Bourdieu’s Capital and Latour’s Actor-Network Theory as Conceptual Tools in Translation Research

Recently, sociological approaches have been applied directly in studying translation as a meaningful social action conducted by professionals. This paper aims to demonstrate how Bourdieu’s analyses and Latour’s actor-network theory can be used as a conceptual framework in translation studies to explore not only the influence of the individual translation agent, but also the impact of these agents working together as a network in translation production. While Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, field and capital has been broadly appropriated to explore the translation agent’s role, power and social action, especially that of the translator (Gouvanic 2005; Inghilleri 2005), some doubts are cast on its lack of strength in studying the participation of multiple translation agents in the translation production process (Buzelin 2005). It is argued that Latour’s actor-network theory, stressing the production process of an artefact involving a network of actors, can be complementary to Bourdieu’s theory to examine the individual influence of the agents on the network formation, and the impact of the cooperative agency on the translation production. This study hopes to shed new light on the possibility and the value of synthesising Bourdieu and Latour together. It is proposed that the combination can complement their respective theoretical shortcomings. To answer the question, the translation series Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan published in the US and its agents involved, identified as subvention network, is studied.