Discussion
“Communication Societies”: Comments on Even-Zohar’s “Making of Culture Repertoire”

José Lambert
CETRA, KU Leuven
Table of contents

In a recent "Forum" article published in Target (1997), Itamar Even-Zohar tries to capture the basic rules of "Culture Repertoires". Even-Zohar has become an authority in the fields of semiotics, translation studies and system theory since the 1970's (see surveys of his work in Even-Zohar 1979; 1990; http://​www​.tau​.ac​.il​/Mtamarez); and it is interesting to notice how his position within and/or between various disciplines illustrates the permanent redefinition of research on culture in general: though many scholars may still link his work with literary studies, or even translation, Even-Zohar has stressed time and again that his primary interest is in cultural studies at large. This is apparent in his fluctuating interest in literary studies, semiotics, and translation studies. At least since the Antwerp Conference on Translation (1980) he has obviously made up his mind to leave the specific issues of translation as verbal transfer to his disciple and colleague Gideon Toury, and focus on the much more general matters of cultural transfer, verbal and non-verbal alike. Hence, it is not at all surprising to see him concentrate on "cultural repertoires" now. Associated here with "culture", the idea of repertoire, though not unknown in Even-Zohar's previous work, has been given a special focus for a few years in the work of another of his disciples, Rakefet Sheffy, who uses the notion of repertoire as a bridge between her master's and Pierre Bourdieu's worlds (Sheffy 1990; 1997; see also Even-Zohar 1997a, especially 20–28).

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

Even-Zohar, Itamar
1979 “Polysystem Theory”. Poetics Today 1. 287–310. [reprinted in Even-Zohar 1990 : 9–26.]   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1990 Polysystem Studies. Durham: Duke University Press. [= Poetics Today11:1.]Google Scholar
1997 “The Making of Culture Repertoire and the Role of Transfer”. Target 9:2. 355–363.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1997a “Factors and Dependencies in Culture: A Revised Outline for Poly system Culture Research”. van Gorp et al. 1997: 15–34.Google Scholar
Gorp, Hendrik van, Anneleen Masschelein, Dirk de Geest and Koenraad Geldof
eds. 1997 The Study of Literature and Culture: Systems and Fields / Études littéraires et culturelles: Systèmes et champs [= Special Issue of the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 24: 1 (March).]Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric J.
1997 (2nd ed.). Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programs, Myth, Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.Google Scholar
Lincoln, B.
1986 Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Study of Myth, Ritual and Classification. Oxford: Oxford UP.Google Scholar
Sánchez-Mesa Martinez, Domingo, José Lambert, Daniel Apollon and Jef Vanden Branden
eds. 1997 Crosscultural and Linguistic Perspectives on European Open and Distance Learning. Granada: University of Granada Press. [TRANSCULT, I.]Google Scholar
Sheffy, Rakefet
1990 “The Concept of Canonicity in Poly system Theory”. Poetics Today 9:3.511–522.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1997 “Models and Habituses: Problems in the Idea of Cultural Repertoires”. van Gorp et al. 1997: 35–47.Google Scholar