The Age of Translation: A Commentary on Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Task of the Translator'

227 Pages·2018·21.883 MB·English

by  Antoine Berman, Isabelle Berman, Valentina Sommella, Chantal Wright

THE AGE OF TRANSLATION

The Age of Translation is the first English translation of Antoine Berman’s
commentary on Walter Benjamin’s seminal essay ‘The Task of the Translator’.
Chantal Wright’s translation includes an introduction which positions the text
in relation to current developments in translation studies, and provides prefatory
explanations before each section as a guide to Walter Benjamin’s ideas. These
include influential concepts such as the ‘afterlife’ of literary works, the ‘kinship’ of
languages, and the metaphysical notion of ‘pure language’. The Age of Translation
is a vital read for students and scholars in the fields of translation studies, literary
studies, cultural studies and philosophy.
Chantal Wright is Associate Professor at the University of Warwick. She is the
author of Literary Translation (Routledge, 2016).

THE AGE OF
TRANSLATION
A Commentary on
Walter Benjamin’s
‘The Task of the Translator’
L’Âge de la traduction: <<La tâche
du traducteur>> de Walter
Benjamin, un commentaire
Antoine Berman, Isabelle Berman and
Valentina Sommella
TRANSLATED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CHANTAL WRIGHT
This translation published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Original edition © 2008 Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, Saint- Denis
English language translation © 2018 Chantal Wright
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Original edition published by Presses Universitaires de Vincennes 2008 in French as
L’Âge de la traduction: <<La tâche du traducteur>> de Walter Benjamin, un commentaire
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this title
ISBN: 978-1 -1 38-8 8630- 8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1 -1 38-8 8631- 5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1 -3 15-7 1493- 6 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Out of House Publishing
Confrontation pensante de deux langues, le commentaire ne peut se traduire. Ceci est
peut- être digne de réflexion.
Commentary, a thinking confrontation between two languages, cannot be translated.
We might do well to ponder this.
Antoine Berman

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ix

Translator’s introduction by Chantal Wright 1

Some textual notes on the translation of Antoine Berman’s
commentary 10
Texts by Walter Benjamin discussed in The Age of Translation 13
French editor’s note by Isabelle Berman 16

My seminars at the Collège by Antoine Berman 18

OVERTURE 23

Cahier 1 25

The metaphysics of language 30
Five characteristics of Benjamin’s thought 32
Benjamin as translator 36
‘The Task of the Translator’: a prologue 39
THE COMMENTARY 51

Cahier 2 53

Cahier 3 74
viii Contents
Cahier 4 99

Cahier 5 114

Cahier 6 135

Cahier 7 151

Cahier 8 167

Cahier 9 181

Cahier 10 201

Index 212
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My sincere thanks go to Isabelle Berman, Valentina Sommella and the Presses
Universitaires de Vincennes, and in particular to Zoulikha Bendahmane, for
granting the rights to the English-l anguage translation of Antoine Berman’s text.
I would also like to thank Fernando Concha Correa, Corinne Prigent and David
McCallam, Johannes Haubold, and Joe Peschio, for answering questions relating to
Spanish, French, Ancient Greek and Russian respectively. My thanks to Jean Boase-
Beier for kindly sharing a pre-p ublication copy of her essay on Walter Benjamin,
and to Paul Michael Lützeler for identifying the text on translation by Hermann
Broch that Antoine Berman mentions in his commentary. I would also like to
thank Lawrence Venuti, Karen Van Dyck, Maureen Freely and Cecilia Rossi for
conversations and encouragement at various stages along the way. With much grat-
itude to my editor Michelle Bolduc for her insightful comments on the manu-
script and to Laura Sandford, Hannah Rowe and Louisa Semlyen at Routledge.
My thanks also to Tina Lupton and Heiko Henkel for their generosity in enabling
a highly unofficial translation residency at the Black Diamond in Copenhagen in
2017. Finally, to Dan Vyleta, thank you for enthusiastically puzzling over Benjamin’s
syntax with me and for understanding the value of this commentary. Ja, und mit dem
Hölderlin hätten wir noch ein Hühnchen zu rupfen.