Evans, J. (2017) Emily Apter. Against world literature: On the politics of untranslatability, London: Verso, 2013. viii + 358 pp. Target: International Journal of Translation Studies, 29(3), pp. 491-495. (doi: 10.1075/target.13147.eva)[Book Review]
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Abstract
Emily Apter’s Against World Literature continues the project that she started in The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature (2006) of using moments of translation, or, moreover in this new book, moments of untranslatability (3), as the focus of comparative literature. The title is a provocative response to the “endorsement of cultural equivalence and substitutability” (2) that Apter sees in some approaches to world literature. Untranslatability, following Apter, highlights the differences between languages and cultures through their expression in language that world literature often hastens to overlook (3). The book is not so much against world literature, but rather wants it to be more aware of these differences, some of which may be incommensurable, and to investigate what they mean for readers and literary systems. Apter draws on a range of approaches, from studies of individual words to tracing the history of translations, to suggest ways in which non-translation can be a catalyst for thinking about how cultures are unique and how they relate to each other.
| Item Type: | Book Reviews |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Evans, Dr Jonathan |
| Authors: | Evans, J. |
| College/School: | College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures |
| Journal Name: | Target: International Journal of Translation Studies |
| Publisher: | John Benjamins Publishing |
| ISSN: | 0924-1884 |
| ISSN (Online): | 1569-9986 |
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright © 2017 John Benjamins Publishing Company |
| First Published: | First published in Target: International Journal of Translation Studies 29(3):491-495 |
| Publisher Policy: | Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy |
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