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Article: Nonidentity and reciprocity in conceptualising South African Literary Studies.(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- Journal of Literary Studies
- Article date:
- December 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Literator Society of South Africa. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In his essay, "The Task of the Translator", first published as the preface to his translations of Baudelaire's poetry, from French into German, Walter Benjamin stresses what he calls the translatability of all literary works. This is possible Benjamin (1992: 73) claims, due to the basic "reciprocal relationship between languages". He likens this reciprocity to "a kinship of languages" marked by a "distinctive convergence". Writing from a European linguistic context, he states: "Languages are not strangers to one another, but are a priori and apart from all historical relationships, interrelated in what they want to say". All languages, in others words, are vehicles for a ...