Translation, History, and Culture: How Susan Bassnett Redefined the Discipline
In colonial contexts, translation frequently served as an instrument of empire. Western powers translated indigenous texts to master, categorize, and control colonized peoples.
For each domain, she asks: Who translated? Why? For whom? Under what constraints? And with what cultural consequences? translation history and culture susan bassnett pdf
Translation was long viewed as a secondary, mechanical activity. Early scholars treated it as a simple linguistic exercise of replacing a word in Language A with a word in Language B. This narrow view changed in 1990.
Western empires often translated texts from colonized lands in ways that made the locals seem primitive or mystical. And with what cultural consequences
Current debates about ChatGPT and DeepL often ignore Bassnett’s warnings. If AI can translate words but cannot account for cultural history (e.g., translating a metaphor about the Soviet gulag for a modern American audience), then AI fails the "Cultural Turn." Bassnett would argue that machine translation is not translation at all—it is only transcription.
Bassnett's work has had a profound impact on the field of translation studies, influencing a generation of scholars and researchers. Her contributions have been recognized globally, and her work has been translated into numerous languages. The impact of her work can be seen in several areas: Why? For whom? Under what constraints?
The central premise of Translation, History and Culture is that the object of study in translation must change. Bassnett and Lefevere argued that the text is not the solitary unit of translation. Instead, the broader culture acts as the ultimate organizing unit. From Word to World
: Shifting focus from word-for-word accuracy to the extra-textual factors—history, politics, and ideology—that influence how a text is reshaped for a new audience .
The book is a thought-provoking and insightful exploration of the intersections between translation, history, and culture. Bassnett challenges traditional notions of translation as a purely linguistic activity and instead highlights the cultural and historical contexts that shape the translation process.
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