Polysystem
Literary System Extraliterary System
Patronage Canonized form
esteemed discourses and genres: Poetry
Non-canonized form
„less worthy‟ genres: Children‟s literature Popular fiction
Polysystem determines the polysystem theory
• Even-Zohar explored the relationship between the translated texts and the literary polysystem in three aspects:
Chapter 5
Polysystem Theory
Introduction of Itamar Even-Zohar

Professor Emeritus of Culture Research, of University of Tel Aviv

Cultural theorist, not a translation theorist. One of forerunners of translation studies Command a working knowledge of : Hebrew (mother tongue), Arabic, English, French, Swedish, Spanish, Norwegian, Danish, Italian, Russian, German, Icelandic, and a few other languages.
• In this historical situation, translation often (but not necessarily always) assumes forms already established as a dominant type within a particular genre, and the translated literature tends to remain fairly conservative, adhering to norms which the “higher” forms have already rejected. Interestingly, despite playing a secondary role, translations produced under these circumstances may paradoxically introduce new ideas into a culture while at the same time preserving traditional forms.
1. Reclassifications of the position of translation within varying cultural systems.
2. How texts to be translated are selected by the receiving culture.
Polysystem theory
• Even-Zohar incorporated the data collected from his observations on how translations function in various societies. He developed an approach ”Polysystem theory” to explain the function of all kinds of writing within a given culture. • His data showed that translated literature functions differently depending upon the age, strength, and stability of the particular literary polysystem.

Itamar Even-Zohar (Picture taken 1993, Santiago de Compostela)
System
Polysystem
System: This concept is introduced by Tynjanov. Elements, Tynjanov argued, do not exist in isolation, but always in an interrelationship with other elements of other systems.
Polysytem of younger or smaller nations
Israel & the Low Countries
பைடு நூலகம்
The translated literature played a more central role
Reason: To learn All！ 拿来主义
Three circumstances: Maintaining a primary position
Polysytem with translation theories
“It is necessary to include translated literature in the polysystem. This is rarely done, but no observer of the history of any literature can avoid recognizing as an important fact the impact of translations and their role in the synchrony and diachrony of a certain literature”.
Literary structure interrelated deciding
systems
Semi-literary structure Extraliterary structure
Specific element function
System
Polysystem
Even-Zohar adopted Tynjanov‟s concept of system. He developed the polysystem hypothesis while working on a model for Israeli Hebrew literature. In a series of papers written from 1970 to 1977 and collected in 1978 as “Papers in Historical Poetics”《历史诗学论文集》, he first introduced the term “polysystem” to refer to the entire network of correlated system within society. Thus it is a global term covering all of the literary system, both major and minor existing in a given culture.
Polysystems of larger, older cultures
Length and self-sufficiency of their traditions
Relegate translated literature to the margins of society
Anglo-American & French
1. When a literature is young, or in the process of being established.
i.e. Israel; Czech in 19th ；我国清末明初 Translation fulfills the need of a young literature to use its new language for as many different kinds of writing as possible. Since it cannot create all forms and genres, translated texts may serve as the most important for a certain amount time.
3. How translated texts adopt certain norms and functions as a result of their relation to other target language system.
Reclassification
• Previous classification: All the translations were invariably classified as secondary system. The literary translation was considered secondary activity, mechanical, rather than creative, neither worthy of serious critical attention. • Even-Zohar argued: It depends! Not all polysystems are the same. Such classification was inaccurate.
(Even-Zohar, 1978)