1. Polysystems Theory
Literary Translation

2. Russian Formalism – literature as ‘technique’ and literature as ‘system’
Matejka, Pomorska (ed), Readings in Russian Poetics, MIT, 1971
Shklovskij
Tynjanov
Jakobson

3. Structuralism – Robert Scholes, Structuralism in Literature, Yale University, 1974
Universal principles that govern the literary use of language
Structuralism seeks to establish a model of the system of literature as the external reference for individual literary works
Structuralism seeks to explore the relationship between the system of literature and wider culture

4. System and polysystem
Nation (language, ethnicity, religion, politics) >> national literature
Influence, ‘contact zones’ * >> genres
* M.L. Pratt, Imperial Eyes

5. System and polysystem
Dynamic
Competing
Heterogeneous
Historical

6. System and polysystem Centre <> periphery High <> low
Canon <> marginal genres
Stability <> instability/ change

7. Literary communication
Institution (context)
Repertoire (code)
Producer Consumer
(writer) Market (contact) (reader)
(addresser) Product (message) (addressee)

8. Translation and literature
How are the source texts selected? Is this selection connected to the target literary system?
Is translated literature a system with its own characteristics?
(See Venuti on demestication/foreignasation, or Anderman on European drama in Britain)

9. How important is translated literature?
1. When a literary system is ‘young’*
2. When literature is peripheral
3. Turning point or crisis *
See V. Macura in Translation, History and Culture (ed. S. Bassnett), M. Tymoczko,

10. Evan Zohar
The dynamics within the polysystem creates turning points, that is to say, historical moments where established models are no longer tenable for a younger generation. At such moments, even in central literatures, translated literature may assume a central position. This is all the more true when at a turning point no item in the indigenous stock is taken to be acceptable, as a result of which a literary ‘‘vacuum’’ occurs. In such a vacuum, it is easy for foreign models to infiltrate, and translated literature mayc onsequently assume a central position.

11. Examples Epic and sonnet in Europe (see Mirror on Mirror)
Manga (see Stefansson in G.Palsson, Beyond Boundaries)
Eurocrime
Children’s literature
‘’Scar’’ literature

12. Polysystems approach Translation strategies
If translation is important/primary, then the innovation through translation is more likely, target models are not necessarily followed
If translated literature is secondary, then target models may influence the translation strategy

13. http://www.tau.ac.il/~itamarez/ Polysystems approach
Target orientation – the study of translated texts and their functions in the TS
The study of translated texts within the target norms
Itamar Even-Zohar

14. Polysystem and global culture
Transnational writing
Global literary system?