In Conversation with Itamar Even-Zohar about Literary and Culture Theory

Abstract

Dora Sales Salvador presents, in "In Conversation with Itamar Even-Zohar about Literary and Culture Theory," the text of an interview with literary and culture theoretician Itamar Even-Zohar (Tel Aviv University). In the interview, Sales Salvador discusses with Even-Zohar his polysystem theory, a framework that emerges from the wish to foster open dialogue between different trends in culture research. The discussion suggests that there are assumptions shared by practitioners of cultural studies and Even-Zohar's culture research framework he has been developing since 1993. At the same time, the discussion reveals that it is also necessary and perhaps much more important to be conscious and to be aware of the differences between the two frameworks. Even-Zohar's explanations present lucid accounts of the bases of the respective theoretical frameworks. Further, Even-Zohar responds to the Sales Salvador's queries about aspects of the reception of the polysystem theory in literary and culture scholarship, the role of translation studies in the context of the polysystem theory, aspects of knowledge transfer in humanities scholarship, and the need to consider what other areas of research and scholarship can provide.