Writings on Translation
Will be published approx. on 2. July 2026
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-80309-510-3 (ISBN)
Description
An exploration of the philosophical dimensions of translation, celebrating it as a practice that preserves and proliferates cultural differences.
Abdessalam Benabdelali is a revered Moroccan philosopher and translator whose work maps an invaluable history of the status of translation in contemporary Arabic thought and language. Bringing together essays from two linked Arabic works by Benabdelali-On Translation and Hosting the Stranger-this volume represents one of the first extended philosophical explorations of translation by a contemporary Arab philosopher. These works reframe Arabic and European cultural histories around translation to counter hegemonic discourses and celebrate translation as a form of philosophical thought and practice, one that both preserves and proliferates difference.
Whether discussing eighteenth-century European perceptions of Arabic culture, classical Arabic literature and its express intent to resist all translation, or contemporary Arabic authors who write in anticipation of translation, Writings on Translation nimbly outlines the key philosophical questions at stake in translation. It concludes with an impassioned argument for translations that "host the stranger" and allow texts to "lift off and migrate."
Abdessalam Benabdelali is a revered Moroccan philosopher and translator whose work maps an invaluable history of the status of translation in contemporary Arabic thought and language. Bringing together essays from two linked Arabic works by Benabdelali-On Translation and Hosting the Stranger-this volume represents one of the first extended philosophical explorations of translation by a contemporary Arab philosopher. These works reframe Arabic and European cultural histories around translation to counter hegemonic discourses and celebrate translation as a form of philosophical thought and practice, one that both preserves and proliferates difference.
Whether discussing eighteenth-century European perceptions of Arabic culture, classical Arabic literature and its express intent to resist all translation, or contemporary Arabic authors who write in anticipation of translation, Writings on Translation nimbly outlines the key philosophical questions at stake in translation. It concludes with an impassioned argument for translations that "host the stranger" and allow texts to "lift off and migrate."
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Greenford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
367 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80309-510-3 (9781803095103)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Abdessalam Benabdelali is a professor in the Faculty of Letters at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, and editor-in-chief of Pensee et Critique. His notable works include Political Philosophy of Al-Farabi and The Mythology of Reality, between Connection and Separation. Marouane Zakhir is associate professor of English at Chouaib Doukkali University in El-Jadida Morocco, where he is also an active member of the Applied Language and Culture Studies Research Lab. Christian Hawkey is a poet, translator, and educator. He has written several full-length poetry collections, including Sift, as well as the widely celebrated genre-defying book Ventrakl. He lives in Berlin, Germany.
Content
Elsewhere Texts: General Introduction
Introduction by Brahim El Guabli
BOOK I: On Translation
1.Foreword: The Labyrinths of Translation by Abdelfattah Kilito
2.Introduction: Translation is a Philosophical Question by Abdessalam Benabdelali
3.Translation and Metaphysics
4.Translation and Acculturation
5.In Praise of Betrayal
6.The Double Betrayal
7.The Circle of Translation
8.In the Mirror of the Other
9.The Task of Translation, the Task of Thought
10.The Revival of Poetry
11.The Migration of the Philosophical Text
12.Translation: A Tool for Modernization
BOOK II: Hosting the Stranger
13.Introduction: Does the Original Replace Its Translations?
14.On the Untranslatable
15.Self-Translation
16.On the Original as Plurality
17.Philosophy and Translation
18.Writing in Another Language is Another Writing
19.Suspended Translations
20.Isn't Translation Itself Creativity?
21.Translation and Philosophy in the Arab World
22.Is Translation Always an Instrument of Dialogue?
23.The Draft-Original
24.When the Copy Surpasses the Original
25.On Translating an Untranslatable "Concept"
26.Addicted Translation
27.Translation and the Notion of the Original
28.Exposure
29.The Virtue of Translation
30.The Language of Translation and the Language of the Original
31.Translation and Identity
32.Hosting the Stranger
Introduction by Brahim El Guabli
BOOK I: On Translation
1.Foreword: The Labyrinths of Translation by Abdelfattah Kilito
2.Introduction: Translation is a Philosophical Question by Abdessalam Benabdelali
3.Translation and Metaphysics
4.Translation and Acculturation
5.In Praise of Betrayal
6.The Double Betrayal
7.The Circle of Translation
8.In the Mirror of the Other
9.The Task of Translation, the Task of Thought
10.The Revival of Poetry
11.The Migration of the Philosophical Text
12.Translation: A Tool for Modernization
BOOK II: Hosting the Stranger
13.Introduction: Does the Original Replace Its Translations?
14.On the Untranslatable
15.Self-Translation
16.On the Original as Plurality
17.Philosophy and Translation
18.Writing in Another Language is Another Writing
19.Suspended Translations
20.Isn't Translation Itself Creativity?
21.Translation and Philosophy in the Arab World
22.Is Translation Always an Instrument of Dialogue?
23.The Draft-Original
24.When the Copy Surpasses the Original
25.On Translating an Untranslatable "Concept"
26.Addicted Translation
27.Translation and the Notion of the Original
28.Exposure
29.The Virtue of Translation
30.The Language of Translation and the Language of the Original
31.Translation and Identity
32.Hosting the Stranger