Culture and translation

The term ‘culture’ splits fairly neatly into two senses: the anthropological, which refers to the totality of practices that distinguish a community, large or small; and the narrower sense of artistic enterprise. Within the former definition, we shall see that culture pervades language in ways that reflect several senses of the term. Within the latter, culture ranges from high to low, from Homer of the Odyssey to Homer of The Simpsons. Both types of culture offer stiff challenges to the theory and practice of translation, as well as opportunities to theorize and practise the art, or science, in creative ways.