Cultural aspects of translation: Some key concepts

The issue of culture is now a primary field of research in developing a theory of translation. Here we find ourselves on 'archeological terrain' in terms of the culture's way of being and the concomitant interaction with ways of translating. Translation is never a neutral operation, and one is forced to demonstrate that the act of translating is influenced by the translator's cultural background. Culture, however, must not be reified; purely individual interventions must also be given their due. This relation to culture is highly important for the translator who is at the heart of relations of otherness, and through the act of translation it forms the identity of national culture. This entails moving from negative ethncoentrism, which erases the Other, to positive ethnocentrism, showing the Other, and thus constitutes the identity of the translator's culture. This unveiling of identity undergoes criticism by the too simplistic 'cibliste/sourcier' dichotomy, which is a prisoner of language. The translator, however, shows the discourse of the Other. These intercultural issues are examined under five translating-as-activity headings: otherness, history, criticism, ethics and translating tasks.