Rollason (2007) The Task of Walter Benjamin's Translators: Reflections on the Different Language Versions of "Das Passagen-Werk" ("The Arcades Project")

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The Task of Walter Benjamin's Translators: Reflections on the Different Language Versions of "Das Passagen-Werk" ("The Arcades Project")

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CONTRIBUTORS:

Author:

Rollason, Christopher (Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate)

JOURNAL:

Yatra (on-line journal), ??(??), ?? - ??.

YEAR:

2007

PUB TYPE:

Journal Article

SUBJECT(S):

Translation studies; Walter Benjamin

DISCIPLINE:

Literature

HTTP:

http://yatrarollason.info/files/BenjaminTRrev5BABEL.pdf

LANGUAGE:

English

PUB ID:

103-437-443 (Last edited on 2009/08/13 09:37:03 GMT-6)

SPONSOR(S):

ABSTRACT:
It is somewhat paradoxical that Walter Benjamin, who is by now all but universally recognised as one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century, is also a name cited with reverence in the academic field of Translation Studies - even though he produced only a sliver of reflections on the subject. There are, indeed, only two frequently cited texts in which Benjamin considers the subject: the early, esoteric essay 'On Language as Such and on the Language of Man' ('Über die Sprache überhaupt und über die Sprache des Menschen', 1916), and the very well-known piece 'The Task of the Translator' ('Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers', 1923). From these two slim texts comes Benjamin's surprising fame as a theorist of translation, concerning which we may note two interesting points: first, that the later essay is actually linked to the practice of translation, since it was originally published as Benjamin's preface to his own translation into German of Charles Baudelaire's poem-sequence Tableaux Parisiens ); and second, that since by no means all those who write on Walter Benjamin know his native language, German, his writings on translation are more often than not quoted in translation (English, Spanish, Italian or whatever). All this may usefully alert the readers of his work to the importance of translation, as an indispensable means of communication of ideas, and, at the same time, to the need for theoretical reflection on what is in no sense an unproblematic or value-free activity. In this brief study, we shall first examine the key elements of Benjamin's concept of translation, and then look in detail at certain aspects of the different language versions of his posthumous masterpiece, the study of nineteenth-century Paris centring on the arcades that is Das Passagen-Werk. NB: This text has also been published on-line on the Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate site.

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