Levý a sociológia prekladu? Inšpirácie a paralely – náčrt problematiky

Abstract

By means of historiographical and critical analysis, the present article aims to map out “the traces” of sociological concepts in the works of Jiři Levy in comparison to the works of A. Popovič and F. Miko. The aim is to survey the background and circumstances of Levy’s theories and his conclusions and to evaluate the impact of his work on what today has come to be known as the sociological turn in translation studies. The article primarily addresses the polyvalent and complex phenomenon of habitus (as defined by P. Bourdieu). Habitus is compared with Levy’s model of the translator’s decision process and Miko’s concept of experiential complex. Moreover, habitus has also enabled us to socio-critically analyze Levy’s academic career which followed a trajectory from a closed-off literary studies to an open, interdisciplinary (proto) translation studies. Thus, new conclusions are drawn about the status of translation theory in Levy’s times and possible new inspiration sources and correlations are examined. Doing so enables us to explain why Levy’s integrating theorems can be viewed as “stem cells” of translation studies. The article also contains a few necessary evaluative digressions about Slovak sociology of translation and translation history whose aim to point out the problem of genesis amnesia (Bourdieu), that is, in essence, forgetting the past of one’s own habitus, which is so typical for young and dynamic academic disciplines.

Keywords

• sociology of translation
• Jiří Levý (1926–1967)
• habitus
• Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002)
• genesis amnesia
• history of translation studies