Lecture: "Walter Benjamin and 'The Task of the Translator'" - 9 May 2019 - Institu

Walter Benjamin and The Task of the Translator

Date

9 May 2019, 3.00pm - 5.00pm

Type Lecture

Venue

Bloomsbury Room, G35, Ground Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Description

French Week

Speaker: Professor Jean-Michel Gouvard (Université de Bordeaux-Montaigne)

Walter Benjamin worked several times on “The Task of the Translator” at the end of the 1910s and at the beginning of the 1920s, before publishing it in 1923, as a Preface to his translation of Baudelaire’s Parisian Scenes. Almost a century later, his article is still mentioned as a reference in translation studies, but to understand it we have to link it with Benjamin’s philosophical thought, and especially with his conception of language, perception and knowledge at this early period of his career – otherwise risk misunderstanding the specificities of his proposals, and reducing them to mere common-sense rules.

References: Walter Benjamin, “The task of the Translator”, in Selected Writings I – 1913-1926, edited by Michael W. Jennings, Cambridge (US), Harvard University Press, 2004.

All are welcome to attend this free event. Please register in advance as places are limited: Book now.