Antoine Berman's way-making to translation as a creative and critical act

Abstract

Despite increased research in translation studies, the important contribution of the French translator and writer Antoine Berman has yet to receive sufficient attention. This article presents key aspects of Berman's work and reconstructs his “archeology” of translation knowledge. Using a wide range of Berman's works, it examines his thinking about translation and modern philosophy, in particular the philosophy of Heidegger and Gadamer. After discussing Berman's early interest in German Romantic conceptions of language and poetry and the ways in which this tradition contributed to his conception of translation, the article turns to the relation between Walter Benjamin's notions of language and translation and Berman's own by examining his commentary on “The Task of the Translator”, a commentary crucial for our understanding of translation as a creative act. The article then analyzes Berman's use of hermeneutic interpretation to ground translation criticism as a productive criticism and to reconceptualize the translator as subject.