Thursday, October 07, 2004
(1:01 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Jacques Derrida
Yesterday in my interminable quest to read Donner la mort in French, I unexpectedly came across some previously untranslated passages. In the final translated chapter, there is a page of text that has been dropped out, pointing forward to the final section called "Litterature au secret." I have previously assumed that the English translator, David Wills, left those passages out, but perusal of his introduction and of the copyright date of the French text lead me to believe that he didn't know that those passages existed -- rather than the translator leaving stuff out, the final French text of the book adds stuff in beyond what has already been translated. The task thus switches from elucidating the lazy translator's motives in leaving stuff out and hiding it from us to determining what Derrida is doing by adding a section on the "Abrahamic" origins of the modern concept of literature.In any case, last night I asked Ted Jennings if I could translate that section as my thesis, and he said that I could, but only if I included copious explanatory notes and got it published. It would be a worthy project, determining how the additional material might change our reading of what is by now something of a "canonical" work of Derrida. Maybe if I stay at CTS another year to pick up an STM, that can be my thesis, but I suppose I'd probably better stick to my original idea for now.
