Abstract

Despite the multiple measures put in place by governments and international and non-governmental organisations to promote multiculturalism, it remains difficult for individuals to come into contact with a given culture without travelling to that part of the country or without it being broadcasted or carried along by natives. This makes it difficult to understand cultural aspects that can explain or better help understand a given social phenomenon observed in a given society. As, by being in contact with other cultures, it helps understand others ways of life, their eating and dressing habits, their beliefs, etc. This research thus aims at showing that thanks to the strong relationship that exists between language and culture, translation can be used as a tool to promote multiculturalism. For this purpose, the study was grounded on the polysystem theory backed up by few literary and language theories. Besides, it opted for a mixed approach, which enabled the collection of qualitative data through documentary research, observation and textual analysis; and quantitative data through statistics. The results of the investigation showed that translation can greatly contribute to the promotion of multiculturalism as cultural elements: language, norms, tradition, beliefs, and eating habits spread by authors in their pieces of writing can be rendered into other languages using translation strategies such as literal translation, explicitness change, foreignization, and sentence structure change.