The Afterlife of Texts in Translation

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Edmund Chapman

   Pages 1-14

3. Afterlife

   • Edmund Chapman

   Pages 15-35

4. The Overtext

   • Edmund Chapman

   Pages 37-56

5. Language, Judgement, Colonialism

   • Edmund Chapman

   Pages 57-70

6. The Messianic

   • Edmund Chapman

   Pages 71-96

7. Pierre Menard, Messianic Translator

   • Edmund Chapman

   Pages 97-115

8. Conclusion: Overliving and the Encounter with the Other

   • Edmund Chapman

   Pages 117-126

9. Back Matter

   Pages 127-140

   PDF

The Afterlife of Texts in Translation: Understanding the Messianic in Literature reads Walter Benjamin’s and Jacques Derrida’s writings on translation as suggesting that texts exist within a process of continual translation. Understanding Benjamin’s and Derrida’s concept of ‘afterlife’ as ‘overliving’, this book proposes that reading Benjamin’s and Derrida’s writings on translation in terms of their wider thought on language and history suggests that textuality itself possesses a ‘messianic’ quality. Developing this idea in relation to the many rewritings and translations of Don Quijote, particularly the multiple rewritings by Jorge Luis Borges, Edmund Chapman asserts that texts consist of a structure of potential for endless translation that continually promises the overcoming of language, history and textuality itself.

• Walter Benjamin
• Jacques Derrida
• Jorge Luis Borges
• afterlife in texts
• messianic in literature
• translation theory
• critical theory
• postmodern philosophy
• translation studies

“In this fascinating book, Edmund Chapman proposes a messianic 'afterlife' for literature. Straddling the boundaries between critical theory, comparative literature and translation theory, and negotiating between Benjamin, Derrida and Borges’ distinct theories of translation, he argues that every original text is inhabited by a messianic excess over itself which both calls for, and prevents, translatability. This powerful and original work will undoubtedly have a rich critical afterlife of its own.” (Arthur Bradley, Professor of Comparative Literature, Lancaster University, UK, and author of Unbearable Life: A Genealogy of Political Erasure (2019))

• University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

  Edmund Chapman

Edmund Chapman has taught English Literature and French at the University of Manchester, UK. He is a co-editor of New Voices in Translation Studies.

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