What do you think?
Rate this book
Translation & Taboo
From the time of the first written sacred texts in the West, taboo has proscribed the act and art of translation. So argues the author of this book, exploring the age-old prohibition of translation of sacred texts. He shows how similar taboos influence interculture exchange. Probing concepts about language, culture, and geopolitical boundaries - both archaic and contemporary - he investigates the origins of translation and traces the implications for the transference of ideas.
232 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1996
33 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
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