Cult Turn EN 1
Chapter 1 ：An analysis of the causes and influences of "cultural turn" in translation history
浅析翻译研究历史中“文化转向”的原因和影响
金晓童 Jin Xiao, Hunan Normal University, China
Abstract
The Culture Turn theorie of translation studies was initially put forword by Bassnett Susan and Andre Lefevre in 1990 in the book Translation, History and Culture: A Source book in which they affirmed that translation is not the simple transform between two languages, it goses in special cultural environment. Since then, the history of translation as a simple tool for the conversion of languages is fading away and gradually transformed into a carrier of culture. There is no doubt that there are differences among different cultures. As a “bridge”, translation plays an intermediary role in the communication between different cultures. However, in the context of globalization becoming the mainstream, the most important problem for translation in the face of cultural differences is how to deal with different cultures. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the causes of cultural turn, seek the positive and negative effects of cultural turn, and further elaborate on the enlightenment of cultural turn to all countries, especially to China, from the perspective of globalization.
Translation, History and Culture--Li Aixuan (talk) 12:49, 13 December 2021 (UTC)
Key Words
Culture Turn, causes, positives and negative effects, enlightenment
摘要
翻译研究的文化转向理论最早是由苏姗·巴斯奈特和安德烈·勒菲弗尔于1990年在《翻译、历史与文化论集》一书中提出的，他们认为翻译不是简单的两种语言之间的转换，而是在特殊的文化环境中进行的。自此，翻译单纯作为语言之间的转换工具的历史正在消逝，逐渐转变成为一种文化的载体。毋庸置疑，不同民族的文化之间具有差异性，翻译作为一座“桥梁”，起着不同文化交流的中介作用。而在全球化成为主流的大环境下，翻译在面对不同文化的差异时，最需要解决的问题就是如何对待不同的文化。因此本文旨在探究文化转向的原因，以寻求文化转向产生的积极影响和消极影响，并进一步阐述在全球化视角下文化转向给各国特别是中国所带来的启示。
关键词
文化转向，原因，积极和消极影响，启示
Title
An analysis of the causes and enlightenments of "cultural turn" in translation history from the perspective of globalization
Introduction
As a messenger of culture communication, translation plays an irreplaceable role in the process of spreading a country's culture. In human history, translation is an activity of exchange and interaction between different cultures, and culture is closely related to translation. Since the second half of the 20th century, contemporary western translation theory has undergone two turns, namely linguistic turn and cultural turn. Cultural turn makes translation studies no longer regard translation as an isolated fragment between language transformations, but examine translation in a grand cultural context. (Xie 2009:223)
"Fidelity" is no longer the only goal translators pursue in translation, and the cultural differences between source language and target language are the focus of translators' attention. In recent years, Cultural Turn in translation studies has gradually become the focus of attention of translation researchers and cultural researchers, and more and more people pay more attention to the role of culture in translation. In the context of globalization, international exchanges are becoming more frequent and cultural exchanges among countries are gradually increasing. Cultural factors are also playing an increasingly important role in the development of translation studies. "Cultural Turn" adds a new dimension to translation studies and provides a research horizon. But at the same time, we should fully recognize the challenges posed by its limitations to the development of translation studies in the future. (Tan 2004:128)
This paper is divided into three chapters: The first chapter briefly introduces what the "Cultural Turn" theory is; The second chapter primarily analyzes the internal and external causes of "Cultural Turn" in translation history from the internal necessity of translation itself and the external thrust of social influence. The third chapter mainly explores the positive and negative influences of the theory of cultural turn, and expounds the enlightenment brought by these influences under the background of globalization, that is, we should dialectically treat the Cultural Turn in translation, not lose the native culture in the mutual learning of cultures, and actively spread the native culture to promote the common progress of culture.
Literature review
Background of Cultural Turn
As a concept, culture first appeared in the Middle Ages of Europe and it becomes an eternal theme in the development of human beings, because culture involves all aspects of human life. However, as a discipline to study and form a systematic "cultural study" began in the 1950s. In fact, the rise and development of post-colonialism, feminism and the emergence and rapid spread of the Internet have made cultural studies necessary. In 1957, Hoggart published The Uses of Literacy, and Williams published Culture and Society 1780 － 1950 in 1958.Moreover, in 1964 The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) was founded at the University of Birmingham. All these marked the beginning of cultural studies. Since the early 1980s, "cultural studies" has been developed rapidly in many countries, and its research scope has also been expanded, showing a multi-disciplinary development trend. The study of Western culture has gone through more than half a century，Easthope classified the study of Western culture into three stages: (1)in the 1960s，we were devoted to expanding the concept of culture and making it cover mass culture, which was called the "Culturalist Phase"; (2)in the 1970s，we paid attention to the exploration of textualism and hegemonism, which was called the "Structuralist Phase"; (3) the "post-structuralist Phase" was characterized by the establishment of cultural pluralism. It can be seen that "cultural studies" is a kind of interdisciplinary and cross-field research with a very broad content. Therefore, the "cultural turn" proposed by Basnett appeared in the 1990s. In fact, with the rise of "cultural studies", translation as a cultural activity is inevitable and has been combined with cultural studies, the real "cultural turn" in translation studies began much earlier than the 1990s. (Wang 2009:50-51)
With the development of translation studies in China, culture has gradually received attention. There are some translation theories and opinions scattered in Chinese Buddhist scriptures during the Han and Tang dynasties. Later, Lin Yutang, although Yan Fu and Zhao Yuanren have not made a systematic exposition of cultural translation, their views on translation studies are also consistent with cultural translation theory. In the contemporary time, Liu Shan is the first person to study the relationship between translation and culture as the subject. He pointed out that the accuracy and fidelity of translation depends on the reproduction of thoughts and culture reflected in another language, and stated the fact that the society at that time required translators to expand their cultural horizon. Moreover, Wang Zuoliang also realized the mutual influence between translation and culture, he emphasized that translators must understand both their own national culture and foreign culture. In the 1990s, the Cultural Turn theorie was introduced into China, and more domestic scholars stepped into the wave of cultural research. For example, Wang Bingqin's Cultural Translation studies is regarded as the beginning of China's cultural translation research, and this book laid an important foundation for the subsequent research. Liu Miqing's work of the same period, Outline of Cultural Translation, also exerted a profound influence on later studies. Yang Shizhang (2001) demonstrated in detail the interactive relationship between translation and culture from two aspects of the role of translation in cultural development and the promotion and restriction of culture on translation. Xu Jun (2002) pointed out that there were problems in Chinese translation studies, such as stressing technology over meaning, language over culture, etc. So he proposed to promote the establishment of cultural translation view. These scholars' active discussion on the relationship between translation and culture and its extension undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for the subsequent translation studies from the cultural perspective. In recent years, although it has been widely acknowledged that the western cultural turn is of great significance to translation studies, the theory of cultural turn tends to be far away from ontological studies, so that some scholars call for translation studies to return to ontology. The debate on cultural turn in translation studies has aroused the constant thinking and exploration of domestic scholars. (Peng 2016:141-142)
Throughout the western and Chinese translation studies, it can be found that the theories and practices related to cultural translation in foreign countries have a long history, starting from the 1960s to the early 1970s. Until the 1980s, the relevant research theory content gradually enriched. In the 1990s, because of the “Cultural Turn” theorie, western researchers paid more attention to cultural and social contexts in translation studies. Cultural consciousness in western translation studies has been more complete. The research on cultural translation in China began in the 1980s. Although it was a little later than that in western world, it caught up with the pace very fast, so that cultural translation has rapidly become an important part of the field of translation studies in China. Since the 1990s, some researchers did systematical research on cultural translation studies. However, although the theory is not that well developed, the achievements of domestic cultural translation studies are still improving. (Peng 2016:141-142)
Brief introduction: the schools, viewpoints and development of Cultural Turn in translation studies
The Cultural Turn in translation studies, advocated and developed by the cultural school, began in the late 1980s. It studies the cultural origin of translation and explores the political, economic, social, ideological and other cultural backgrounds of translation, which is closely related to the rise and prosperity of culturology. Looking back on the history, after the 1970s, under the influence of the booming trend of deconstruction, translation studies developed in the direction of diversification. Even Zohar, an Israeli scholor, proposed Polysystem Theory, which places translated literature at the historical and social levels of the target culture and breaks away from the static study of texts. Later, Toury proposed Descriptive Translation Studies and norms of translation behavior, adding cultural Studies to Translation Studies further. The multiple systems school represented by Even Zohar and Toury is regarded as the prelude to the rise of the cultural school, and their theories are regarded as the germination of the cultural turn in Western translation. (Pan 2002:24)
In Description of translation and others (1995), Toury described the function of translation, translation products and the relationship between the translation process, he thinks that function of translation decided the form of translation products, which determines the translation strategies. At the same time, the culture of the target language has an important influence on translation products and activities. In a word, the target language culture itself determines the function, form and strategy of translation. Then came the school of purpose, manipulation and deconstruction. In 1990, two major figures in translation studies: Susan Bassnett, a British scholar in comparative literature and translation studies, and Andre Lefevere, an American scholar in comparative literature and translation studies, explicitly proposed the "Cultural Turn" theorie in translation studies in the book Translation, History and Culture. In the following years, they published some influential papers and books on the "cultural turn" in translation studies. (Pan 2002:24)
In 1992, Lefevere published three books on translation studies: Translation, rewriting and the manipulation of literary fame, Translation, History and Culture: A Source book and, Translating literature: practice and theory in a comparative literature context. Among these books, Translation, rewriting and the manipulation of literary fame can be viewed as the representative work of Lefevere. In this book, he proposed the concept of "manipulation", believing that translation is rewriting, and that the mainstream ideology, poetics, patrons and other factors restrict or control translation activities. Then the cultural or manipulative school of translation studies was born. In 1994, Basnett edited Cross-cultural Communication: The Warrick Papers on Translation Studies. She pointed out that translation is a complex activity which involves questions such as how to choose the text to be translated, role of the translator in the selected text, roles of editors, publishers, or sponsor, what strategies the translator will take according to different criteria, how the text in the target system to be able to accept.。In 1998, after Lefebvre's death, the last book they wrote together, Constructing Cultures: Essays on Literary Translation, was published. These subsequent publications further expanded the influence of the translation cultural school, which gradually replaced the traditional linguistic school and became the mainstream school of translation studies today. (Lefevere 1992:26-27)
Of course, the above is only a review of the viewpoints of the representative figures and literary schools of "Cultural Turn". In fact, since the 1980s, "Cultural Turn" has become a fact, which also includes the development of "post-modern" translation theories such as deconstruction, feminism and post-colonialism. After the "Cultural Turn" theorie of translation was put forward, many scholars believed that translation has stepped out of the limitations of the traditional linguistic school, entered the wave of cultural studies and stepped onto a broader research space. Translation studies increasingly involved more fields such as ideology, ethnicity, race, feminism and so on. For example, Basnett published The theory and practice of Postcolonial Translation in 1999. Nida, the head of the linguistics school, also began to pay attention to cultural issues in his works in the 1990s. Louise von Flotow published Translation and Gender: Translating in the 'Era of Feminism' (1997), and Spivak (G. C. Spivak) has made a discussion on translation, the politics of translation, feminism and post-colonialism. American scholar L. Venuti proposed some such as "foreignization" and "domestication" and so on. Venuti believes that works translated into English since the 17th century are basically "domesticating translation", while most English translations into other languages are "foreignizing translation", which actually reflects the inequality between cultures. As a result, he thinks the "foreignizing translation" should be taken when translating the world affairs into English, it is a wise cultural interference, which contribute to change the language hegemony of English countries and the unequal status of culture in the global exchanges. This is a rejection of ethnocentrism, racism, cultural narcissism and cultural imperialism, and is conducive to the promotion of democracy in global geopolitical relations. The above views can be regarded as either the influence or the continuation of the "Cultural Turn" in translation studies. (Wang 2009:50)
The causes of “Cultural Turn”in translation history
"Cultural Turn" has become a trend, not only because it breaks through the previous theory with its own advantages, but also because of the influence of cultural turn and other external factors. Therefore, it can be said that the trend of "Cultural Turn" is produced under the joint action of internal and external factors.
The internal causes
The internal drive of "Cultural Turn" mainly comes from some positive views of the cultural school. They strongly advocated the transfer of the focus of translation studies from the text itself to the cultural context outside the text, and oppose the view which considered translation as a simple language transformation. Therefore, they tried their best to change the subsidiary status of translation in literature and art, and actively promoted translation to become an independent discipline.(Xie 2014:45)
Self-development of translation studies
Before the 20th century, western translation theory had been regarded as the "subordination" of literature and art. In this context, translation was merely regarded as an art, emphasizing the reproduction of the original text by the target text. Translation was even considered as a branch of comparative literature. In 1921, the German scholar W. Benjamin pointed out in his book The Task of The Translator that "If the ultimate essence of translation is to strive for similarity to the original, then no translation is possible." This view actually shows that the pursuit of linguistic absolute "faith" is not feasible in theory and in practice. In other words, the study of translation should break away from the excessive concern about words and turn to a more far-reaching and broad level, namely the cultural level. In 1971, Holmes put forward his unique views on the Nature, scope and structure of translation as an independent research field in the book The Name and Nature of Translation Studies. Since then, Translation Studies began to transform into an independent discipline, and The Name and Nature of Translation Studies is regarded as the declaration of independence of Translation Studies.(Xie 2014:46)
The importance attached by cultural school to culture
"Cultural school", as its name implies, attaches importance to the role of culture in translation and emphasizes the constraints of culture on translation. The cultural school has played an important role in promoting translation as an independent discipline. From Holmes, the founder of the cultural school, to the leading figures Snell-Hornby, Andre Lefevere and Susan Bassnett, they all mentioned the importance of culture to language and translation in their monographs (Jin , Zhu 2011:31).
Basnett once said, " Translation studies is actually an independent discipline. It is neither a subsidiary discipline of comparative literature studies nor a certain area of linguistic studies, but an extremely rich field of study with numerous sub-disciplines of its own." Later, she emphasized again in her book Comparative Literature published in 1993 that " When comparative literature is debating for itself whether it can become an independent discipline, translation studies has boldly declared itself to be an independent discipline, and the influence and force of translation studies have been affirmed and supported worldwide (Bassnett 1993:160)."
In addition, Basnett's graphic description of culture and language expresses her emphasis on culture. She points out that "culture is like a human body, and language is the heart of the body. Only the interaction between the heart and the body can sustain human vitality. Therefore, when surgeons operate on the heart, they cannot ignore the whole body carrying the heart. This is why it is dangerous for translators to separate text from culture and treat it in isolation." (Bassnett 2004:22).
According to professor Zeng Wenxiong, the origin of the cultural school can be traced back to the rationalism of Descartes in the 17th century, even to the skepticism of Perot and the materialism and evolution of Darwin, "These skeptical and survival of the fittest concepts subvert god and all the social and ethical structures that people take for granted, and then develop deconstructivism, post-colonialism and feminism that contain rebellion and independence."(Zeng 2006:64)
In short, the cultural school’s emphasis on culture is also reflected in its translation theory, the cultural school believes that "faithful" translation is impossible, so it pursues the cultural equivalence between the source text and the target text, that is, the equivalence of cultural functions. The research question has changed from how to be faithful to the source text to the causes and results of the target text's failure to be faithful to the source text. Translation should not be limited to the description of the source text, but pay attention to the functional equivalence of the text in the target language culture. Translation is to meet the needs of culture and the needs of different groups in a certain culture. Obviously, the development of cultural studies and the establishment of the cultural school have greatly promoted the consideration of cultural factors in various fields. In the field of translation, cultural studies and the cultural school have improved the cultural awareness of scholars, which has become a key factor for the rise of the "Cultural Turn". Thus, translation finally became an independent subject with its own characteristics under the strong advocacy of the cultural school, and laid a foundation for the rise of "Cultural Turn" in translation studies.(Zhu 2017:87)
The external causes
The development of translation studies and the influence of the cultural school promoted the birth of "Cultural Turn" theorie. At the same time, the limitation of linguistic school, the prevalence of cultural studies, the emergence of the theory of multiple systems and of deconstructivisme sped up the process of "Cultural Turn" in translation studies.(Wu 2009:104)
Limitations of the linguistic school
The linguistic school represented by Nida, Newmark and Catford have reached a "dead end" in translation studies at the end of the 20th century. Translation studies under the linguistic paradigm took structuralist linguistics and transformational generative grammar as theoretical frameworks, they paid attention to the correspondence between the original text and the translated words in the process of translation. Although such correspondence seems to be very scientific, it ignored many factors behind the words. Therefore, the study of linguistic school was considered by some scholars to be too standardized. However, for literary texts, the simple study of words and sentences can not reflect the relationship between the original text and the target text well to some extent, because literary texts contain more and more complex cultural factors behind the language. This translation equivalence theory takes the text itself as the object of translation, "it reduces the aesthetic problem to the logical problem, and ignores the descriptive study of the important factors such as the culture of the target language, the purpose and motivation of translation", which is too standardized. Therefore, the disadvantages of translation studies of the linguistic school became increasingly prominent and were gradually criticized by many scholars (Ran , Li 2012:4).
Andre Lefevere and Susan Bassnett criticized the linguistic school in the book Constructing Cultures: Essays on Literary Translation, "The success of machine translation makes people believe that the linguistic method of translation is an effective method... At the same time, they (linguists) said that their translation methods are not applicable to literary translation because literary translation is very special. Isn't literature written in language? Is the language of literature really so different from the language of translators?".It can be seen from the above citation that the theories of the linguistics school have been difficult to explain many problems and phenomena in the process of translation, which has been questioned by some experts and scholars. This provides the possibility for the emergence of a new paradigm in translation studies called "Cultural Turn". (Yang 2010:101).
The prevalence of cultural studies
Cultural studies originated in the United Kingdom in the 1950s, followed by a wave of cultural studies in Canada, Australia, the United States and China. Since the 1970s and 1980s, cultural studies have entered a period of interdisciplinary and diversified development. Sociology, literary theory, media studies, film and anthropology have all become the objects of cultural studies.The gradual rise of cultural studies made many scholars turn their attention to the discussion of cultural issues in translation studies, and analyzed the deeper cultural communication implied by language. Therefore, they no longer focused on the careful choice of words in the process of translation, but from the macro level to explore more profound cultural causes, thus contributing to the upsurge of "Cultural Turn" in translation studies. (Wang, 2005:34).
Inspiration of the Polysystem theory
The Polysystem theory was first proposed by the Israeli scholar Even-Zohar in the 1970s. He borrowed from Russian formalists who worked in literary historiography that literary works were not independent objects but should be regarded as part of the whole literary system. Before that, people's research on translation was static, while the Polysystem theory links translated works with social, historical and cultural factors. He believed that a polysystem system is composed of several subsystems, in which some subsystems are located at the center and others at the edge. Their positions and status are not fixed, but they compete with each other for a central position in the system. In addition, there are also interrelated and interactive relations between them. Therefore, as a member of many subsystems, translatology and other subsystems must be involved and influenced each other. Zohar mentioned that the culture of a country or a place may have advantage or disadvantage when compared to another culture in different periods. In different situation, translators in a country or a place will choose different translation strategies. If this situation changes, the translator's choice of translation strategies will also change, which forms a dynamic translation study. Therefore, Even-Zohar's polysystem theory makes people no longer look at translation and text in isolation, but combine multiple subsystems such as culture, society, politics and economy to look at the translation process from a broader perspective, and promote the emergence of cultural turn in translation. As student of Zohar, Toury offered new ideas as well as inherited his views. Then Toury put forward translation norms to judge the acceptability of texts by placing them within the target cultural system. These norms are certain social and cultural restrictions on culture, society and times, and people need to be educated and socialized to obtain them. It can be seen that Toury's theory is also based on social and cultural aspects. He believed that translation should be examined from the perspective of target language culture, "Translation is always limited by different social and literary background factors, so it has no fixed characteristics, and translation becomes a relative name relying on historical and cultural forces".(Gentzler 1993:129)
It can be said that their views provided the initial inspiration and theoretical basis for the theory of "Cultural Turn". The view of culture in polysystem theory has inspired the scholars of cultural school and finally led the translation studies to the rad of "Cultural Turn". Zhang Nanfeng once discussed in his article the positive effect of the polysystem theory on "Cultural Turn", he pointed out: "The polysystem theory has opened up a new approach to translation studies that is descriptive, systematic-oriented, functionalist and systematic. It has promoted the cultural turn of translation studies and spawned a cross-border school of translation studies." (Feng,Liu 2008:48)
The infiltration of deconstructive thought
Destructuralism, also known as post-structuralism, is a trend of thought established in the process of criticizing structuralism, and its main representative is Jacques Derrida. The philosopher Jacques Derrida, while criticizing structuralism, innovatively proposed the "deconstructive" theory, which has a profound influence on translation theory, cultural theory and literary criticism theory. Deconstructivists represented by Derrida denied the idea that language has ultimate meaning held by the language school, and believed that language words contain multiple meanings, so the meaning of the text formed by language words should be multiple. In addition, he also believed that the author is not the only creator of the text, which undoubtedly played an important role in enhancing the status of the translation and the subjectivity of the translator. Benjamin abandoned the traditional translation studies that only focused on the semantic meaning of the original text and the deconstruction of language. He believed that articles could survive only through translation, and that traditional translation could only be achieved in the environment of "pure language". If the original text needs translation to survive and spread, then the status of the translator and the translation should be higher than the original author and the original text, because to a certain extent, the former determines whether the article can obtain new life in the new language environment. If the original text needs translation to survive and spread, then the status of the translator and the translation should be higher than the original author and the original text, because to a certain extent, the former determines whether the article can obtain new life in the new language environment. In short, many views of deconstructivisme have a strong role in inspiring and promoting "Cultural Turn". In addition, deconstructive translation thought puts more emphasis on many other factors that affect the text, such as ideology. The pluralism of meaning and pluralism of interpretation advocated by deconstructivisme theory enlighten the cultural schools, leading them to think about the relationship between source text and target text from a more macroscopic and completely different perspective, subverting the traditional view of translation. As Professor Wang Ning said, "Deconstructivisme plays an important role in promoting the cultural turn in contemporary translation studies" (Wang 2009:127).
The influences of “Cultural Turn” under the background of globalization
Any kind of theory has its advantages and limitations, so when looking at "Cultural Turn", it is the right choice to maintain rational mind and critical thinking and treat it objectively and dialectically.
The positives effects
The "Cultural Turn" theorie of translation studies raised the paradigm of translation studies from the pure language level to the broader cultural level, made the translation experts and scholars begin to consider power, poetics and the target language culture, the translator and the reader, and many other factors on translation institute, which broadened the field of translation study so that translation was no longer in vacuum environment.(Wu 2009：104)
The influence of cultural school on translation studies is mainly reflected in the political characteristics of its theories, such as post-colonial translation studies, feminist translation studies and cannibalism translation studies derived from historical events. Among them, a scholar of feminist translation Simon expressed her praise for “Cultural Turn”, pointing out that it is the most exciting progress in translation studies, because it means that translation studies have added an important dimension, which enables us to understand the organic connection between translation and other ways of communication. It regards translation as a writing practice that runs through all the strains of cultural expression.(Zeng 2006:92)
Looking at China, there are many experts and scholars who have a positive attitude towards the "Cultural Turn", such as Xie Tianzhen, Ran Shiyang, Feng Yawu and so on. Among them, Feng Yawu and Liu Quanfu clearly expressed their support for "Cultural Turn" in their articles "Cultural Turn" and "Cultural Translation Paradigm": "Cultural turn has awakened the cultural consciousness of translation researchers, greatly broadened their horizons, expanded the scope of translation studies, and added a new dimension of history and culture to the study of translators". Cultural turn has exerted an important influence on translation studies in China, which is enlightening and thought-provoking. Liu Xiaoqian once pointed out in her article that the cultural turn in translation studies has brought unprecedented opportunities to Translation studies in China. However, China is still a "weak country" in the field of translation studies.(Zeng 2006:92)
In terms of translation practice, there are more target works than source works. In translation theory, there are few influential theories and works created, and most of modern and contemporary theories are "taken" from foreign countries. Moreover, the cultural turn is characterized by interdisciplinary research, which warns Chinese translation researchers to have a higher level and constantly improve themselves. Therefore, translators in China should actively promote the "going out" of Chinese culture and contribute to the development of translation studies in China by taking advantage of the wind of "cultural turn" that has not yet disappeared. There is no doubt that the "Cultural Turn" of translation studies is of positive significance to the development of Translation studies in China.It has broken the shackles of translation studies within the linguistic system, shifted its focus from the microscopic linguistic transformation to the macroscopic cultural one, provided a new dimension for translation studies, and promoted the transformation of translation studies from "normative studies" to "descriptive studies" under the linguistic framework. Thus it provides a development platform for translation studies, broadening the horizon of translation studies, and lays the foundation for translation studies as an independent discipline. However, it should be emphasized that "Cultural Turn" is only a research perspective in multiple translation studies, and has its advantages and disadvantages like other paradigms.(Zeng 2005:70)
The negative effects
With the expansion of the research scope and the deepening of the research content, many problems have been exposed in translation studies under the "Cultural Turn", which has aroused the extensive thinking of domestic scholars. Although the cultural school broke through the shackle of the linguistic school and innovatively put forward the "Cultural Turn", the cultural school did not critically inherit and develop the theories and methods of the linguistic school, but blindly negated, subverted, disintegrated and abandoned them completely. In the view of the cultural school, translation studies before cultural translation lack the macroscopic theoretical guidance and cannot see into the functions and effects of translation. Only by combining culture with translation studies can the true meaning of cultural functions be obtained, thus forming a theoretical system guiding translation practice.(Zhang 2008:23)
Therefore, the extreme practice that his focus completely deviates from the text itself and shifts to the macro context has been criticized by later generations. In addition, because the cultural school advocates the study of translation in the context of society, history, language environment and culture, emphasizing the restriction of culture on translation, and attaches importance to the connection and combination between translation and linguistics, translation and literature, translation and poetics. As a result, some experts and scholars have raised doubts about the "cultural turn" at this point. In China, such as Zeng Wenxiong, Zhao Yanchun and so on all hold a negative attitude to the "cultural turn". Zhao Yanchun (2004) once pointed out that "the culture school emphasizes the restrictive function of cultural factors such as power relations, sponsors, ideology, mainstream poetics and others on translation, and try to deny the traditional research on translation within the text. Therefore, they exaggerate the restrictive function of culture, and it is impossible to summarize the rules for predicting translation phenomena and processes".(Hu 2011:7-8)
Its all-embracing openness makes the disciplinary boundaries of translation studies blurred. According to Zeng Wenxiong, the "cultural turn" has limited the scope of translation studies, narrowed the research field, blurred the disciplinary boundaries of translation studies, separated from the fundamental of translation-language, exaggerated the influence of factors other than text, and thus made it difficult to discover the fundamental laws of translation. However, the foundation of translation studies is language and text, and the excessive emphasis on external factors without language studies will undoubtedly push translation studies into a dangerous situation by infinitely amplifying the role of external factors in the translation process. Since its birth, Chinese translation activities have been accompanied by the introduction and absorption of foreign cultures. For example, the large-scale introduction and absorption of Western learning in the late Qing Dynasty, the New Chinese literature constructed under the influence of translated literature in the May Fourth Movement period and so on.(Sun 2008:10-11)
While absorbing foreign cultures, we should not ignore the "localization" of culture. The same is true of the cultural turn in translation studies. Wang Ning, in his book The Cultural Turn of Translation Studies, also put forward such a point of view: it is worth noting that the cultural school of translation studies is based on comparative literature and studies translation phenomena from the perspective of western studies. The great difference between culture and language reminds us that we should not ignore the actual situation of the construction of traditional translation studies and theories in China while drawing lessons from western translation theories and research achievements. In this regard, from the perspective of discipline construction, many domestic scholars have proposed that translation studies under the cultural turn should not ignore the study of translation ontology, and that translation studies should return to the study of translation ontology and adhere to the standard characteristics of translation discipline.(Wang 2003:90)
Conclusion
Due to the development of translation itself, the influence of the polysystem theory, the cultural school, deconstructivisme and other theories, the "Cultural Turn" emerged in the 1990s, breaking the model of translation studies that had lasted for thousands of years, breaking out of the rigid language level and placing translation in the dynamic history, culture and society. It has explained many translation phenomena that cannot be explained by the traditional school of linguistics. It not only adapts to the development of the times, but also is the inevitable way out of translation studies. Cultural turn is not only the inexorable trend of translation activities, but also promotes the diversified development of translation studies. With the development of global integration, translation culture turns to be closely combined with social, political, economic and other factors. Under the influence of this development trend, culture is bound to develop in the exchange and cooperation between countries, which is an inevitable tendency of translation studies.(Hu 2005:10)
Nowadays, translation plays an increasingly prominent role in cross-cultural communication as the field of international communication continues to expand. Translation should take the initiative to maintain the historical mission of linguistic diversity and cultural diversity, balance the subject culture and foreign culture, and keep the two cultures in a relatively reasonable range. But the problem lies in the lack of theoretical guidance in concrete practice, wo can only judge according to experience. The subject of translation is affected by many factors, so it is impossible to completely jump out of the subject culture, and the development of translation study is dynamic, with the development of translation theory and the development of The Times, many factors such as translation view and translation stand are constantly changing. Therefore, with the development of the times, we should study the problem dynamically and sum up the guiding ideology constantly, so as to achieve a balance between the subject culture and foreign culture. In the context of globalization, people should pay attention to the relationship between their own culture and foreign culture, and translators, as communicators of cultural exchange, should balance the relationship between the two. Only by treating the externalization objectively, taking its essence and discarding its dregs, making it mutually available with the national culture, innovating the national culture and enhancing the vitality of the national culture, can the Chinese culture endure long and have a long history.
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Written by --Jin Xiaotong (talk) 12:59, 13 December 2021 (UTC)