Literary translators as cultural brokers

Författare

• Ildikó Pusztai-Varga University of Szeged

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61200/mikael.130613

Abstract

By following the spread of a scientific term from one field of science to another present paper discusses the role of literary translators from a new aspect.

The term cultural broker was first used in the study of culture to refer to people who mediate between different cultural identity groups. It was then introduced in interpreting studies to apprehend the role of community interpreters. In summing up the skills characterising the activity of cultural brokers in both the study of culture and interpreting research we could note the following features: (1) their work is more than pure language or information transfer; (2) they actively influence the mediation process; (3) they are initiators; (4) they are supportive; (5) they work as co-ordinators; (6) as mediators they are reflexive; (7) they facilitate cross-cultural interaction; (8) they are motivated, tolerant and unbiased; (9) they recognise culture-specific attitudes; (10) they are aware of the given communication context they work in. The present paper explores how active and significant the work of literary translators is in the interaction between the source and target cultures. Finally a proposal is made to deploy the term cultural broker in translation studies to describe the work of literary translators.