Cross Cultural Translation
Cross-cultural Translation Studies as Thick Translation
Theo Hermans (University College London)
1 Aristotle Let me begin with two specific examples. Both will have a familiar ring. I do not intend to discuss either example in any detail. They merely serve to illustrate, however briefly, the kind of problem I am trying to address. My first case concerns Aristotle, and more particularly John Jones’ book On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy (1962, 1971). In the history of readings, of interpretations, and therefore also of translations of Aristotle’s Poetics, Jones’ book is regarded as a landmark which altered our modern perception of the way in which Aristotle conceived of ancient Greek tragedy. Crucially, Jones demonstrated that Aristotle did not operate with a concept of a ‘tragic hero’ in an individualized or romantic or Hamlet-like sense. Instead he argued that Aristotle thought of tragedy in ‘situational’ terms, and that a notion like the ‘change of fortune,’ so crucial in Aristotle’s description of tragedy, should be understood not in a ‘personal’ but in a ‘situational’ sense. Jones pointed out, for instance, that Aristotle does not speak of ‘the change in the hero’s fortune’ (as e.g. Ingram Bywater’s 1909 translation has it) but simply of ‘the change of fortune’, the reference being to ‘a state of affairs’ rather than to ‘the stage-portrayal of one man’s vicissitude’ (Jones 1971: 14-16). A different understanding of Aristotle’s meaning means a different translation. A translation into English may then need to make an extra effort to wrap itself around the specificity of the Greek words as understood, or understood anew, by the modern commentator. Jones shows his awareness of this in his rendering of one of the terms that crop up in connection with anagnorisis, the ‘recognition’ of the fatal error in a tragedy. The current Penguin version of the Poetics, which in this instance has not followed Jones, translates Aristotle’s definition of anagnorisis as a change
Theo Hermans (University College London)
1 Aristotle Let me begin with two specific examples. Both will have a familiar ring. I do not intend to discuss either example in any detail. They merely serve to illustrate, however briefly, the kind of problem I am trying to address. My first case concerns Aristotle, and more particularly John Jones’ book On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy (1962, 1971). In the history of readings, of interpretations, and therefore also of translations of Aristotle’s Poetics, Jones’ book is regarded as a landmark which altered our modern perception of the way in which Aristotle conceived of ancient Greek tragedy. Crucially, Jones demonstrated that Aristotle did not operate with a concept of a ‘tragic hero’ in an individualized or romantic or Hamlet-like sense. Instead he argued that Aristotle thought of tragedy in ‘situational’ terms, and that a notion like the ‘change of fortune,’ so crucial in Aristotle’s description of tragedy, should be understood not in a ‘personal’ but in a ‘situational’ sense. Jones pointed out, for instance, that Aristotle does not speak of ‘the change in the hero’s fortune’ (as e.g. Ingram Bywater’s 1909 translation has it) but simply of ‘the change of fortune’, the reference being to ‘a state of affairs’ rather than to ‘the stage-portrayal of one man’s vicissitude’ (Jones 1971: 14-16). A different understanding of Aristotle’s meaning means a different translation. A translation into English may then need to make an extra effort to wrap itself around the specificity of the Greek words as understood, or understood anew, by the modern commentator. Jones shows his awareness of this in his rendering of one of the terms that crop up in connection with anagnorisis, the ‘recognition’ of the fatal error in a tragedy. The current Penguin version of the Poetics, which in this instance has not followed Jones, translates Aristotle’s definition of anagnorisis as a change
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