本書以十九世紀晚期英國文學作品及其中譯本為研究對象，
　　辨析文本與文化的（不）可譯性。

　　所謂翻譯，就是把以一種文字寫成的文本以另一種文字解讀和詮釋，其定義往往離不開上述局限於語文層面上的二元解讀。《文化翻譯：十九世紀末英國文學的中譯》一書的主旨，乃是從上述架構以外的文化角度，探討文化此一概念對翻譯和一個文本的「可譯性」所帶來的影響。透過集中研讀十九世紀末英國的文學作品和其中譯本，並依據不同主題和體裁將之歸類，本書指出了文化與翻譯活動的因果關係，比一般想像來得緊密、細膩，並藉著以上的分析，進一步探討翻譯和文化之間的關係之餘，闡釋翻譯研究對文化研究所可以帶來的啟思。

　　The idea of translation is traditionally understood as a binary phenomenon—a process which re-interprets and re-presents an original text in one language for a different audience in another language. The aim of Translating Culture: Late-Victorian Literature into Chinese is to look at how the notion of culture convolutes this predominantly language-based practice and considers its implication on a text’s “untranslatability.” By focusing on literature of the late-Victorian period, grouping them into different themes and genres, and considering the way these texts have been translated into Chinese, an argument will be made that the idea of culture and the practice of translation are much more closely correlated than has been commonly assumed. In doing so, this book contributes to recent scholarship on translatology and cultural studies by examining the exactitude to which the process of translation must account for the concept of culture, as well as with how the former could help enhance our understanding of the latter.