Chapter7

Amber

Chapter Seven: Systems Theories and the Manipulation School

This chapter explores a major theoretical shift that occurred in the late 20th century, moving translation studies away from prescriptive linguistic analysis toward descriptive, target-oriented approaches. The core idea is that translations are not created in a vacuum but are deeply influenced by the literary and cultural systems of the target society. Scholars in this tradition investigate the social and ideological forces that shape why certain texts are translated, how they are translated, and what role they play in their new culture.

The chapter begins by introducing the foundational Polysystem Theory, developed by the Israeli scholar Itamar Even-Zohar in the 1970s. He argues that a culture's literary production functions as a "polysystem"—a dynamic, hierarchical network of systems (including high canonized literature like poetry, popular non-canonized forms like detective fiction, and translated literature itself) that constantly compete for dominance. The position of translated literature within this polysystem is not fixed. In strong, established literary systems, translations often occupy a peripheral position, conforming to domestic norms to be easily accepted. However, during periods of crisis or when a literature is young, weak, or in flux, translated literature can move to a central position, introducing new ideas, models, and forms that revitalize the home system. This theory helps explain historical patterns, such as why some cultures undergo intense periods of translation (like post-World War II Israel) as a means of rapid cultural development.

Building directly on this, the work of Gideon Toury is presented as the cornerstone of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS). Toury proposed a systematic, scientific methodology to study translations as facts of the target culture. His approach is based on three-step methodology:

1. Situate the translation within the target cultural system.
2. Analyze the "textual-linguistic profile" of the translation compared to the source.
3. Draw conclusions about the general translation norms at work.

For Toury, the key concept is the translation norm. Norms are the social, ideological, and literary conventions that constrain a translator's choices, acting as a middle ground between absolute rules and individual idiosyncrasies. He distinguishes between preliminary norms (which govern the choice of which texts to translate and from which languages) and operational norms (which govern the actual decisions made during the translation process itself). The ultimate goal of this analysis is to identify probabilistic laws of translation. The most famous is the law of growing standardization, which states that textual relations in the source text are often replaced by more conventional, target-system-appropriate relations in the translation. Conversely, the law of interference suggests that source text features (like unusual syntax) may "shine through" into the translation, especially if the target culture perceives the source culture as prestigious.

The chapter then groups a range of scholars under the broad label of the Manipulation School, named after their collective work The Manipulation of Literature (1985). Scholars like Theo Hermans, José Lambert, and André Lefevere were centered at Leuven and saw all translation as a form of rewriting that inevitably manipulates the source text for a certain purpose within the target culture. Their work was decisively target-oriented, rejecting the authority of the source text and focusing on the function of the translation in its new context.

Finally, the chapter discusses André Lefevere's later work, which provided a powerful framework for understanding the forces that control this manipulation. Lefevere argued that literary systems are controlled by two main factors:

1. Professionals within the literary system: This includes critics, reviewers, teachers, and translators themselves, who decide what is considered "good" or "acceptable" literature.
2. Patronage outside the literary system: This is the power (ideological, economic, or status-based) that can promote or constrain literary production. Patrons can be individuals, institutions like publishing houses, or ideological entities like a government or a religious group.
   These two forces work together to enforce the dominantpoetics (what society believes literature should be) and ideology of a time and place, and translation is a primary tool through which these are maintained or challenged.

In conclusion, Chapter Seven outlines a paradigm that radically redefined translation studies. By framing translation as a culturally conditioned activity, Systems Theories and the Manipulation School moved the discipline from asking "How should one translate?" to asking "How are translations made, and what do they do in the world?" This shift paved the way for the more overtly ideological approaches, like postcolonial and feminist translation studies, that follow in later chapters.