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The Philosophy of Translation

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( 130 ratings, 28 reviews)
Brief Description
A deep dive into the nature of translation from one of its most acclaimed practitioners "Searls's philosophy is ultimately one of freedom—to move beyond mere equivalence, to translate how a text communicates rather than simply what it says."—Max Norman, New Yorker Avoiding theoretical debates and clichéd... Read More
Format: Hardback
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A deep dive into the nature of translation from one of its most acclaimed practitioners

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A deep dive into the nature of translation from one of its most acclaimed practitioners

"Searls's philosophy is ultimately one of freedom—to move beyond mere equivalence, to translate how a text communicates rather than simply what it says."—Max Norman, New Yorker

Avoiding theoretical debates and clichéd metaphors, award‑winning translator Damion Searls has written a fresh, approachable, and convincing account of what translation really is and what translators actually do. As the translator of sixty books from multiple languages, Searls has spent decades grappling with words on the most granular level: nouns and verbs, accents on people's names, rhymes, rhythm, "untranslatable" cultural nuances.

Here, he connects a wealth of specific examples to larger philosophical issues of reading and perception. Translation, he argues, is fundamentally a way of reading—but reading is much more than taking in information, and translating is far from a mechanical process of converting one word to another.

This sharp and inviting exploration of the theory and practice of translation is for anyone who has ever marvelled at the beauty, force, and movement of language.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780300247374

Publisher: Yale University Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 07 January 2025

Country: United States

Imprint: Yale University Press

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 248

About the Author

Damion Searls studied philosophy at Harvard and is a prominent translator from German, Norwegian, French, and Dutch, including of books by Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Rilke, Proust, Victoria Kielland, Saša Stanišić, Jelinek, Mann, Modiano, and Jon Fosse. His own writing includes fiction, poetry, and a widely translated biography of the creator of the Rorschach test.

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