Overview
- Applies key postmodern philosophers to translation theory
- Appeals to scholars of literature, critical theory, and translation studies, as well as scholars of philosophy, Jewish studies, Latin American studies, postcolonial studies, and history
- Includes an extended reading of Borges’ writings on Don Quijote
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About this book
The Afterlife of Texts in Translation: Understanding the Messianic in Literature reads Walter Benjamin’s and Jacques Derrida’s writings on translation as suggesting that texts exist within a process of continual translation. Understanding Benjamin’s and Derrida’s concept of ‘afterlife’ as ‘overliving’, this book proposes that reading Benjamin’s and Derrida’s writings on translation in terms of their wider thought on language and history suggests that textuality itself possesses a ‘messianic’ quality. Developing this idea in relation to the many rewritings and translations of Don Quijote, particularly the multiple rewritings by Jorge Luis Borges, Edmund Chapman asserts that texts consist of a structure of potential for endless translation that continually promises the overcoming of language, history and textuality itself.
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Keywords
Table of contents (7 chapters)
Reviews
“In this fascinating book, Edmund Chapman proposes a messianic 'afterlife' for literature. Straddling the boundaries between critical theory, comparative literature and translation theory, and negotiating between Benjamin, Derrida and Borges’ distinct theories of translation, he argues that every original text is inhabited by a messianic excess over itself which both calls for, and prevents, translatability. This powerful and original work will undoubtedly have a rich critical afterlife of its own.” (Arthur Bradley, Professor of Comparative Literature, Lancaster University, UK, and author of Unbearable Life: A Genealogy of Political Erasure (2019))
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Edmund Chapman has taught English Literature and French at the University of Manchester, UK. He is a co-editor of New Voices in Translation Studies.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Afterlife of Texts in Translation
Book Subtitle: Understanding the Messianic in Literature
Authors: Edmund Chapman
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32452-0
Publisher: Palgrave Pivot Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-32451-3Published: 28 November 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-32452-0Published: 14 November 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 140
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Translation Studies, Comparative Literature, Postcolonial/World Literature, Postmodern Philosophy, Adaptation Studies, Translation