Berman as a Reader of Benjamin: Translation and Literalness

Abstract

Antoine Berman, considered today as one of the main exponents of Translation Studies, is especially known for defending the thesis according to which the essence of translation is to be a "translation-of-the-letter", of the text in its "materiality". Based on the assumption that there is a tension between two distinct dimensions of his thought - one more connected to "history" and the other closer to "metaphysics" - this research aims to investigate the philosophical foundations of Berman's defense of literalness in translation. Using as main reference the posthumous book "L'Âge de la traduction : « La tâche du traducteur » de Walter Benjamin, un commentaire", we present the hypothesis that Berman, in parallel to his reading of a certain historical experience of translation, has critically appropriated some of Benjamin's key-concepts, present, above all, in the text "Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers" or "The Translator's Task", which he himself considered to be the most important writing of the 20th century on literary translation: in an attempt to underpin his Tradutology, Berman associated the concept of literalness ("Wörtlichkeit") of which Benjamin speaks, with orality ("oralité"), thus moving away from the messianism that characterizes the philosopher's thought. In this movement, some of Benjamin's notions such as "reine Sprache" (pure language/language), "Darstellung" (manifestation), "Mitteilung" (communication), etc. were also rearticulated in an original way. All in all, our aim is to propose a systematic account of Berman's work based on his own (shifting) reading of Walter Benjamin.