z-logo
open-access-imgOpen Access
“Understanding as Translation”: The Gadamerian Legacy in George Steiner’s Philosophy of Internal Translation
Author(s) -
Beata Piecychna
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
yearbook of translational hermeneutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2748-8160
DOI - 10.52116/yth.vi1.21
Subject(s) - interpretation (philosophy) , historicity (philosophy) , epistemology , george (robot) , philosophy , conversation , dimension (graph theory) , sociology , linguistics , computer science , mathematics , artificial intelligence , law , combinatorics , politics , political science
This essay investigates the similarities between Steiner’s and Ga­da­mer’s views on “understanding as translation”, since both thinkers were par­tic­ularly in­ter­ested in the case of so-called translation-from-within. The main aim of this essay, how­ever, is not to discuss how Gadamer and Steiner addressed the problem of trans­lation per se. Instead, by starting with the assumption that, for both thinkers, trans­lation serves as a category to depict the complexities of understanding, my objective is to demonstrate how similar their ideas are con­cern­ing factors which either revolve around the act of understanding (cir­cu­lar­ity), or determine its speci­fici­ty (historicity). My analysis shows that both Ga­damer and Steiner devoted much attention to the impact of history on a human being’s interpretation of certain frag­ments of reality and to the di­a­log­i­cal interaction with texts (broadly understood), this being a specific form of her­meneutic conversation which proceeds according to the interpretive cir­cu­lar­ity specific to the hermeneutic tradition. The connection between Ga­da­mer­ian and Steinerian thought may serve as an important clue to the un­derstanding of the philosophical systems of the two thinkers, in particular their views on trans­lation characterized as the act of intralingual communication, an issue which still remains significantly understudied. These findings may also prove use­ful for the development of translation theory, especially its hermeneutic dimension.

The content you want is available to Zendy users.

Already have an account? Click here to sign in.
Having issues? You can contact us here