Deconstruction and philosophy in translation: the Franco-German connection

Syrotinski, M. (2018) Deconstruction and philosophy in translation: the Franco-German connection. Oxford German Studies, 47(1), pp. 70-83. (doi: 10.1080/00787191.2018.1409510)

Abstract

In 1988 there was a conference in Heidelberg on the philosophical and political dimension of Heidegger’s thought, with contributions from Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jacques Derrida and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. This article considers a number of exchanges between French and German philosophers in the late twentieth century, focusing on the theme of translation. Taking Derrida’s intervention as a starting point, the article moves on to explore Victor Klemperer’s analysis of the German language under Nazism, Derrida and Maurice Blanchot as readers of Heidegger, Paul de Man and Derrida’s interpretations of Walter Benjamin’s ‘Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers’, in the context of the post-war French reception of German thought. The article concludes with a discussion of ‘untranslatability’, as developed by the French philologist and philosopher, Barbara Cassin, in her Dictionary of Untranslatables (2014), taking the history of the concept and word ‘subject’ as a way of reflecting on Europe’s identity, past, present and future.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Syrotinski, Professor Michael
• Authors: Syrotinski, M.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > French
• Journal Name: Oxford German Studies
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 0078-7191
• ISSN (Online): 1745-9214
• Published Online: 02 February 2018