The Social Nature of Translation: The Shift from Textual to Contextual

Abstract

Adopting Latour’s 'Actor Network Theory’, This paper aims to highlight the Sociological Turn of translation studies and approach translation practice as a social action. Accordingly, the process of translating is tackled from a creative perspective. We attempt to illustrate that translation is no longer a word for word substitution; however, it is a cultural product that aims at reproduction of meaning. Furthermore, translation is more than a matter of linguistic realization and language comparison, and is incorporated in the social and cultural context. The present paper explores not only the influence of the individual translation agent, but also the impact of these agents working together as a network in translation production with a particular insight into the huge movement of translation which had been funded and supported during the Abbasid Era(Golden Age), we attempt to explore how translators interact with other actors and actants to produce knowledge. It has been concluded that translation actors and their individual social impact can be infuential upon the ultimate translation product. Consequently, the translator is not merely a technician who authomatically transfers the meaning of a text from one language into another one. Instead, he is an agent of change and transformation.