Artikel

Naar een politiek en poëtiek van vertaling

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Samenvatting

Western approaches to translation are often articulated in terms of fidelity and treason: should the translator be faithful to the original and betray the public, or the other way around? However, conceiving of translation in these terms reduces the original text to a passive source that awaits translation. It does not necessarily take into account how violence is an integral part of any translation. Especially when translating decolonial texts, the translator should be wary of the epistemic violence translation might inflict on the original text. How might a responsible translator grapple with the epistemic violence of translating into the languages of Euromodernity? This article tries to redefine translation in terms of call and response, thereby underlining the incommensurability of translation that distances the translation from the original. It situates the violence of translation at the heart of its approach. With the use of Glissant and Spivak, it defines the task of the translator as the duty to respect the opacity of the original text. In such a politics and poetics of translation, translation is no longer conceived as a technical skill, but as a political form of art, in which the translator should listen to the singular call of the original text and respond in its own singular idiom.

Hoe citeren:

Hadjadj, E., (2023) “Naar een politiek en poëtiek van vertaling”, Ethiek en Maatschappij 25(1), 11–33. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/em.94651