Is Culture a Boundary to Translation? A Study of the Cultural Turn in Translation Studies
Author : Dr. Amit R Prajapati
Abstract :
It is notable that various turns in the practice of translation have always preoccupied not only the translation critics but also the practicing translators. Majorly linguistic, cultural and post-colonial turns have, by challenging the activity and the process of translation, also delimited, enriched and expanded the field of Translation Studies. Due to the introduction of the Cultural Turn, the shift from the linguistic turn to the cultural one has been inevitable and noticeable. The operational level of translation cannot be free without entering into the socio-cultural system. This research article very humbly attempts to examine whether culture operates as a boundary to translation delimiting it from the Source Language Text or as a dynamic tool serving as a helping hand to a translator. With the support of the arguments made by certain translation critics, the study finally argues that culture obstructs the activity of translation however it also offers a chance to a translator to redefine the possibilities of translation enriching the Target Language Text. Yes, the untranslatability of some of the culturally loaded words may be realized, solved and redefined by adopting translation strategies like domestication, foreignization, finding for equivalences as cultural substitution etc. It is concluded that though culture poses limits, however it doesn’t prohibit but produces.
Keywords :
Translation, culture, boundary, linguistic, equivalence.
