THE TRANSLATION STUDIES READER EDITED BY LAWRENCE VENUTI The Translation Studies Reader The Translation Studies Reader provides a definitive survey of the most important and influential developments in translation theory and research, with an emphasis on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The introductory essays prefacing each section place a wide range of seminal and innovative readings within their various contexts, thematic and cultural, institutional and historical. The third edition of this classic reader has been substantially revised and updated. Notable features include: •Five new readings that sample key trends in translation research since 2000 • A fresh, more accurate translation of Walter Benjamin’s challenging essay, “The Translator’s Task” •Incisive commentary on topics of current debate in the field such as “world” literature, linguistically divided cities, interpreting in wartime, and the internet • A conceptual organization that illuminates the main models of translation theory and practice: instrumental versus hermeneutic. The Translation Studies Reader is essential for anyone pursuing the study and prac- tice of translation. Contributors: Kwame Anthony Appiah, Walter Benjamin, Antoine Berman, Jorge Luis Borges, Annie Brisset, Lori Chamberlain, Michael Cronin, Nicolas Perrot D’Ablancourt, David Damrosch, Jacques Derrida, John Dryden, Itamar Even-Zohar, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Keith Harvey, Roman Jakobson, Jerome, André Lefevere, Philip E. Lewis, Ian Mason, Vladimir Nabokov, Eugene Nida, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ezra Pound, Vicente L. Rafael, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Sherry Simon, Gayatri Spivak, George Steiner, Gideon Toury, Lawrence Venuti, Hans J. Vermeer. Lawrence Venuti, Professor of English at Temple University, USA, is a translation theorist and historian as well as a translator from Italian, French, and Catalan. He is the author of The Translator’s Invisibility (second edition, 2008), The Scandals of Translation (1998), and Translation Changes Everything (2013), all published by Routledge. “This new edition promises to inspire new debates and to remain an essential point of reference for translator training programmes.” Carol O’Sullivan, University of Portsmouth, UK “This authoritative anthology combines a generous selection of classic pronouncements on translation with challenging more recent pieces, offering insightful editorial guidance throughout. No collection of books on translation theory is complete without it.” Dirk Delabastita, Pluri-LL (University of Namur) and CETRA (KU Leuven), Belgium “Since the appearance of the first edition of The Translation Studies Reader, it has been the main textbook in every translation seminar I have taught. The new material in this edition, including pieces on the role of trans- lation in world literature and as (anti)colonial practice, increases still further the value of this anthology for the teaching of translation studies.” Thomas Beebee, Pennsylvania State University, USA Praise for previous editions “There is no other book out there that could fulfil the same function . it is both eminently useful and attractively presented . it’s hard to imagine anyone teaching a course on translation studies without assigning this book to students as a core text.” Susan Bernofsky, Queens College, New York, USA “This book offers a challenging and stimulating perspective on transla- tion theory in the twentieth century. Many of the essays included in the collection are seminal ones, others are exciting, innovative pieces that invite us to reflect again on our understanding and knowledge of the translation process.” Susan Bassnett, University of Warwick, UK “This is a remarkable selection of the most important twentieth century contributions to the principles and procedures of translation, but what makes this volume so valuable are Venuti’s insightful notes that bring these contributions into proper focus for both students and teachers of translation.” Eugene Nida The Translation Studies Reader Third Edition Edited by Lawrence Venuti First published 2000 by Routledge Second edition published 2004 by Routledge This edition published 2012 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 100017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2000, 2004, 2012 Lawrence Venuti, selection and editorial matter; individual chapters, the contributors. The right of Lawrence Venuti to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted, in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The translation studies reader / edited by Lawrence Venuti. — 3rd ed. p. cm. 1. Translating and interpreting—History. I. Venuti, Lawrence. P306.T7436 2012 418’.02—dc23 2011047893 ISBN: 978-0-415-61347-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-61348-4 (pbk) Typeset in Perpetua and Bell Gothic by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon For Julius David Venuti ma tu ci hai trovato e hai scelto nel gatto quei miagolii che non lo fanno apposta! Contents Acknowledgments xi INTRODUCTION 1 Foundational statements 11 1 Jerome 21 LETTER TO PAMMACHIUS Translated by Kathleen Davis 2 Nicolas Perrot D’Ablancourt 31 PREFACES TO TACITUS AND LUCIAN Translated by Lawrence Venuti 3 John Dryden 38 FROM THE PREFACE TO OVID’S EPISTLES 4 Friedrich Schleiermacher 43 ON THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF TRANSLATING Translated by Susan Bernofsky 5 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 64 TRANSLATIONS Translated by Sharon Sloan viii CONTENTS 6 Friedrich Nietzsche 67 TRANSLATIONS Translated by Walter Kaufmann 1900s–1930s 69 7 Walter Benjamin 75 THE TRANSLATOR’S TASK Translated by Steven Rendall 8 Ezra Pound 84 GUIDO’S RELATIONS 9 Jorge Luis Borges 92 THE TRANSLATORS OF THE ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS Translated by Esther Allen 1940s–1950s 107 10 Vladimir Nabokov 113 PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION: ONEGIN IN ENGLISH 11 Roman Jakobson 126 ON LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF TRANSLATION 1960s–1970s 133 12 Eugene Nida 141 PRINCIPLES OF CORRESPONDENCE 13 George Steiner 156 THE HERMENEUTIC MOTION 14 Itamar Even-Zohar 162 THE POSITION OF TRANSLATED LITERATURE WITHIN THE LITERARY POLYSYSTEM 15 Gideon Toury 168 THE NATURE AND ROLE OF NORMS IN TRANSLATION 1980s 183 16 Hans J. Vermeer 191 SKOPOS AND COMMISSION IN TRANSLATION THEORY Translated by Andrew Chesterman 17 André Lefevere 203 MOTHER COURAGE’S CUCUMBERS: TEXT, SYSTEM AND REFRACTION IN A THEORY OF LITERATURE CONTENTS ix 18 Philip E. Lewis 220 THE MEASURE OF TRANSLATION EFFECTS 19 Antoine Berman 240 TRANSLATION AND THE TRIALS OF THE FOREIGN Translated by Lawrence Venuti 20 Lori Chamberlain 254 GENDER AND THE METAPHORICS OF TRANSLATION 1990s 269 21 Annie Brisset 281 THE SEARCH FOR A NATIVE LANGUAGE: TRANSLATION AND CULTURAL IDENTITY Translated by Rosalind Gill and Roger Gannon 22 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak 312 THE POLITICS OF TRANSLATION 23 Kwame Anthony Appiah 331 THICK TRANSLATION 24 Keith Harvey 344 TRANSLATING CAMP TALK: GAY IDENTITIES AND CULTURAL TRANSFER 25 Jacques Derrida 365 WHAT IS A “RELEVANT” TRANSLATION? Translated by Lawrence Venuti 2000s and beyond 389 26 Ian Mason 399 TEXT PARAMETERS IN TRANSLATION: TRANSITIVITY AND INSTITUTIONAL CULTURES 27 David Damrosch 411 TRANSLATION AND WORLD LITERATURE: LOVE IN THE NECROPOLIS 28 Sherry Simon 429 TRANSLATING MONTREAL: THE CROSSTOWN JOURNEY IN THE 1960S 29 Vicente L. Rafael 451 TRANSLATION, AMERICAN ENGLISH, AND THE NATIONAL INSECURITIES OF EMPIRE x CONTENTS 30 Michael Cronin 469 THE TRANSLATION AGE: TRANSLATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE NEW INSTRUMENTALISM 31 Lawrence Venuti 483 GENEALOGIES OF TRANSLATION THEORY: JEROME Works Cited 503 Index 531 Chapter 14 Itamar Even-Zohar THE POSITION OF TRANSLATED LITERATURE WITHIN THE LITERARY POLYSYSTEM Dedicated to the memory of James S. Holmes – a great student of translation and a dear friend. 1 N SPITE OF THE BROAD RECOGNITION among historians of I culture of the major role translation has played in the crystallization of national cultures, relatively little research has been carried out so far in this area. As a rule, histories of literatures mention translations when there is no way to avoid them, when dealing with the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, for instance. One might of course find sporadic references to individual literary translations in various other periods, but they are seldom incorporated into the historical account in any coherent way. As a consequence, one hardly gets any idea whatsoever of the function of trans- lated literature for a literature as a whole or of its position within that literature. Moreover, there is no awareness of the possible existence of translated literature as a particular literary system. The prevailing concept is rather that of “translation” or just “translated works” treated on an individual basis. Is