ABSTRACT
The Cultural Turn was one of the most important moments in the history of Translation Studies and a turning point for the discipline. It changed the scope and directions of development of translation research, reorganized its aims and methods and changed its significance within the Humanities. The focus of the discipline was shifted from texts to contexts and hence from the linguistic paradigm to much broader areas of Culture Studies, involving analyses of power relations behind the practice of translation, both contemporary and past. The Cultural Turn opened a space for committed and interventionist approaches, especially in the contexts of feminist, gender and postcolonial studies. Translation scholars have both analysed cultural, ideological and political aspects of translation and taken active positions. As a result, Cultural TS provided a methodological framework for research in other areas of the Humanities, which has come to be known as the translatorial turn in Culture Studies. This chapter traces the inspirations for the Cultural Turn; describes the investigations undertaken in the 1990s; discusses the shifts and changes postulated and enacted, as well as their methodological and interdisciplinary interconnections; looks at the interventionist drive in translation research and points to implications of the Cultural Turn in TS for the further development of the area.
