The Task of the Translator: Translation as Transformation

Abstract

Since his earliest essays, Derrida has been aware of the implications of the deconstruction of metaphysics for translation theory. In an interview in Positions, Derrida clearly outlines how metaphysics supports a particular understanding of translation based on univocity. The deconstruction of meaning as intention leads Derrida to question the successful transportation of meaning from source to target text in this notable section:

[F]or the notion of translation we would have to substitute a notion of transformation: a regulated transformation of one language by another, of one text by another. We will never have, and in fact have never had, to do with some ‘transport’ of pure signifieds from one language to another, or within one and the same language, that the signifying instrument would leave virgin and untouched. (POS, 20) Derrida’s comments on translation theory add an important new dimension to the translation and transformation of his own work, and to the conflict between the positive and negative understandings of deconstruction that have been mixed up in the process.