In the Workshop of the Translator. Walter Benjamin in/on Translation

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Taking as its starting point Walter Benjamin’s The Task of the Translator, the paper provides insights on both his theory of translation and some of the translations of this essay. In doing so, the author lets the readers enter both Benjamin’s and her trans-lator’s workshop. This process leads to a reflection at a metalevel on the dialectical ten-sion between translator and translation, highlighting a hiatus between the experience of translating and the process of thinking about it. Translation emerges as a process of metamorphosis that lets the original survive in new forms, making us aware that the concept of an absolute singularity does not have any reason to exist, both for works of art and for our life. Thus, translation offers a privileged observation-point from which to re-flect upon the concept of “life”, subverting one of the most stable categories of Western philosophy, one which is often taken for granted: the concept of subjectivity. Through the concept and the practice of translation, we become aware that every text, as every existence, is the result of a series of encounters and collisions and should therefore be considered only from the dimension of plurality.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJOLMA: The Journal for the Philosophy of Language, Mind and the Arts
Volume3
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)213-222
Number of pages10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20.12.2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

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    Research areas

  • Difference, Hybridisation, Plurality, Translation’s, Translation’s theory, practice
  • Philosophy