Toward A Translation Criticism: John Donne

by Berman, Francoise Massardier-Kenney (Translator)

Francoise Massardier-Kenney's translation of Antoine Berman's Toward a Translation Criticism makes available for the first time in the English-speaking world one of the twentieth-century's foundational texts in translation studies. Berman's book, published posthumously in France, develops an original concept of "criticism of translation" and a methodology to anchor the practice of this criticism. He demonstrates how the work of translation is a critical process as well as a creative one. Moving away from nonsystematic evaluative approaches that focus on the shortcomings of translations or the normative approaches that study the cultural and literary systems into which the translations are inserted, Berman applies the notion of ethics he developed in his earlier works, calling for a translation that is nonethnocentric and stipulating that the creativity required by translation be focused on the re-creation of the original in the other language without being over-determined by the personal poetics of the writer-translator. Berman achieves a rare combination of hermeneutic and stylistic analysis, of commentary on the original and analysis of its translations, giving the reader access both "to the language of the original--to the way in which poetry and thought are deployed--and to the actual work of translation." Toward a Translation Criticism is divided into two separate but interlinked parts, each focused on one element of the ethics of translation: theory (reflection) and practice (experience). In the first part Berman presents what he calls a general "productive criticism," while in the second part he applies the general theoretical principles of this criticism to the analysis of thetranslations of John Donne's work into French and Spanish. The translation of Berman's text is accompanied by an introduction placing Berman's thought in its intellectual context and by supplementary notes that complete the bibliographic material presented in the French-language version. This study is essential reading for translation studies scholars, readers interested in the creative literary process, in the nature of literary criticism, and in the philosophy of language. It will also be of interest to John Donne specialists.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 3, 1995

Reviews

[Suzanne]

Allez ziak Antoine Berman dans la Seine

[Camille]

Lecture pour mémoire. Pas de note pcq même si l'ouvrage est très intéressant, je ne peux pas m'empêcher de trouver l'écriture pompeuse.

[David Areyzaga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, this is a funny, beautiful and unintentionally ironic criticism (or analysis, supposedly) on criticism. Those traits alone make the book worthwhile.

Antoine Berman loves John Donne. He loves the translation into Spanish by Octavio Paz. He hates pretty much every translation into French, especially the ones made by Jean Fuzier and Yves Denis. But Berman isn’t a simple man. To prove that French critics were wrong to praise Denis and Fuzier, he wrote an entire book in his deathbed. Hilarity, depth, and uncensored honesty ensues.

You gotta love Berman for the level of craftsmanship that went into this slap in the face of French translation criticism. He begins by pointing out the negativity in Henri Meschonnic’s school of criticism, and the many benefits of paying attention instead to the descriptive school of Tel Aviv, led by Gideon Toury. After describing both outlooks, Berman goes on to propose a true analysis of the translations of John Donne that he was able to read—and I emphasize the word analysis, for it is, at least for Berman, the true and essential replacement of criticism.

Berman proposes a wonderful methodology for this purpose. First you read the translation as an isolated text. Then, you reread it and let intuition guide you towards areas that call your attention based on their beauty or oddness (that they stand out in some way) and keep them in mind while reading and analyzing the overall structure and spirit of the original. Once that’s done, you begin to pay attention to who did the translation and his/her project with it. For Berman, the project is the essential orientation of the task, either toward the author or the audience. This is followed by a hermeneutic review that attempts to understand and recreate the translation process to truly assess whether the project was ultimately achieved or not. An observance of other translations and the overall reception of the work is also essential.

This recipe sounds wonderful. It is wonderful. Berman offers a true reflection of the translation activity. Then he offers his own example by analyzing the translations of Donne’s ‘Going to Bed’. He follows every single one of his steps, and it is a wonderful path down a slippery slope that turns Berman into Meschonnic himself. Berman despises the French translations so much (and he insults everyone who dared to praise them in the process), that the closing lines of this book are so damn critical, not neutral at all, and full of spite that you can’t help but laugh. He is happy that the translations have been forgotten. However, his translator into English, Françoise Massardier Kenney, quickly points out in a footnote that the translation has been recently rereleased. It’s so damn beautiful and sad at the same time, that it almost feels like a watching a Korean vengeance film by Park Chan-Wook.

And don’t get me wrong, I don’t look down on Berman. In fact, I admire him. His contribution to translation criticism is important, and we should strive to achieve his ideals of analysis. Plus, I agree with him as to which translation is better (Octavio Paz knocked it out of the park), but you also can’t ignore that Denis and Fuzier achieved their project, and they were a result of their time, so Berman betrays his principles in his overly-complicated, and poorly-disguised attack toward them. His anger is so palpable that you have to be amazed at the fact that this book exists in an academic world that punishes this type of writing nowadays. Berman even insults Georges Steiner! Anyone attempting to reach the same levels of confrontation nowadays would be dismissed as childish.

But this book reveals two unavoidable truths about translation criticism: (1) it shapes our view for better or worse (so we must fight to make critics truly appreciate what translation involves), and (2) it is a childish (by which I mean passionate and unencumbered by fear of hurting others) thing, no matter how hard we try to present our “analyses” as objective and fair.

And awareness is always a dark and funny trait.

[Rafaela Vianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

É muito bom ler autores com um pensamento teórico robusto mas legíveis. Obrigada por tudo, Berman.
Notas de pesquisa:
- tentar fazer com Les vrilles de la vigne o que ele faz com “Going to bed”: encontrar uma rede de tradução, buscando (tanto na forma quanto no conteúdo) chaves de leitura para o texto — e para o horizonte de tradução— fora do texto. um exercício de erudição que preciso trabalhar bastante: ler os (e principalmente as) contemporâneas de Colette, passear pelos gêneros de Les vrilles no século XIX (crônica, poema em prosa, conto, retrato…)
- voltar na parte sobre prosa e poesia (“La prose est l’autre de la poésie”, p.198) para pensar o gênero poema em prosa e, principalmente, o embate prosaico x poético que marca a bipartição de Colette e a dupla herança da autora (erudito x popular, romanesco x poético…)

Livros e textos mencionados que quero ler:

A tradução e a letra - Berman
Palimpsestes - Gérard Genette
Sous l’invocation de Saint Jérôme - Larbaud
Les belles infidèles - Mounin
Traducción: literatura y literalidad - Octavio Paz
Lecture et contemplation - Octavio Paz
Après Babel - Steiner
Pour une poétique de la traduction - Meschonnic

[Reader]

Who can share the pdf of Antoine Berman’s Towards a Translation Criticism? I would appreciate it if you could share it with me.