This paper aims to present and discuss important issues regarding the influence of politics and ideology within the field of translation studies. Employing a theoretical approach, the work examines position of translated literature within the literary system relying on the theories of translation theorists and researchers Itamar Even-Zohar and André Lefevere. The paper also attempts to examine the position of a translator and his or her work regarding several ideological influences: the translator’s and the one imposed by a certain authority or patronage as well as correlation between ideology and poetics, i.e. the external factors which influence the recognition of a translator and reception of his work. Moreover, it is centred on the work of French literary critic, Pascale Casanova, The World Republic of Letters, who offers a starting point from which the importance and the function of the world of letters might be measured from historical and cultural view and the importance of acquired “literary capital”.