Important Issues in Western Translation Theories and Their Correlation in Socio-Cultural History

Abstract

This paper discusses five important issues in Western translation theories, i.e. equivalence, skopos, norm, foreignization and cultural translation, and analyzes them in light of Western socio-cultural history. First, I introduce major five categories of Western translation studies in relation to those five issues: (1) linguistics-oriented equivalence theories, (2) social function-oriented equivalence theories, (3) equivalence-fallacy theories resulting from social/ideological turns, (4) equivalence-transcendence theories (in the thought and philosophy of translation), and (5) theories of translation equivalence-diversity. Next, I analyze the socio-cultural contexts in and behind which a variety of translation theories arose. Since the most fundamental concept in Western translation studies is “equivalence,” this concept is examined from a broader perspective starting from the Middle Ages. The features of each of the five important issues are further analyzed critically from a semiotic point of view. Lastly, I propose the importance of a principle of self-criticism by which one can relativize one’s own theory as well as “others” so that this paper might itself avoid falling into the naïveté of Western criticism.