The ideological turn in translation studies

Abstract

This paper investigates the benefits of taking an ideological turn in translation studies after the linguistic turn and cultural turn in the previous decades. This ideological turn refers to a new/renewed focus on the ideological significance of the act of translation; more specifically, it refers to a changed perspective of seeing translation as a means of ideological resistance. Critical discourse analysis is equally engaged in exposing that discursive practices could have ideological effects. A translator, as a mediator between languages, cultures and ideologies, should make the readers aware of this feature of discourse. This has the advantage of allowing the readers to come to the ideology in their own terms, and not be forcefully interpreted for them by the translator.