Other models of descriptive translation studies: Lambert and van Gorp and the Manipulation School

Other models of descriptive translation studies: Lambert and
van Gorp and the Manipulation School

With the influence of Even-Zohar's and Toury's early work in polysystem
theory, the International Comparative Literature Association held several
meetings and conferences around the theme of translated literature. Particularly
prominent centres were in Belgium, Israel and the Netherlands, and the

first conferences were held at Leuven (1976), Tel Aviv (1978) and Antwerp
(1980).
The key publication of this group of scholars, known as the Manipulation
School or Group, was the collection of papers entitled The Manipulation of
Literature: Studies in Literary Translation (1985a), edited by Theo Hermans.
In his introduction, 'Translation studies and a new paradigm', Hermans
summarizes the group's view of translated literature:
What they have in common is a view of literature as a complex and dynamic
system; a conviction that there should he a continual interplay between theoretical
models and practical case studies; an approach to literary translation which is
descriptive, target-organized, functional and systemic; and an interest in the norms
and constraints that govern the production and reception of translations. in the
relation between translation and other types of text processing, and in the place
and role of translations both within a given literature and in the interaction
between literatures

Toury and descriptive translation studies

Working with Even-Zohar in Tel Aviv was Gideon Toury. After his early
polysystern work on the sociocultural conditions which determine the translation
of foreign literature into Hebrew, Toury focused on developing a general
theory of translation. In chapter 1, we considered Toury's diagrammatic
representation of Holmes's 'map' of translation studies. In his influential
I Descriptive Translation Studies - And Beyond (Toury 1995: lo), Toury calls
for the development of a properly systematic descriptive branch of the
discipline to replace isolated free-standing studies that are commonplace:

What is missing is not isolated attempts reflecting excellent intuitions and supply-
I
ing tine insights (which many existing studies certainly do), but a systematic branch
proceeding from clear assumptions and armed with a methodology and research

techniques made as explicit as possible and justified within translation studies
itself. Only a branch of this kind can ensure that the findings of individual studies
will be intersubjectively testable and comparable, and the studies themselves
replicable.

Toury goes on to propose just such a methodology for the branch of descriptive
translation studies (DTS).
For Toury (1995: 13)' translations first and foremost occupy a position in
the social and literary systems of the target culture, and this position determines
the translation strategies that are employed. With this approach, he is
continuing and building on the polysystem work of Even-Zohar and on
earlier versions of his own work (Toury 1978, 1980, 1985, 1991). Toury
(1995: 36-9 and 102) proposes the following three-phase methodology for
systematic DTS, incorporating a description of the product and the wider
role of the sociocultural system

Descriptive Translation3

Polysystem
theory fed into developments in descriptive translation studies (see
section 7.2), a branch of translation studies that has been crucial in the last
twenty years and which aims at identifying norms and laws of translation.
Developments in the study of norms are discussed in section 7.3 (work by
Chesterman), and work by systems theorists of the related Manipulation
School is described in section 7.4.

System Theories

Key concepts :

-  Even-Zohar's polysystem theory (1970s) sees translated literature as part of the
cultural, literary and historical system of the TL.

- Toury (1 995) puts forward a methodology for descriptive translation studies
(DTS) as a non-prescriptive means of understanding the 'norms' at work in the
translation process and of discovering the general 'laws' of translation.

- In DTS, equivalence is functional-historical and related to the continuum of
'acceptability' and 'adequacy'.

- Other systems approaches include the Manipulation School.




Key texts :
 
  -  Chesterman, A. (1997) Memes of Translation, Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John
Benjamins, chapter 3.
 - Even-Zohar, 1. (197812000) 'The position of translated literature within the literary
 - polysystem', in L. Venuti (ed.) (2000). pp. 192-7.
 - Gentzler, E. (1 993) Contemporary Translotion Theories, London and New York: Routledge,
chapter 5.
 - Hermans, T. (ed.) (1 985a) The Monipulotion of Literature, Beckenham: Croom Helm.
 - Hermans, T. (1999) Translation in Systems, Manchester: St Jerome. chapters 6 to 8.
Toury, G. (197812000) 'The nature and role of norms in literary translation', in L. Venuti
(ed.) (2000), pp. 198-2 l I.
Toury, G. (1 995) Descriptive Translation Studies - And Beyond, Amsterdam and Philadelphia,
PA: John Benjamins.