Advantages and Disadvantages of the Theory

Polysystem theory did take into consideration the social contexts that give birth to literature. It also systematized literature, translated or otherwise, into various strata. However, there were objections to the way in which Even-Zohar built up a hierarchy for languages. There were many who felt that this was too simplistic and that the hierarchy given by Even-Zohar had many other explanations too. For example, if one language is lower down the social hierarchy, does that mean that the language is inferior? Consider the case of Indian languages like Hindi and English in India. Hindi does not have the power and prestige of English in India . Most of the translation work in India is from Hindi / Indian languages into English. If we go with Even-Zohar's initial theory, this would mean that Hindi is an inferior language and culture, which is relatively new when compared to English. But we all know that this is a very superficial and simplistic assumption and the reality of the situation is complicated by a host of non-literary reasons. Even-Zohar took all these into consideration and did try to modify his theory.Today, Polysystem theory has travelled far from these initial premises and is looking into the non-literary factors that govern translation as well.