George Steiner’s Metaphors for Translation: A Critical Commentary

George Steiner’s After Babel contains many riches, and many of these can be found in the chapter “The Hermeneutic Motion”. But that chapter has its chal­lenges and vexing provocations, and it therefore merits critical commentary. At issue, I argue, is the problematic elaboration of various metaphors for translation and a certain laxity in argument that is covered over by the fineness of Steiner’s writing style. The purpose of this essay is to offer such a commentary, and to do so by making two further propositions: firstly, that this chapter in After Babel stands to gain if it’s read alongside his 1989 book Real Presences; secondly, that it can be elucidated by way of a thinker who, despite Steiner’s own reservations, is quite per­ti­nent to the matters addressed in “The Hermeneutic Motion”, namely Jacques Der­rida.