Emotions from identity to alterity, and their possible translation

Abstract

That emotions belong to the self is evident. But the self is at least double, formed of identity and alterity like one of many belonging to the same species, genre, race, sharing in the same religion, culture, community, nation, social status and, at once, unique, unrepeatable, unreplaceable, exceptional, incomparable. Emotions are endowed with value, intensity, connotation, expressivity. They manifest differently depending on whether they are associated to identity-self or to alterity-self, uniqueness, singularity. In the case of identity, emotions are expressed and translated easily enough in language and among languages in interlingual translation. In terms of uniqueness and singularity the expression and translation of emotions is more complex, reaching high levels of expressivity in creative writing. Particularly literary writing is capable of translating strong, even surprising passions – great in their incomparability – into words, as in the case of love which may also involve loss and mourning. The “great time” of literature renders the “great time” of life by contrast to the “small time”, as with Dante Alighieri, but also Roland Barthes in their common search for a “vita nova”.