Book contents
- The Philosophy of Literary Translation
- The Philosophy of Literary Translation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on the Text
- Introduction
- Part I Positions and Propositions
- Part II Dialogue, Movement, Ecology
- Chapter 5 Dialogue and Dialectic in the Translational Act
- Chapter 6 Movement, Duration, Rhythm
- Chapter 7 The Ecological Reach and Promise of Literary Translation
- Coda
- Appendix Merleau-Ponty and Invisibility
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 7 - The Ecological Reach and Promise of Literary Translation
from Part II - Dialogue, Movement, Ecology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2023
- The Philosophy of Literary Translation
- The Philosophy of Literary Translation
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on the Text
- Introduction
- Part I Positions and Propositions
- Part II Dialogue, Movement, Ecology
- Chapter 5 Dialogue and Dialectic in the Translational Act
- Chapter 6 Movement, Duration, Rhythm
- Chapter 7 The Ecological Reach and Promise of Literary Translation
- Coda
- Appendix Merleau-Ponty and Invisibility
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The underlying proposition, that translation is a model or homologue of ecological action, involves the rejection of notions of preservation and conservation. For their own continuing health, ecosystems need to be conducted in the same spirit as a translational act. The chapter then turns to Uexküll’s concept of Umwelt and its apprpriateness to translational thinking; then to its legacy in biosemiotics. How, then, does translational language achieve that perlocutionary ability to re-immerse us in the environment? Through the cultivation of idiolect and alternity (Steiner), and of situatedness and presentness of the voice, particularly in articulation, paralanguage and rhythm, which envelope the verbal with the non-verbal and allow the human to slide towards the non-human. Equally language must be coaxed in the direction of the indexical, iconic and onomatopoeic, more flexibly understood; and language must be translated into forms and shapes unfamiliar to itself so that it can explore other models of psycho-perception. Arguments in the chapter are exemplified in translations of Hugo, Saint-John Perse, Heredia, Baudelaire and Hopkins.
- Type
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- Information
- The Philosophy of Literary TranslationDialogue, Movement, Ecology, pp. 186 - 246Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023