في مواجهة الأدب العالمي: تسييس ما لا يقبل الترجمة

by Emily Apter, غادة الحلواني (Translator), بهاء الدين مزيد (مراجعة)

تتمثِّل إحدى الحجج الأولية التى يتبناها هذا الكتاب في أن عديدًا من المجهودات الحالية لإحياء الأدب العالمى ترتكن إلى فرضية عدم قابلية الترجمة. وبناء عليه، تصبح عدم قابلية القياس وما يسمى بغير القابل للترجمة، غير مندمجين اندماجًا كافيًا فى الوظيفة الاستكشافية للأدب.

ويتخذ الكتاب موقفا مناهضا لمفهوم الأدب العالمي؛ من أجل إعادة التفكير في الأدب المقارن، مركِّزا على المشكلة التي تبرز حين تتجاهل أنساق الدراسات الأدبية سياسات "ما لا يقبل الترجمة"، عالم تلك الكلمات التي يعاد ترجمتها باستمرار أو تترجم ترجمة خاطئة أو تنتقل من لغة إلى لغة أو حين تقاوم الإحلال.

كما يمنحنا الكتاب بديلا لمفهوم "الأدب العالمي" وهو نسق مهيمن في العلوم الإنسانية، متجذر في تصورات القراءة والاستحسان العالمي اللذين يهيمنان على سوق الأدب، وهو مفهوم " آداب عالمية عدة" تدور حول المفاهيم الفلسفية ونقاط الضغط الجيوسياسية.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory, Literary Criticism, World Literature, Literature, Language

Paperback

First published March 12, 2013

About the author

Emily Apter is Professor of Comparative Literature and French at New York University. Her published works include The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature and Continental Drift: From National Characters to Subjects.

Reviews

[Meeg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish it! I'll spare you a rant about all the specifics of this book that bugged me; suffice to say that the exploration of an interesting and worthwhile thesis (never laid out as clearly as it could be) is drowned in a bog of lit crit jargon. I also thought several sections/chapters were only tangentially related to the main topic. If anything just read the introduction.

[Katarzyna Bartoszynska · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stimulating series of inter-linked essays that consider how the Untranslatable acts as a specter haunting comparative studies, often serving an instrumental function as a placeholder for that which cannot be thought. This book seemed far more developed and persuasive than The Translation Zone -- the ideas were followed through more carefully, and the examples were more compelling. A really worthwhile intervention into debates about comparative studies and world literature.

[Eva Helena]

*read for Western literature: concepts and questions

Again the disclaimer that I only read a small part of this book, because uni decides what I read even if I don't want to sadly. This was just a bunch of words stacked together, but that may very well be may own fault for reading this around midnight while my brain shuts of at like 10pm.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phew! This is was a hard slog & I'm pleased that I finally finished it. Further thoughts to come.

[Renée De Coster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Untranslatable mijn hol

[Marie-Therese]

2.5

[dathomira]

i liked so much of this but the conclusion is like 'world/comp lit is bad and there's no solution' which. i agree with. i just wish she did less close reading. also i loved all the side swipes at fucking moretti whom i hate more than anyone else.

[Joanna Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valuable criticism of World Literature as an approach, but I have always found Apter's ideas ruined by her poor writing, which relies too much on jargon and creates little clarity.

[Thinkal Hansan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emily Apter problematizes the notion of world literature, as an academic discipline and literary trend as complacent with the neo-liberal capitalist ideology which needs to reinvigorate itself in order for it not to be politically ineffectual. Questioning the worldliness in world literature, Apter invokes untranslatability, both linguistic and socio-historic of various geo-political paradigms to counter a unipolar discourse on the same. Arguing against the provincialization of culture and the deliberate creation of “nationally and ethnically branded” identities that is then commercialized in a world market, Apter suggests a multiplicity in conceptualizing world literature that shall free itself from the restrictive literary world-system analysis, eurochronology and periodicity and expand its socio-political significance and impact.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

The mental gymnastics are impressive, but Wittgenstein’s Tractatus is more eloquent and clear. Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem is even more concise than that and far clearer. Both of those authors write in service of getting at the truth—but like Foucault and Derrida, Apter seems to write in service of power. If you want a brilliant and fascinating read about the limits of intelligibility leading up to a better understanding of the most genius assertion of the limits of intelligibility (in Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem), then read A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Godel and Einstein by Palle Yourgrau

[Cameron Mitchell · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has some fascinating ideas and will probably be useful for comparative lit specialists. But the thesis is laid out in a rather garbled manner, making it inaccessible for casual readers, and Apter's awful prose ultimately outweighs whatever merit the argument has.

[Thirthankar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more like a collection of individual papers and articles, but it problematises any simplistic acceptance of world literature throughout. It is not so much against world literature, as such, but a much needed apprehension when being swept by and into the field, particularly in the context of its current associations with North-American curriculums.