Abstract
Following the idea of overliving as a process of continual translation involving all texts, this chapter shows how the idea of constant translation deconstructs the boundaries between individual texts, and develops the concept of the ‘overtext’, considering a text as part of a continuum along with the texts it translates and its future translations. To show the necessity of the overtext model, the chapter demonstrates the unsustainability of other models of literary history through looking at some of the ways Don Quijote has been positioned within literary history, before turning to Jorge Luis Borges’ rewritings of Quijote to illustrate how we can conceptualise the overtext as an experience of textual excess.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Intertextuality’ has come to be understood in various ways, but for Kristeva, who coined the term, ‘intertextuality’ does not describe the relationship between particular literary texts. Rather, any text should be understood as ‘an intertextuality’, because every text is ‘a permutation of texts […] in the space of a given text, several utterances, taken from other texts, intersect and neutralise one another’ (Kristeva 1993: 36). ‘Intertextuality’ thus focuses less on the relationship between individual texts and more on what ‘a text’ is.
- 2.
‘America’ here, and throughout, refers to the entire American continent(s), not to the USA. On Cervantes and America, see, for example, for example, de Armas Wilson (2000) or Luis Correa-Díaz’s (2004) bibliographic work.
- 3.
See also Riley (1988) and Durán and Rogg (2006).
- 4.
Jenckes (2007: 73; 115) mentions Benjamin’s understanding of the ‘afterlife’ of texts in translation only on two brief occasions.
- 5.
Although there are several studies exploring how Borges and Cervantes may be ‘read together’, these tend to focus on thematic similarities such as the self-conscious narrator, rather than Borges’ explicit referencing or rewriting of Cervantean texts or characters. See, for example, Earle (2003), Kong (2009) and Laín Corona (2009).
- 6.
My translation.
- 7.
Cervantes fought at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, losing the use of an arm.
- 8.
Although the barber names the book, it is in fact the priest who offers an opinion, even claiming to know the author: ‘That fellow Cervantes has been a good friend of mine for years […] his book’s ingenious enough; it sets out to achieve something but doesn’t bring anything to a conclusion; we’ll have to wait for the promised second part’ (de Cervantes Saavedra 2003: 58).
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Chapman, E. (2019). The Overtext. In: The Afterlife of Texts in Translation. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32452-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32452-0_3
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