Translingualism, Translation, and Original Writing in Self-Translation: Towards a Theoretical Approach

• In Event: Liberating Translation III: Translating Liberty, Liberty in Translation

Abstract

Translation is increasingly used semi-metaphorically to describe an increasing number of literary processes that involve linguistic negotiation. This paper addresses this issue with a focus on self-translation as a writing mode that is particularly suited to considering the relationship and the differences between translation and original writing. It combines close and distant reading strategies with genetic editing to consider Vladimir Nabokov’s, Joseph Brodsky’s and Romain Gary’s self-translated prose in Russian, English and French and compares it to these writers' translated and original writing. In so doing, it exemplifies a discussion of writing processes that have a strong translational element, including but not limited to self-translation, as a complex negotiation of different processes. Thus, this paper offers a step towards discussion of hybrid literary processes that involve or have conceptual similarities with translation without losing sight of the distinct natures of the various phenomena they involve.

Author

• Eugenia Kelbert, Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences