Current Issues In Language and Society
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Volume: 5 Number: 1 Page: 51–72
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Translation and Normativity
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Theo Hermans
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The article has two main aims: to illustrate the productive potential of the norms concept as an analytical tool in studying translations, and to explore the implications of the concept for the way we speak
about translation. Part one takes up an historical case (Adrianus de Buck translating Boethius in 1653) and uses the concept of norms to inquire into the translator's choices. It is suggested that sociological
concepts deployed by Bourdieu and Luhmann may offer useful ways forward in applying norm concepts as tools to study translation. Part two begins by positing a connection between norms and values. If translation
is norm-governed it cannot be value-free. Three points are discussed following from this. First, its lack of transparency is what makes translation significant as a cultural and historical phenomenon. Second,
the notion of equivalence can only be an ideological construct. Its presence in the historical discourse on translation is worth investigating, for it reveals key aspects of the conceptual self-positioning
of translation. Finally, if our speaking about translation is itself a form of translating, then the implication must be that our translations of translation cannot be value-free either.
© Multilingual Matters 1998
© Multilingual Matters 1998
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