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Rereading Schleiermacher: Translation, Cognition and Culture pp 41–53Cite as

Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Legacy to Contemporary Translation Studies

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Part of the book series: New Frontiers in Translation Studies ((NFTS))

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show the importance and range of Schleiermacher’s groundbreaking legacy to contemporary translation studies. Being the second outstanding statement on translation within the realm of German translation theory (after Luther’s Circular Letter on Translation published in 1530), Schleiermacher’s essay has broken new ground as it provided quite different insights into the translational activity from those traditionally proclaimed by translation theory at large. Its innovative traces at the theoretical, methodological and terminological levels explain the productivity and modernity of Schleiermacher’s text and its continual reception up to present times.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Körner, apud Apel, Sprachbewegung, 89–98.

  2. 2.

    All translations are of my own responsibility.

  3. 3.

    Together with general principles of its intrinsic truth, as it is best illustrated by Johann Martin Chladenius’s ‘Einleitung zur richtigen Auslegung vernünftiger Reden und Schriften’ (‘Introduction to the right interpretation of rational discourse and written documents’) (1742) Apud Frank 1985: 13.

  4. 4.

    Apud Frank 1985: 33.

  5. 5.

    Schleiermacher makes a distinction between a loose and a stricter hermeneutic practice. According to the former, understanding would automatically impose itself, whereas by the latter misunderstandings would abound. In order to avoid both, comprehension must be wished and searched. See Hermeneutik 92. Therefore, Schleiermacher insists on the necessity of a positive formula for the definition of the art of hermeneutics, out of which rules could be gained. In this context, Schleiermacher advances the following description: ‘das geschichtliche und divinatorische (prophetische) objective und subjektive Nachkonstruieren der gegebenen Rede’ (‘the historical and divinatory (prophetic) objective and subjective reconstruction of a given discourse ’) (Hermeneutik 93).

  6. 6.

    One of the most conspicuous distortions of Schleiermacher’s thought is displayed by the German functionalistic approach that advocates a foreignizing strategy throughout, ignoring Schleiermacher’s context and reasons. Hints of this stance can be found both at the practical and at the theoretical level. In his translation of an Indian novel into German, Vermeer replaces the cow by a German shepherd dog, thus unnecessarily domesticating the source text , deleting its cultural specificity and underestimating the target readers’ encyclopedic knowledge. On the other hand, Nord, Christiane (1997)) sees herself compelled to defend the functional approach by rejecting the criticism often appointed to it, according to which functionalism does not respect the source text and it is a theory of adaptation (Translating 119–120).

  7. 7.

    See, for instance, Paepcke (Übersetzen 43,105) and Stolze (Grundlagen 312, 318 and 356).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of Modern Languages, Cultures and Literatures, New University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ana Maria Bernardo

  2. CECC – Centre for Communication and Culture Studies, Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ana Maria Bernardo

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  1. Ana Maria Bernardo
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Correspondence to Ana Maria Bernardo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Letters,Department of German Studies, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Grande Lisboa, Portugal

    Teresa Seruya

  2. Faculty of Letters, Department of German Studies, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Grande Lisboa, Portugal

    José Miranda Justo

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Bernardo, A.M. (2016). Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Legacy to Contemporary Translation Studies. In: Seruya, T., Justo, J. (eds) Rereading Schleiermacher: Translation, Cognition and Culture. New Frontiers in Translation Studies. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47949-0_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47949-0_4

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