2. So far we have considered literary,
linguistic and cultural theories of
translation.
In this session we will move on to look at
modern philosophical approaches to
translation that have sought out the
essence of translation (mainly literary)
over the second half of the 20th century.
4. Steiner’s hermeneutic motion
WHAT IS HERMENEUTICS?
Hermeneutics is an interpretive method,
named after the Greek word hermeneuin
meaning 'to understand'. Hermeneutics,
briefly, can be defined as the science
and methodology of interpreting texts.
5. The hermeneutic movement owes its
origin to the eighteenth and nineteenth
century German Romantics , especially
Friedrich Schleiermacher and Wilhelm
Dilthey.In the twentieth century,leading
figures included Heidegger and
Gadamer.However,George steiner’s After
Babel was the key modern reference for
the hermeneutics of translation.
6. Steiner defines hermeneutic approach:
the investigation of what it means to
“understand a piece of oral or written
speech and the attempt to diagnose this
process in terms of a general model of
meaning”.
After Bable: the first systematic
investigation of the theory and processes
of translation since eighteenth century.
7. Steiner’s description of the hermeneutics
of translation is based on a conception of
translation not as a science but as an
“exact art”. Steiner in his seminal work
“After Babel” states that the reason for
the lack of new developments in
translation theory is that translation is a
hermeneutical task, "not a science, but
an exact art.“
8. He then presents a new translation model
that combines philosophical
hermeneutics with existing translation
studies to form a "systematic hermeneutic
translation theory". The new model
comprises four "movements":1)nitiative
trust 2)aggression 3)incorporation
4)retribution (compensation).
9. 1)Initiative trust: a belief and trust that
there is something there in the ST that can
be understood. Translator considers the St
to stand for something in the world, a
coherent "something” that can be
translated even if the meaning might not
be apparent immediately.
10. In this step translator selects a text and
approach it with this trust that there is
something there worth translating and
there is something that can be
understood . Steiner believed that in this
step, translator shows ‘generosity’ to an
alien text.
11. 2)Aggression: means the translator's
perception and understanding of the
text, which as Steiner says "is always
partial. translator, at this point, is a reader,
He is different because he has to
understand, if not the deepest, he must
be much deeper than an average
reader.
12. . In order to bring home the most
meaning he can get, he attacks,
breaking the shell of the other language
and trying his best to capture the inner
core of it, because the serious
understanding here is not simply a matter
of words and structure, but the history and
culture within it.
13. . When a translator translated one
language to another, he must take away
or change something of the original text
which he considers unnecessary or
unsuitable to make the readers
understand.
14. 3)Incorporation (or Embodiment):it refers
to the ST meaning, extracted by the
translator in the second movement, being
brought into the TL, which is already full of
its own words and meanings. Different
type of assimilation can occur:
15. 1)complete domestication
(Domestication is the strategy of making
text closely conform to the culture of the
language being translated to, which may
involve the loss of information from the
source text)or 2)permanent strangeness
and marginality.
16. The crucial point Steiner makes is that the
importing of the meaning of the foreign
text can dislocate or relocate the whole
of the native structure. He suggests the
two ways in which this process function:
a)sacramental intake: the target culture
ingests and becomes enriched by the
foreign text.
b)infection:the target culture is infected
by the source text and ultimately rejects it.
17. In this step, the translator realizes and tries
to convey what he or she understands in
his or her own language.
4)Compensation: The translator tries to
achieve a balance by trying to be as
faithful as he can and as freely as he
must. The translator must be willing to give
back to the SL as much as he has taken.
Steiner emphasizes the fidelity in this
stage.
18. Elective affinity and resistant
difference:
For Steiner, the concept of “resistant
difference” occurs in two ways:
the translator experiences the foreign
language differently from his or her
mother tongue.
Each pair of languages, SL and TL, differs
and imposes its vivid differences on he
translator and society.
19. Elective affinity occurs:when the translator
has been drawn to the text as a kindred
spirit and recognized him-or herself in it.
When elective affinity and resistant
difference are both present at the same
time,the text both reject and attract the
translator.
20. Ezra pound and the energy of
language
He was always experimental, seeking to
energize language by clarity, rhythm,
sound and form rather than with sense. his
whole work was influenced by his reading
of the literature of the past. Pound’s
experimentalism and challenging of the
poetic doctrine of his time continue to
provide inspiration for many later
translators.
21. his use of translation is describes as" a tool
in the cultural struggle". His archaizing and
foreignizing in translation leads to his
“marginalization". His view of translation as
a criticism and his own form of creative
translation influenced Brazilian poets.
whose role in the Brazilian cannibalist
movement was paramount.
22. The task of translator: Walter
Benjamin
We will discuss Walter Benjamin’s famous
essay ‘The Task of the Translator’ (1923).
For Benjamin a translation is part of the
‘afterlife’ of a text.
As a text in its own right, a translation
does not only carry messages; it recreates
the value given to the text throughout the
ages.
23. Moreover a translation appears as
something unique in Benjamin’s words for
it has the potential to convey what he
calls a ‘pure language’, where the
‘mutually exclusive’ differences among
two languages can coexist and where
the ‘complementary intentions’ of these
languages can be communicated.
24. The task of translator is not to ‘assemble’
or express what is to be conveyed since
the poet/writer has already done that
when writing the original text.
The task of the translator rather ‘consists
in finding that intended effect [Intention]
upon the pure language into which he is
translating which produces in it the echo
of the original’.
25. This pure language is released by the co-
existence and the complementation of
the translation with the original.
Thus the two texts, both the original and its
translation, share what Benjamin calls a
‘vital link’ and from this linguistic harmony
arises a greater language, a ‘pure
language’.
26. This is the reason why the task of translator
is something unique and powerful for
Benjamin because until he has released
this greater language in his translation, ‘it
remains hidden in the languages.’
It is the task of the translator to release in
his own language that pure language
which is under the spell of another, to
liberate the language imprisoned in a
work in his recreation of that work”.
27. Benjamin’s stress on allowing the foreign
to enter the translation language harks
back to Schleiermacher’s concept of
foreignization.
28. Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a method or practice of
reading developed by the French philosopher
Jacques Derrida to uncover that which is
forgotten, hidden or repressed in texts.
It thus interrogates key concepts in the
philosophical tradition, and questions the
dualisms or binary oppositions in Western
thought (presence/absence,nature/culture,
speech/writing, etc).
29. In literary studies, deconstructionists do
not seek to find a single meaning for a
work or works, but rather uncover the
multiplicity of meanings, often
unacknowledged and even
contradictory, that exist in literary texts.
30. Yet they do not attempt to reconcile
those meanings into a single, coherent
structure. Instead, they explore how those
meanings are ultimately irreconcilable
and proliferate in ways that call into
question received assumptions or “truths.”
31. Deconstruction seems to center around
the idea that language and meaning are
often inadequate in trying to convey the
message or idea a communicator is trying
to express.
Since the confusion stems from the
language and not the object then one
should break down or deconstruct the
language to see if we can better
understand where the confusion stems.
32. Translation and Relevance Theory
(Gutt,1991)
Relevance theory distinguishes between
descriptive and interpretive use of
language.
In descriptive use, the thought belongs to
the speaker and the speaker intends it to
accurately represent reality. In interpretive
use, the thought belongs (originally) to
someone other than the speaker and the
speaker intends his/her utterance to
accurately represent the original thought.
33. Someone speaking descriptively intends
to be faithful to reality; someone speaking
interpretively intends to be faithful to the
meaning of the original speaker (Smith
2000:39).
34. Derrida and relevant translation
Derrida first deconstructs a text, carefully
reinterpreting traces that overlapping
each other, which means to pay close
attention to the so-called intertextuality.
Since any text is no longer a completed
whole writing. Text is a web constituted of
various differences, a structure made up
of different traces.
35. The process of translation is a process to
endlessly pursue and erase traces, to
disseminate, graft, rewrite and
supplement. It opposes to the traditional
binary opposition in translation and
implants with an open, pluralistic and
subjective way.
36. It puts the undecidability and multiplicity
of meaning into spotlight and stresses the
relation between meaning and context.
Consequently, relationship between the
original and translated texts is redefined
as translation living more and better than
original.
37. Derrida is opposed to concept of
relevance in translation. Because
according to Derrida relevance depends
on a stable signified, signifier relationship
and aims at total transparency.
