Cultural Approaches to Translation

This article aims to give an overview of how translation strategy is affected by orientation to cultural difference. Given the numerous definitions of both “culture” and “translation, there are clearly numerous cultural approaches to translation. Here we will reduce the number to a manageable three, with the key to all three being the response to ‘difference’. Both culture and translation revolve around difference. We notice culture as difference, and we require translation when difference significantly affects communication. In the first case, “translating from cultures,” differences are explained. In the second, “translating for cultures,” differences are either be reduced (domestication) or highlighted (foreignization). The final approach, “translating between cultures,” gauges the likely tolerance for difference and attempts to mediate or reconcile differences, creating an interspace. In all cases, it is understood that texts are seen to relate to larger contexts, or frames of interpretation, and response to 'difference'. There is always a series of choices to be made regarding what exactly , and how exactly, language is to be translated. So here, it is argued, translation involves a form of intervention which will be in terms of decisions based on reaction to 'difference'.