ABSTRACT
For the last three decades, polysystem theory, descriptive translation studies and translation sociology have been the dominant models to study cultural interaction, cultural dynamics and cultural transfer. However, these models impose a simple conceptualization on a complex reality and as such mutilate our understanding of cultural interactions and cultural transfer. If we really want to understand cultural interactions and cultural transfer, we need to supplement these traditional models with an epistemology of complexity. After explaining the key concepts and insights of complexity theory, this chapter illustrates its potential benefits by analyzing the literary and cultural interactions between the Flemish and Francophone Belgian literatures and cultures in the interwar period from a complexity viewpoint.
