A conceptual and empirical approach to cultural translation

This article synthesizes debates about cultural translation that have taken place in a recent Translation Studies forum and in other venues. It offers a conceptual map by examining the matrix formed by pairing meanings of "culture'' (in an anthropological sense, in a symbolic sense, and in the sense of a community) with meanings of "translation'' (as rewriting and as transposition). This map shows how different notions of cultural translation contradict and complement each other, and it provides concepts that can be tested empirically. The article concludes by using these concepts to describe a bill in the legislature of the Canadian province of Quebec (Bill 94) and by calling for further empirical investigation as a way to refine theories of cultural translation.