Traveling Theories in German and Soviet Translation Studies
by Anastasia Shakhova, University of Mainz, Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics and
Cultural Studies/Germersheim, Germany
Belonging to:
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The role of politics in translation from a historical perspective.
The influence of political institutions upon translation practices.
Abstract
The present paper investigates the role of politics and ideology in scientific exchange and
development from the historical perspective and provides a detailed analysis of traveling theories
in Translation Studies within Germany and the USSR. This interdisciplinary inquiry concerns
Said’s notion of Traveling Theory and assumes that translation as a form of rewriting in
Lefevere’s terminology is the basic migration vehicle for foreign theoretical discourses. The
major theoretical framework of the present research is based on Descriptive Translation Studies
and Polysystem Theory. The point of origin of the Soviet and East German Translation Studies
coincided with the omnipresence of ideological pressure in the academic milieu. The notion of
general translatability and the translators’ code of conduct, both derived from Stalin’s essay on
Marxism and Linguistics, fostered the development of the linguistic approach and equivalence
theories, but also marginalized Western theories and approaches from Translation Studies
discourses. Furthermore, changes in international politics as well as the intensified cooperation
between both academic systems enabled the selective reception and adaptation of Western
scientific ideas, nevertheless still through the prism of ideological compatibility. Thus, the
concepts of dynamic and communicative equivalence traveled through the Leipzig School into
the Soviet discourses, were transformed in Švejcer’s works and traveled through translation back
into the German discourses, while the West German functional discourses remained unnoted by
the Soviet Translation Studies till present. This paper joins a vibrant conversation on the
influence of politics upon translation as well as on the role of translation itself in the circulation
of theories and ideas.
Keywords:
Traveling theories, the politics of translation, Translation Studies, DTS, ideology and translation,
rewriting. scientific exchange and development.