Derrida Translating
Reconceptualising Literary and Philosophical Translation
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:15th Jun '26
£39.99
This title is due to be published on 15th June, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£145.00(9781032763583)
For decades, Translation Studies has struggled to engage with Jacques Derrida, whose radical questioning of language seemed to undermine translation theory's foundations. This book reveals a hidden dimension: Derrida's obsessive engagement with translation throughout his career. The text uncovers his "translation reflex" of constant pausing to question how concepts might be translated, demonstrating how this overlooked practice shaped his philosophical thinking.
Examining translation alongside key themes from Derrida's later work including inheritance, mourning, and the messianic, Kathryn Batchelor reconceptualizes translation as a philosophical tool, a response to intellectual heritage, and a means of confronting mortality. Through analysis of Derrida's translation of “Husserl's The Origin of Geometry” and readings of "Plato's Pharmacy" and “Spectres of Marx”, this text reveals his surprisingly conventional translation practices.
As the first comprehensive study of Derrida as translator and the first book on Derrida and translation in two decades, this work challenges misconceptions about "anything goes" interpretations while offering insights into translation as a driving force in his development. Essential for scholars and advanced students in Translation Studies, Philosophy, Literary Theory, and Continental Philosophy.
“Batchelor’s book solves the problem of what translation scholars are to do with Derrida. Her solution is so obvious, so simple, that we have long been unable to see it: study not what he says about translation but how he translates. In doing that, Batchelor tends to turn Derrida’s translation strategies back on him: she “harries” the Derridean translated word in very much the same way Derrida harries the German word. For those of us who love Derrida and wish he had been a better translation theorist, Batchelor’s book is essential reading.”
-Professor Douglas Robinson, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
"A foremost theorist of translation, Kathryn Batchelor seeks to ‘reconceptualize literary and philosophical translation’ and to do that with the help of Derrida. She combs through his work very thoroughly looking less for what he says about translation than for what he does with it, for ‘Derrida translating’. With great acuity, she pulls out many ideas from this practice that deserve welcome in translation studies, to which this book makes a a major contribution, no less than to studies of Derrida."
-Peggy Kamuf, University of Southern California,US
ISBN: 9781032763606
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
228 pages