THE (C/OVERT) ROLE OF TRANSLATOR IN TOURY’S DESCRIPTIVE APPROACH TO THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF TRANSLATION
In 1980, Israeli translation scholar Gideon Toury wrote a book entitled In Search of a Theory of Translation, which apparently launched new debates within the realm of the newly emerging discipline of Translation Studies. The beginning of the eighties, the publication year of Toury’s book, coincides with a period when Translation Studies started to be regarded as an autonomous discipline as well. The beginning of the 1980s was also a time when not only the necessities of founding a particular discipline, but also the presence/s of disciplines were seriously being questioned thanks to the rise of the so-called theories and arguments of post-modernism. The ultimate need for a scientific ground and a scientific approach to build a given discipline was tantamount to found a relevant theory of the study and practice of translation. Toury’s main concern was to establish a theory of translation which could fulfil this need of a newly emerging discipline. In this respect, the title of Toury’s book makes sense and justifies most of the controversies (i.e. tertium comparationis) of his study to a certain degree. Furthermore, Toury was indeed in search of a theory of translation and regarded his study as an initial step taken towards the establishment of this goal. Nevertheless, as far as the circumstances of his time regarding the existence of a particular discipline are taken into consideration, Toury’s endeavour becomes questionable to some extent. Yet, by his approach Toury manages to ignite the debates which would strip the act of translation from the everlasting questions of “equivalence”, “fidelity”, “good vs. bad translation”, “faithfulness”, hence paved the way for interdisciplinary studies of translation and by this prominent quality, in a way Toury overcomes the questionable aspect of his attempt. In this sense, Toury’s initial step can also be regarded as a significant move which indicates the scholar’s awareness of the circumstances of the period in which he has undertaken his study.
In 1980, Israeli translation scholar Gideon Toury wrote a book entitled In Search of a Theory of Translation, which apparently launched new debates within the realm of the newly emerging discipline of Translation Studies. The beginning of the eighties, the publication year of Toury’s book, coincides with a period when Translation Studies started to be regarded as an autonomous discipline as well. The beginning of the 1980s was also a time when not only the necessities of founding a particular discipline, but also the presence/s of disciplines were seriously being questioned thanks to the rise of the so-called theories and arguments of post-modernism. The ultimate need for a scientific ground and a scientific approach to build a given discipline was tantamount to found a relevant theory of the study and practice of translation. Toury’s main concern was to establish a theory of translation which could fulfil this need of a newly emerging discipline. In this respect, the title of Toury’s book makes sense and justifies most of the controversies (i.e. tertium comparationis) of his study to a certain degree. Furthermore, Toury was indeed in search of a theory of translation and regarded his study as an initial step taken towards the establishment of this goal. Nevertheless, as far as the circumstances of his time regarding the existence of a particular discipline are taken into consideration, Toury’s endeavour becomes questionable to some extent. Yet, by his approach Toury manages to ignite the debates which would strip the act of translation from the everlasting questions of “equivalence”, “fidelity”, “good vs. bad translation”, “faithfulness”, hence paved the way for interdisciplinary studies of translation and by this prominent quality, in a way Toury overcomes the questionable aspect of his attempt. In this sense, Toury’s initial step can also be regarded as a significant move which indicates the scholar’s awareness of the circumstances of the period in which he has undertaken his study.
In due time, Toury –with the purpose of making his arguments clear, and respond to the criticisms raised against his theory– published his articles which he has written after the publication of In Search of a Theory of Translation in a book entitled Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond in 1995. The notion of norms (Toury 1995: 53-64), special focus on the idea of pseudo translations (ibid: 40-52), the criteria of “adequacy” and “acceptability” (ibid: 56-57) not to mention the postulate of assumed translations (ibid: 31-39), are some of the basic concepts of the scholar’s approach which can become the most efficient tools in the hands of a researcher interested in studying translations in a descriptive way. Among these concepts, particularly the notion of norms merits further attention due to the way it differs from the previous approaches (i.e. source-oriented, linguistic based, and the like) to the study and practice of translation. Unlike the prior translation scholars, Toury regards translations “as facts of the culture which hosts them” (ibid: 24) and indicates that a given translation is a socio-cultural fact which has to be studied by taking into consideration the constraints of the target culture. Toury regards these (social) constraints as norms, or in other words objects to be studied in his descriptive approach.
It is at this point, where the role of translator comes into play in Toury’s descriptive approach. Toury distinguishes three types of norms during the translation process: Preliminary norms, initial norms, operational norms being further subdivided into matricial norms and textual-linguistic norms (ibid: 58-60). Even though all these characteristics of the concept of norms may support the idea of Toury’s giving priority to the translator in terms of the choices s/he can make during the course of a given translation, there are some fundamental aspects which Toury does not take into account, or may seem to not take into account.
Naturally, one of the important phases of a given translation process with respect to the choices made by the translator to be observed is the black box, the mind of the translator in which the hermeneutical circle, that is to say, the act of interpreting, the act of approaching, and the act of establishing a dialectial relationship with a text suggests itself as the core of a given translation process. A brief glance at Toury’s norms, on the other hand, indicates that this crucial aspect is neglected to a certain extent and warded off by merely mentioning it with phrases like “the basic choices to be selected” and so forth (cf. ibid). However, these basic choices also bring into focus the role of translator’s style in the translation process (cf. Boase-Beier: 2006 5-6). By simply pointing out these choices in his theoretical framework and not dwelling upon them in detail, Toury dismisses the style of translator that can mould –either in a positive or a negative way– a translation to some degree. One may argue though, for Toury the hermeneutical process along with the translator’s style within a given translation process is a fact to be studied in the light of the detailed analysis of (translation) norms; nonetheless, the way Toury develops his claims leaves no room for an analysis of the actual process that takes place in the mind of the translator.
Moreover, a quick look at the picture proposed by Toury from a broader perspective in terms of socio-cultural dynamics of a given “(target!)” society, signifies the lack of the ideological concerns to be taken into consideration during the course of building a theoretical framework deriving from the ideas pertaining to sociology. Just like any member of a society, the translator is also an individual of a social community. S/he can adhere himself to the norms of a particular ideology which in the long run might affect his or her translation and to a certain extent and as well as might make the target text produced to function as an ideological tool in terms of imposing particular set of thoughts to the other members of the society. By being negligent of the ideological concerns of a society, Toury reduces the constraints on the shoulders of translators, thus in a sense disregards the varying strata of the societies.
To sum up, Gideon Toury, being one of the harbingers of the “cultural turn” in Translation Studies, has made a significant contribution to the evolution of the discipline in many respects. Be that as it may, Toury’s approach to the study and practice of translation neglects the human factor during the translation process to some degree as stated above. Yet, by the theoretical framework the scholar proposes, can become an effective tool in the hands of a researcher which might undertake a descriptive study of translation practices. Still, as far as the theoretical aspect of Toury’s approach is concerned, the problematic parts in terms of the notion of hermeneutics along with the ideological concerns can be improved by the interdisciplinary studies.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Boase-Beier, Jean, Stylistic Approaches to Translation, St. Jerome, UK, 2006
Hermans, Theo, Translations in Systems, St. Jerome, UK, 1999
Toury, Gideon, Descriptive Translation Studies – And Beyond. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1995
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