"Do your job, translate!" : translation studies as a method in the humanities

Translation has become one of the most important aspects of contemporary culture in the globalised world: it is a condition for intercultural communication as well as a means of preservation of culturally specific elements. No longer can we ignore the impact is has on cultural praxis and the functioning of many disciplines of the humanities. As a methodological framework Translation Studies offers a set of analytic and interpretive tools for research into various "translation zones", for a long time seen as marginal, but in fact the most active spaces in cultures. It is there that the mediation processes and cultural transfer happens. The paper looks at the ways in which Translation Studies defines its aims and methods and sketches possible uses they may be put into in the humanities. The Translational Turn in Culture Studies poses challenges both to TS and other disciplines of the humanities, at the same time offering promising, new research perspectives.