Translation and Philosophy (Workshop)

Description

Duncan Large (Academic Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation, University of East Anglia)

Moderator: Nicole Robertson (UCL)

 

From the enquiry into the nature of meaning within analytical philosophy (Quine 1959; Davidson 1973) to the radical questioning of notions such as authorship and truth in the wake of post-structuralist discourses (Derrida 1982, 1998; de Man 1986; Eco 2004), philosophy has – at various points in history and in different traditions – engaged with translation in numerous ways. But beyond the explicit discussion of the problems and possibilities of translation, the impact of translation on the transmission of ideas is a fascinating field of enquiry in its own right. For Derrida, the whole edifice of Western philosophy rests upon the assumption of translatability, namely the belief that meaning can be detached from the forms of any particular language and transferred into a different linguistic code without loss. A project such as Cassin’s Dictionary of Untranslatables (2004) foregrounds the extent to which philosophical ideas both call for and resist translation.

Duncan Large is Academic Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. He has published translations from German and French into English, and is joint General Editor of The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche (Stanford University Press).  He has published two monographs, five edited collections and numerous articles on Nietzsche and other topics in modern German literature and thought, comparative literature and translation studies.

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The workshop will offer participants the opportunity to explore in detail the intricate relationship between philosophical ideas and the theory and practice of translation.

Open to all.  No registration required
Part of Cambridge Conversations in Translation Research Group Seminar Series

Administrative assistance: gradfac@crassh.cam.ac.uk