Managing The External Influences That Can Shape And Have An Impact On A Translation

The external influences that can shape and have an impact on a translation mainly refer to the social and cultural contexts of the target text translator’s country in a certain historical period of time. Thus, such factors can prove helpful if we are looking for a holistic image on the creation, production, reception and translation of a certain text or novel in two or more cultures and its status in contemporary society. The presentation of these contexts requires an interdisciplinary approach, focusing on the historical, political, economic, social and cultural aspects of both the source language and target language texts. A good example in point would be the analysis and comparison of a text that was translated in very different historical periods of time and cultural contexts. This is one of the reasons for using J. D. Salinger’s novel, “The Catcher in the Rye”, for this type of approach the main focus is to present the huge impact that the Second World War had, mainly on the USA –the democratic context – and Romania – the communist context – and on how it affected life, developments and social evolutions in these two different countries. These external influences refer to the main events in the history of these two countries (or any other countries considered for comparison and analysis), as well as the political regimes and their impacts on each nation and on the developments from various fields of activity, as well as their impact on people’s lives and ways of thinking. Closely connected to these factors and recent perspectives on Translation Studies is the aim of this article: to draw attention to certain problems that may occur in a translation, especially when different cultures are involved and when these cultures have the power to shape a translation, and not only.