edition. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2001.

Toury, Gideon. “The Nature and Role of Norms in Translation”. The Translation Studies Reader. Ed. Lawrence Venuti. London: Routledge, 2000: 198 – 211.