The Culture Turn in Translation Studies

The culture turn of translation studies was initially put forward by Bassnett and Lefevere (1990) cultural approach in 1990. As important representatives of cultural approach in translation studies, Bassnett and Lefevere attached great importance to the role of culture in translation, the social background, the influence that cultural tradition imposed on translation, the subjectivity of translators and researching shift from linguistic to culture, thus improving the literariness of translated texts. Such method of study expanded the scope of translation studies enormously, opened a new field of study, thus it enhanced a further and more comprehensive development of translation studies. This paper will present a brief introduction of the history of translation studies, analyzing the social causes of culture turn and especially discuss the series shifts brought by culture turn in status of translated texts and translators, and the methods of translation analysis. In the end, some personal viewpoints will be showed about the culture turn in translation studies.