ABSTRACT
This chapter presents insights into the role of culture and ideology in translation. In translation, it is not only different languages that are important but also different cultures and different ideological positions taken up by translators. The chapter looks at the important concept of culture and finds simplified accounts of culture, oblivious of real socio-cultural diversity, complexity hybridity, individuality and constant fluidity, often instrumentalized for the continued expansion of neo-liberal capitalism, global business ventures and global tourism, 'humanitarian' interventions in the name of 'peace', 'security', 'democracy' and the 'fight against terror'. Similar to an interest in CDA in translation is the recent fascination with 'translation as ideology', with ideology as a crucial topic in translation studies, famously taken up by in their discussion of ideological mediation in translation and ways of revealing hidden, implicit ideology on translation. Target culture norms are crucial here because it is in the target cultural environment that the translation will have to achieve its purpose.
