ABSTRACT
The term most commonly used is ‘descriptive’, as in ‘the descriptive approach’ or ‘descriptive translation studies’. It dates from the early 1970s and derives its polemical force from the deliberate opposition to ‘prescriptive’ translation studies. The term ‘polysystem’ was invented by the Israeli scholar Itamar Even-Zohar and has also found application outside the world of translation, especially in literary studies. The descriptive and systemic perspective on translation and on studying translation was prepared in the 1960s, developed in the 1970s, propagated in the 1980s, and consolidated, expanded and overhauled in the 1990s. The growth and diffusion of the descriptive/systemic/manipulation paradigm in translation studies can be described with almost uncanny ease in terms of Diana Crane’s invisible college. Power and manipulation would be key issues in what they hailed as the ‘cultural turn’ in translation studies.
