ABSTRACT
Given the fact that translated literature can take on a variety of roles in the target poly system - either conforming to already existing models or else introducing original elements into the system - it inevitably follows that the ways in which translation is practised in a given culture are themselves dictated by the position which translated literature occupies within the polysystem. To use Even-Zohar's words, 'translation is no longer a phenomenon whose nature and borders are given once and for all , but an activity dependent on the rela tions within a certain cultural system' ( 1990: 5 1 ) . This new insight inevitably leads to a widening of the definition of translation itself. Past definitions have frequently been formu lated in highly prescriptive terms , and texts not conforming to accepted theoretical preconcep tions have frequently been denied the full status of 'translations ' , instead being dubbed ' imitations' , 'adaptations ' or 'versions ' . The work of Even-Zohar, on the other hand, sug gests that up to now translation scholars have been asking the wrong questions, and aims at a new definition of the discipline itself by
acknowledging the fact that the parameters within which the translation process is carried out in a given culture are themselves dictated by the models which are currently operative within the target literary polysystem. This fundamentally non-prescriptive approach has led to three extremely important insights.
