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Translation and Taboo
From the time of the first written sacred texts in the West, taboo has proscribed the act and art of translation. So argues Robinson, who with candor verging on iconoclasm explores the age-old prohibition of translation of sacred texts and shows how similar taboos influence intercultural exchange even today. Probing concepts about language, culture, and geopolitical boundaries—both archaic and contemporary—he examines the philosophy and theory of translation and intercultural exchange. In the process, he challenges presuppositions about what cultures hold sacred.
251 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1996
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August 10, 2011
As erudite as ever, as provocatively "the Devil's advocate" as he ever is.
Robinson really makes one rethink what one is doing when translating, and why!
A study of the survival of ancient taboos on sacred texts in the practice and theory of translation in the West. Special focus on Apuleius' Golden Ass and the Isiac mysteries; Herodotus, Socrates, Plato, and the birth of reason; the Christian mysteries; Augustine and Jerome and the rise of asceticism; R. D. Laing and the schizoid personality; translation and empire; Tejaswini Niranjana and the "retranslation" of a Kannada vacana; Friedrich Schleiermacher and "going doubled like a ghost"; Walter Benjamin's "Task of the Translator."
Robinson really makes one rethink what one is doing when translating, and why!
A study of the survival of ancient taboos on sacred texts in the practice and theory of translation in the West. Special focus on Apuleius' Golden Ass and the Isiac mysteries; Herodotus, Socrates, Plato, and the birth of reason; the Christian mysteries; Augustine and Jerome and the rise of asceticism; R. D. Laing and the schizoid personality; translation and empire; Tejaswini Niranjana and the "retranslation" of a Kannada vacana; Friedrich Schleiermacher and "going doubled like a ghost"; Walter Benjamin's "Task of the Translator."
Displaying 1 of 1 review